Problems commonly encountered by students grappling with the concept of orbitals (e.g., visualization of spatial properties, associating energy levels with orbitals, and the origins of an orbital) are addressed in two interactive, hands-on computational chemistry experiments using the HyperChem software program. Atomic orbitals are generated and various properties explored using the features of the software. Orbitals in chemical bonding are studied in a second experiment using H2 and “Ne2 ” as examples.
Conceicao et al. (Fri,) studied this question.