Testimonials

User Testimonials (by email)

Read what people are saying about the Molecular Workbench at reddit.
A podcast about the Molecular Workbench, by Bea Cantor and John Hendron, Goochland County Public Schools, Virginia, USA
Molecular workbench is a great tool for chemistry, physics, and even Biology teachers to use in their class to show dynamic simulations of microscopic and macroscopic situations where students can construct activities themselves. It is a great tool that can be done at anytime, quickly and efficiently. Another great technological too that teachers can use to better the classroom experience by making science 3D!
I just wanted to tell you how impressed I am with the software in my (very) early explorations with it, and I wanted to ask permission for something. I personally believe that Molecular Dynamics simulations are some of the most important demonstrations and experiments we can show students. In my own teaching on gases, I have relied heavily on Stark Design's Molecular Dynamics to show the gas laws on a molecular level, as this was the first program I saw (at NSTA in 1997) that actually allowed educators to easily model some simple hard sphere phenomena on a personal computer. However, the software has grown long in the tooth, particularly since I do all my work on a Mac in OS X, which Stark has never supported except via emulation. The search for a replacement is what eventually lead me to MW (which I just found on a "whim" over xmas). The power you have given instructors in their ability to produce MD models is amazing, and I know I have a lot to learn to fully and realistically utilize the authoring system to its full potential...... In my limited play, it seems extremely powerful and extensible, rivaling software such as Wavefunction's Odyssey for "teachable" MD calculations.
Thank you for providing me with a teaching tool that will be popular with students and with our other biology faculty.
I am really pleased with your MW tool. It is not only an outstanding simulator, but you have made it an easy-to-use authoring tool. Very impressive!
My students had more fun with these models than with anything else I have tried with them so far this year. They worked with the activity, stayed as focused as a 16-year old can stay, and seemed to be learning. I would go by and question students individually about what they were doing, what was happening and about their predictions on the challenge. Thank you Concord and NSF for a great tool for teaching chemistry.
I found the models to be very enjoyable. Simulating billiard and bowling type collisions with atomic models is strangely enjoyable. The obvious simplification in the model would be representing atoms as solid uniform spheres with no chemical interactions. Students may end up with an simplistic view of atoms like tiny billiard balls possibly leading to incorrect associations like friction and inelastic collisions. One obvious feature of the models was the ability to easily extend the model to include other features. The first model included Van Der Waal's forces without naming the force. But features like mass and charge were added rather seamlessly to extend the range of the model. My favorite aspect of the models was their transparency. The concept of atomic motion and interactions were very plainly represented. It really feels like looking through an impossibly powerful microscope with a slow-motion camera.
The ability of teachers and students to construct/customize models, the ability for teachers to obtain valuable information about a student's use of the model and level of comprehension of underlying principles, and the ability to use models to facilitate dialogue among instructor and students about molecular phenomena (e.g. trading and discussing models over the web) seems astonishing to me. I did not expect this to be so well-developed for instruction! This is making me more optimistic not only that models can be valuable to students in theory, but that I can figure out how to use these tools in valuable ways with my students.
I really appreciated that the simulation seemed pretty hard to "break". As I floundered with this model for a while, I am sure that I clicked and poked around in ways that were not intended and yet it did not ONCE crash my computer or the program. I have had VERY different experiences with some other simulations (admittedlly a few years back). Anyway, I think a computer model that is very tolerant of operator error is quite valuable for students, who often are a little confused at the start of something new and can't figure out how to follow directions. Such uncertain, anxious students can be quite traumatized if they lock their computer up by clicking at the wrong time or place.
I am a lecturer in Thailand. I would like to thank to all staffs for an excellent Molecular Workbench. It is easy to understand and follow every chapter.
I simply felt obligated to e-mail everyone involved in bringing this software package to the general public. I am a 38 year old male with a high school grade level trying to educate myself on areas such as Physics,etc. I have spent countless hours surfing the internet in search of quality freeware to fulfil that purpose and the MW package is by far the best that I have seen. Once again, Thank You for providing such a great educational tool for someone who cannot afford to pay commercial prices for excellent commercial software.
The Molecular Workbench is a very good tool for students to study molecular dynamical behavior by hand. All the students in my class see this software as the best videogame to study chemistry. I always recommend that my colleagues use this tool in the general chemistry or physical chemistry class.
As a biochemist and chemistry teacher in Switzerland, I have just found out about your program and I have never seen something so well done. Congratulations! Is there a French version of it?
I have been learning MW so that I can create lessons on energy and energy transformation. I find the program to be very useful, stable and well documented.
I recently discovered Molecular Workbench while searching the Internet for good JNLP applications. It is one of the best I have seen.
Thank you for very quick attention and I must admit I never thought such a software would ever be available for free.
Our Science department has always decried that fact that applications such as yours were too expensive. My deepest thanks to all of you who are developing open source. Our Science Department will be overjoyed to see what I have discovered in your application.
I'm currently second year student at Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore. I'm having now a project of simulation of ideal and non-ideal gas. During the course of the project , I find MW is an extremely useful software in graphically simulating molecular interaction.