Appendix D: An Introduction to the Internet Assignment Introduction to the Internet The Internet can enhance any college curriculum, especially through the use of the World Wide Web (hereafter simply "Web") and Electronic Mail (hereafter "email".) The purpose of this lab will be to acquaint you with the Internet and a few of the chemistry-specific tools available to you as a student of this class. You will need access to the Internet to complete this exercise. Access can be obtained free of charge from the Mt. Hood Community College library, through the Multnomah County libraries (including the branch in Gresham), and through East County Television (ECTV, located on the campus of MHCC). You will need access to either Netscape or Internet Explorer on the computer you are using. The final page of this lab is a worksheet that you will complete as you finish the sections below. This worksheet will take the place of a "traditional" report this week. Part One: Anatomy of Web Addresses Open a web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer) on the computer. A horizontal bar (the "URL bar") should be across the top of the screen; this is where you type in the web address you wish to access. A web address is also known as a URL, which stands for "Universal Resource Locator". The URL bar may have an address in it, but this can be removed by selecting the text using the mouse, typing over it and pressing the Enter key. A typical web address is: http://www.sou.edu Type this address in the bar, then press the Enter or Return key. The web page for Southern Oregon University should appear. Note how there are four parts to a web address: "http", "www", "sou" and "edu", and periods separate the three later parts while a "://" separates the first two parts. The "http" part stands for "HyperText Transfer Protocol" and simply means that this is a web document. Certain URLs have other types of prefixes (such as "mailto" or "ftp") but most contain http. The prefix ("www") stands for "World Wide Web", implying that this address is a web document. In the early Web days, web addresses always started with "www" to show they were part of the web. Most web addresses begin with www, but this percentage is shrinking. Many sites now omit the www prefix such as: http://home.netscape.com This is the Netscape web page. Netscape omits the "www" prefix in their URL, but this is OK since the "http" says "this is a web document." Note that many companies advertise their sites as "amazon.com", "nike.com" or "norelco.com". Consumers can recall small names better than long titles, so the www prefix is often dropped. Going back to http://www.sou.edu observe the suffix — "edu". The suffix tells something about the nature of the web page under observation. For example, "edu" stands for "education" — generally four year colleges and universities. Other types of schools may or may not have the edu suffix; for example, try http://www.mhcc.edu This is the Mt. Hood Community College website, and it does not end in edu. Realize that web prefixes and suffixes can give some information about the type of webpage being accessed. Other types of suffixes: http://comedycentral.com - the website for the Comedy Channel. "com" = "company" http://www.state.or.us - the State of Oregon Webpage. "or.us" implies "State of Oregon" http://www.dlservicer.ed.gov - The Federal Direct Loans Webpage. "gov" implies "Federal government", usually http://www.sierraclub.org - The Sierra Club homepage. "org" stands for "organization" http://www.math.uio.no/music/bel-canto - The Bel Canto Webpage (an ambient music group. Note the "no" suffix - this stands for Norway, the country of origin for this website. Other country names include "ca" for Canada, "se" for South Africa, and many others. Notice how the Bel Canto website has "/music/bel-canto" after the main URL. These are subdirectories within the "www.math.uio.no" web address. http://www.math.uio.no is primarily used for the Mathematics Department at the University of Oslo (Norway), but a small portion has been set aside for the Bel Canto Webpage. This often happens, where a larger organization subdivides its webspace for individuals or organizations. Part Two: Electronic Mail If you already have an email address, enter it on the worksheet and proceed to Part Three. If you do not have an email address, the purpose of this section will be to get you an email account. Email accounts are of the form "name@domain.suffix", where "name" is a name which represents you, "suffix" can be "com", "edu", etc. just like in web addresses, and "domain" will be the name of the internet provider. For example, an academic email address will look something like this: russellm@mhcc.cc.or.u The "name" here is "russellm" - a last name ("Russell) and the first letter of the first name ("Michael".) "or.us" means "State of Oregon" - this is the suffix of the email address. "mhcc.cc" is the domain; "mhcc" for "Mt. Hood Community College, and "cc" stands for Community College." In this section, we will log on to the Excite Homepage and get you a free email address. It will be in the form name@excite.com where you will pick the "name" to use. Try picking a name which is personally meaningful yet not too long. You will also need a password to protect your privacy while sending and receiving email. Both the name and the password must be at least six characters in length. In your web browser, type http://www.excite.com and select New Members Sign Up by clicking on the "Sign Up" portion in the upper middle part of the webpage. Next, start entering the information required for your email address. Enter your desired Member Name, followed by a Password. Re-enter your password to verify that you typed it correctly. You should enter a password reminder in case you forget your password. Enter your first name, last name, and zip code. For current email address, enter the instructor's email address as given in class. Enter your birth date - if your birth day is November 6, 1967, enter 11 06 67. Now uncheck all the boxes by clicking your mouse on them to avoid receiving junk mail (called spam), then press the Done button with your mouse. (Experience a problem? Make sure your desired email name and password are six characters long or greater. For example, you cannot enter "mars" for a name using the Excite.com server, but "mars67" would be OK.) If approved, you will now have an email address! For example, if you entered the name "john67" above, your email address will now be john67@excite.com. To check your email, log on the web to http://www.excite.com and click on the "Excite Members Sign In" link in the top middle part of the page. You will then enter your email name (for example, john67) and your password to check your email. Welcome to the Internet! Part Three: Web Search Engines The World Wide Web is growing exponentially, overwhelming the very computers designed to track its growth. No one nor any computer can know every web page