Organic reaction animations that include color and motion can supplement the use of traditional model kits to visualize molecules. Stereochemistry, Newman projections, steric interactions, and many other three-dimensional features can be easily seen with these animations. Computer-generated images and animations can go beyond simply reproducing "chalkboard" drawings or hand-held models. More abstract concepts, including electron density, molecular orbitals, and the mapping of properties such as electrostatic potentials onto an electron-density surface are easily visualized and interpreted using molecular modeling. QuickTime animations of molecules and reactions are easy to generate from the graphical output of molecular modeling packages. This paper describes the use and preparation of these classroom visual aids, and provides nine QuickTime movies as examples.
Nelson et al. (Sat,) studied this question.