The Home Page of the Molecular Workbench Software

User Testimonials (by email or from Internet)

The most interesting software that my educational technology class discovered this last Spring was the Molecular Workbench from the Concord Consortium. The enormous range of material and the power of their modeling package (used in teaching chemistry, biology, and physics) is impressive.... It does serve as an interesting standard for what these kinds of tools might look like. —From the blog of Prof. Mark Guzdial, School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology.
From YouTube: Tunneling and scanning tunneling microscopy.
Recommendations from Einar Berg's Ning page in Norwegian.
I love this software and the kids also think it is very cool. And they get a much better/deeper understanding of what is happening on a molecular level (I teach biology). I use it for a few different units during the year and haven't yet built up to having them create their own models, but do have them manipulate some models that are there to accomplish specific tasks. There is, of course, a learning curve to work with the models, but it is not too steep and they seem to figure out how to do things I didn't know one could do :-). (From Dr. Thomas Fleetwood, The Charter School of Wilmington)
Recommendations from Jan Jensen's blog on molecular modeling.
The Molecular Workbench is a particularly fun way for you not to get anything useful done on a Monday morning. (betanews, June 15, 2009)
My experience with molecular workbench has been amazing. It was an imperative instrument used in my Physical Chemistry class that aided in understanding the dynamics of properties, systems and processes. By using this program, I was able to visually see why things operated in their respective manners. In addition, I was able to run actual experiments such as seeing how a gas works by simply setting up two simulations and changing one property such as temperature, pressure, etc. By observing how one change subsequently affects other properties, I was able to better understand what the Ideal Gas Law means. Through this program, I was able to turn difficult equations, such as the Ideal Gas law, into easy pictorial simulations and learn their importance to our everyday world. In building a simulation for the fuel cell, I not only realized how importance the permeability of the membrane is but also how intricate the system is. The program is something that I think all Physics and Chemistry classes should have because it gives an alternative way to grasp concepts outside of just lecturing in the classroom. It allowed me to explore in a way unimaginable because I built it step by step myself. In essence, I could let my curiosity flow by exploring how each editing tool affected my creation. Something that also helped was that I could search and see others simulations from around the country. Sometimes I could not figure out how to build it myself, but the program was designed in way that this would not stop my acquisition of learning. Since it is set up like a learning community, I could view someone else's idea of how it should look. In this, I learned in two ways, by attempting my own simulation and by analyzing others. (From Britiany Sheard, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA)
Recommendations from Eric Martz's wiki page on Proteopedia.
The Molecular Workbench is a free, opensource application that will drive chemistry and science teachers absolutely crazy. Want to engage your science class? Look no further! Imagine building your own molecules, viewing them, making them interact with each other, I've barely scratched the surface of this incredible tool, but your kids can even build their own interactive models of - almost anything. It's a science workbench on your desktop. I've barely scratched the surface of this, but I'm sure your science teachers will love it. The science teachers next to me playing with it are literally squeaking with joy! (From the K-12 Geek's blog)
I LOVE the simulations and lessons that already exist in the MW family. They are easy enough to use even with someone as new as me. (From Toronto, Canada)
I have been using MW in my courses for the past three years. I would like to thank you for putting together such a tremendous software package. (From McGill University)
Great program - has really helped my Middle School Science students visualize what is really going on. One of the best !! (From American School of Doha)
Recommendations from Education World.
Picked by MacBreak Weekly, May 2008.
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. (From Trinity Valley School, Ft. Worth, Texas)
Thank you for providing me with a teaching tool that will be popular with students and with our other biology faculty.
I used the new Rover one and it had my HS seniors in AH! I had their brains in the hand of my "mouse"!! (From Central Virginia Governor's School)
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! (From Gravelly Hill Middle School, Efland, North Carolina)
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. (From the National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.)
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?
From crystallization to protein folding, basic biological and chemical processes depend on interactions among atoms and molecules. High school and beginning college students can study and manipulate these liaisons at Molecular Logic from the Concord Consortium, an educational nonprofit based in Massachusetts. A database furnishes scores of interactive activities that run with free software available from the site. For example, by moving a virtual protein from water to oil, users can observe how the type of solution modifies the molecule's folding. In water, hydrophobic amino acids jostle to reach the molecule's interior, but in oil the hydrophilic amino acids seek the center. Students can also explore the basis for techniques such as electrophoresis and Southern blotting. (Science, Vol 309, Issue 5733, 361, 15 July 2005)
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. (From Advanced Fuel Research)
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. (From Computech Middle School, Fresno, California)
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.