available - at least not yet! - but search engines help us find particular subjects or locations. A search engine is a web site database, indexing a multitude of webpages which can be searched by name, location, etc. Most search engines are free to use, and experienced web sleuths use them regularly to find relevant sites. One type of search engine can be found here: http://www.yahoo.com This is Yahoo.com, a popular and one of the oldest search engines available. Yahoo.com resembles an encyclopedia; you can search by category ("Arts & Humanities", "Business & Economy", etc.) or by using an index (this is the blank text field at the top of the screen with a "Search" button to the right of it.) Let's use Yahoo.com to find Dartmouth College, a school in New Hampshire. Type Dartmouth College and press "Search". You should see something like this Regional > U.S. States > New Hampshire > Cities > Hanover > Education > College and University > Private > Dartmouth College amongst other entries. Click this search topic; you will see a variety of entries for Dartmouth College and their programs. This is similar to looking in an encyclopedia under Dartmouth College and finding the main entry in addition to several miscellaneous listings for various sports programs, alumni organizations, etc. Yahoo.com works well when you know specific names and organizations to search. However, you should be aware that sometimes you might be looking for topics not covered by Yahoo. For example, go back to the main Yahoo.com webpage (http://www.yahoo.com) and type Obo Addy followed by "Search". (Obo Addy is a popular Portland-area musician originally from Ghana.) The sites that appear do not make sense; Yahoo.com is "scraping bottom" and sending worthless URLs. We need a different type of search engine for more detailed topics, so send your browser to http://www.altavista.com and at the top of the webpage, enter Obo Addy and press "Search". Now look at the URLs that appear; they are directly related to Obo Addy the musician. We have entered the realm of the AltaVista search engine. AltaVista scans the web constantly looking for names, then it compiles them into a massive database which can be searched just like the Obo Addy example, above. (Fun assignment: try searching your name in AltaVista and see what URLs come up!) Realize that the Web is huge with more information than can be imagined. Search engines are crucial to proper navigation of information, but multiple search engines work better for most problems than reliance on a single search engine. Other popular search engines include Lycos.com and Excite.com, but there are many others. Part Four: Relevant Web Sites There are a variety of important websites that you may use in this course. Here is a sampling: 1) The American Chemical Society - http://www.acs.org The American Chemical Society (A.C.S.) is the largest professional organization in the world. I am an A.C.S. member, and the benefits are endless. Try using the "Chemical History" link on this page - it's quite interesting! 2) Chemdex - http://www.chemdex.org This is a search engine for chemistry similar to Yahoo.com. On the left note the distinctions between the various fields of chemistry - analytical, biological, etc. - as well as a list of universities by continent. Chemdex has a wonderful section on educational chemistry; many of my ideas have come from searching Chemdex. Be sure to check in to ChemdexPlus - it's free, and it allows for "index"-style searching of Chemdex. 3) The Royal Society of Chemistry - http://www.chemsoc.org The Royal Society of Chemistry is a chemistry professional organization in the United Kingdom similar to the American Chemical Society in the United States. This webpage is filled with wonderful educational resources: try "Educational Resources", then "URLs for Chemistry Teachers" for a plethora of 'Net goodies. 4) The MDL / Chime Webpage - http://www.mdli.com/cgi/dynamic/welcome.html Chime is the premier modeling program available for Web browsers. Chime is free to download and easy to install, and the result is that many of your web molecules will actually move for you on the screen. 5) The Chemistry for Those Who Hate Chemistry Quiz - http://www.highline.ctc.edu/ins/chemistry/110quiz.htm Well, everyone on the Web has to have a sense of humor…. J 6) The Kotz & Treichel Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity Homepage — http://www.saunderscollege.com/chem/general Click on "Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity 4/e" in the upper right corner Click "Student", then name: student password: curie This website is a nice resource page for students using our textbook. Check out the various quizzes, periodic tables, conversion programs, and more. This site continues to improve! 7) The PubScience Homepage - http://pubsci.osti.gov/srchfrm.html This site allows you to search much of the chemical literature for recent developments in chemistry, physics, etc. Unfortunately many of the best journals are not included in this free service; still, it's better than no searching at all. 8) The Journal of Chemical Education - http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/ The Journal of Chemical Education is a fantastic source for educators, and many of the resources online are available to students as well. 9) Chemtutor - http://www.chemtutor.com/ This is an awesome website for tutorials aimed at first year chemistry courses. Highly recommended! Introduction to the Internet: Worksheet Name: __________________ Questions: 1) What does "http" stand for? 2) Do all World Wide Web addresses contain "www"? Explain. 3) Can you predict where http://www.willamette.edu will take you without using a web browser? Explain. 4) Your friend cannot remember the URL for Pepsi. What would be a possible URL to try on the browser without utilizing search engines? 5) What is your email address? ______________________________________________ 6) What is the URL for the main Dartmouth College webpage? ________________________________ 7) What organization gave Obo Addy a 1996 Heritage Award? ________________________________ 8) Find a web address which describes one of your favorite actors, musicians, politicians, etc. What is the URL? Who are you searching for? 9) Log on to the American Chemical Society's "Chemical History" section. What happened on this day in chemistry? Write the day that you used below. 10) Using any web site you wish, find an on-line tutorial (and its URL) that you find interesting. (Hint: try the Royal Society of Chemistry's webpage in the "educational resources" followed by "URLs for Chemistry Teachers" and "Web Tutorials".) URL: Describe the tutorial: Return to the Table of Contents for "Beyond the Internet Syllabus". Return to the TLC Proposal Homepage. Questions about this material should be addressed to the author, Dr. Michael A. Russell, Professor of Chemistry at Mt. Hood Community College Gresham, Oregon Last Updated on January 21, 2000