On Course Line Management
The Online Course Management system was developed in 2012 by George Moon to address the issue of creating course books at Burnside High School in Christchurch, New Zealand. The course books are designed to inform students, staff and parents of the many courses that are available for students to choose for their next year of study. In the past, the system that the school used consisted of large amounts of paperwork and duplication. Not only did this system require a lot of effort from staff, but the course book cost the school thousands of dollars to produce, as it had to be sent off to be published into a large book that would be read by students for a week, then likely thrown out. This year the school decided to digitise the course book, so that students would look at their courses online. Earlier this year, the school believed that the new School Management System (SMS) ‘KAMAR’ would be able to handle all of the necessary information, however this was not the case. Because of this, they needed a simple solution that would collate all of the course data, and then output it as a course book. I developed my project to do this. It is a web based program that is accessible by staff on their computers which enables them to enter in all of the course and assessment data for their departments. As it is all securely stored on a central database, it reduces duplication and staff workload, as well as the added environmental bonus of less paper being used. The program also outputs data in a number of ways including as a coursebook PDF (digital document which can be uploaded or printed), an Excel spreadsheet and a webpage for easy viewing. It can be sorted or printed by different categories (such as level, faculty, department), which proved to be a very useful feature. Following some research on areas such as design principles, browser compatibility and screen resolution (computer screen size), the program was designed to make best use of this this information. For example, most of the computers that staff would access the website on were of a similar size screen, so I made sure that my website worked well for them. I also used my research on design principles to try and create a simple, clean interface that users with limited computer skills would easily be able to navigate around. The outcome was real, as it was used by the school to generate their coursebook this year. Following a 95% student completion rate of course selection many months earlier than previous years, the system (although it had some issues) was pronounced a success, and the school is looking to use it in the years to come. There are a number of steps I am looking to take in the future with this program including the potential sale to other schools, so they can take advantage of the features it has to offer.
Reactions of Bis(oxy)enamines with Transition Metal Halides
Synthesis of halooximes has attracted much attention given their importance as precursors to proline derivatives1, unnatural amino acids2 and a host of alkaloids3. Halooximes have numerous industrial and biological applications 4, for example oxime ethers increases specific channel opening activities, acting as potential targets in drug treatment for various diseases 5, most adrenergic β-receptor blocking compounds also conform to the structure of oxime ethers 6. They also have vitro antifungal activities against certain plants7. A known method for the synthesis of 3 using Me3SiX as a Lewis acid, via intermediate enamines with acyclic/ cyclic bis(oxy)enamines, gives yields between 21-68%. Low yield stems from lack of reaction specificity2. In this work, we investigate coupling nitrogen-oxides with CoBr2 to synthesise halooximes in high yield. Initial cyclic/ acyclic bis(oxy)enamines were prepared by reacting 1 equiv. nitro compound with 2.4 equiv. in excess of dichloromethane under argon atmosphere at a temperature of 0ºC. 2.2 equiv. of TMS-Br was further added and left to stir till thermal equilibrium with room conditions. The cyclic/ acyclic bis(oxy)enamine was isolated upon aqueous work-up, filtration and evaporation. Synthesis of halooximes was carried out by reacting 8mL to 1mmol equiv. of THF and 2 equiv. of CoBr2 under argon atmosphere and left to stir till CoBr2 dissolves. 2mL to 1mmol equiv. of CH2Cl2 was added to 1 equiv. of bis(oxy)enamines. The reaction mixture was left to stir at room temperature for 2 hours, after which aqueous work-up, filtration and evaporation were carried out. Our results are summarized in Table 1. We also obtained relatively high percentage yields for the direct synthesis of bromooximes from cyclic nitronates via a one-pot procedure: Low yield stems from lack of reaction specificity2. In this work, we investigate coupling nitrogen-oxides with CoBr2 to synthesise halooximes in high yield. Initial cyclic/ acyclic bis(oxy)enamines were prepared by reacting 1 equiv. nitro compound with 2.4 equiv. in excess of dichloromethane under argon atmosphere at a temperature of 0ºC. 2.2 equiv. of TMS-Br was further added and left to stir till thermal equilibrium with room conditions. The cyclic/ acyclic bis(oxy)enamine was isolated upon aqueous work-up, filtration and evaporation. Synthesis of halooximes was carried out by reacting 8mL to 1mmol equiv. of THF and 2 equiv. of CoBr2 under argon atmosphere and left to stir till CoBr2 dissolves. 2mL to 1mmol equiv. of CH2Cl2 was added to 1 equiv. of bis(oxy)enamines. The reaction mixture was left to stir at room temperature for 2 hours, after which aqueous work-up, filtration and evaporation were carried out. Our results are summarized in Table 1. We also obtained relatively high percentage yields for the direct synthesis of bromooximes from cyclic nitronates via a one-pot procedure: