Collisions Higher Education vs MoluCAD

Collisions Higher Education is a digital game system for teaching and reviewing chemistry in college courses. It aligns with over 55 core concepts in introductory and general chemistry, organized into eight content areas: Radii Trends, Ionization Energy, Acid Strength, Lewis Structures, Ionic Bonding, Energy in Phase Change, LeChâtelier, and IMFs. Each game includes leveled challenges and an exploratory sandbox. Instructors can view student progress and performance in a teacher dashboard, and can use content overviews, quick start guides, formative assessments, and extension assignments. Instructor access is listed at free for US-based college and university educators. Student subscriptions cost $15 a year for a 12-month term; accounts are linked to an instructor’s class, and students register through an invitation URL supplied by the instructor. The product is listed for Android, iOS, macOS, web, and Windows. Playmada has ceased operations, while its FAQ says Collisions HE remains available and free to educators and students as of July 1, 2022. The FAQ also says the company no longer provides email, phone, or training support and directs users to a support forum.

MoluCAD is a free Windows desktop application for molecular modeling and visualization, designed for chemistry students and originally conceived for organic chemistry study. Users can construct molecular structures in true 3D and inspect them from any viewpoint. The software creates reaction animations and includes more than 170 sample structures and animations that can be opened, viewed, and modified. Built-in MM2 energy minimization supports the modeling workflow, alongside an interactive periodic table and HTML-based help. MoluCAD imports and exports PDB, ENT, MOL, and MM3 files, and generates BMP, JPEG, and AVI files. New River Kinematics offers it as a free download through a Windows executable. The product originated in a three-year National Institutes of Health biomedical technology research project intended to produce low-cost chemistry education software. New River Kinematics, founded in 1994 and based in Williamsburg, Virginia, describes itself as an engineering company developing and supporting portable metrology software solutions.