LABORATORY SCHEDULE

Professor Charles E. McKenna
Department of Chemistry
Last updated Sep 1, 2003

All labs are in SGM 121

Week of September 2: Check-in,  Introduction to the Web and Drug Search

This lab will introduce you to your lab computer hardware and software, outline the topics covered in the lab, and provide hands-on training on how to use internet search engines to do the assignments. Your first lab assignment (below) involves retrieving information about various drugs, using online sources.

Introduction to the Web, Plug-Ins and Search Engine; Finding Drugs Online  

The World Wide Web is an invaluable tool for studying almost any subject, including chemistry, biology and AIDS. Many of you will already be familiar with Web browsers and searches. This lab reviews the basics that you will need to know for this course, including:

• The World Wide Web: What it is and how it works.
• Web browsers: How to use Netscape Communicator.
• Browser Plug-Ins: How to install programs to enhance the abilities of Communicator, including the Chime plug-in which allows Netscape to display 3-chemical models.
• Web search engines: The WWW is huge and finding information is often harder than it might seem at first. We review what a search engine or index is, how to use it and basic techniques of searching, including how to narrow down the "2,456,467 documents that include the word AIDS" to the relevant items we are looking for.

Lab assignment #1

(C) CE McKenna, Ph.D. USC, Chemistry Dept., 2002