Most organic professors can agree that we want our students to understand concepts and big pictures rather than memorize a list of facts. When determining the outcome or major product of a reaction, I’ve found that using free energy diagrams is a great way to facilitate concept based understanding over memorization. But despite their long-term … Continue reading Free Energy Diagrams Help Free Students from Memorization
Chapter 7: Elementary Steps but Giant Conceptual Leaps
If writing mechanisms is like giving good directions, then each elementary step is similar to saying “turn left at the stop sign.” You might have to turn right many times during one trip just as you might need multiple acid-base steps during one mechanistic pathway. Joel’s “Most Common Elementary Steps” chapter lays out each possible … Continue reading Chapter 7: Elementary Steps but Giant Conceptual Leaps
No Longer Dreading the Second Exam
Shortly after I began teaching, when I was still using a book organized by functional group, I came to dread the second exam of the first semester. The class would typically perform decently well on the first exam, but scores would plummet on the second one. I recently looked back at my records for a … Continue reading No Longer Dreading the Second Exam
Biomolecules Hidden in Plain Sight
When I consider adopting a new textbook for a course, I have one main concern: my audience. I teach a wide variety of students; the chemistry major who began doing research his freshman year on his path toward graduate school, the psychology major who is concerned about his GPA and preparation for the MCAT, the … Continue reading Biomolecules Hidden in Plain Sight
Taking the Fear Out of Lengthy Mechanisms: A Good Type of Problem from Chapter 7
Even if a student intends to devote a great amount of time and effort to studying mechanisms and to using mechanisms to understand reactions, their efforts can be easily thwarted by the sheer intimidation of relatively long mechanisms. Years ago, when I was still teaching under a functional group organization, I would hear gasps and … Continue reading Taking the Fear Out of Lengthy Mechanisms: A Good Type of Problem from Chapter 7
What I Want my Students to Be Able to Do by the End of the Quarter
When designing a course, many of us focus on content, with questions like ‘How do I cover the text in 30 weeks?’. This year, however, my course design started with a different question: ‘What do I really want students to get out of the organic chemistry sequence?’ and more immediately, ‘What do I want my … Continue reading What I Want my Students to Be Able to Do by the End of the Quarter
Warning: Use of the Student Manual May Result in Fewer Questions from Students
At the beginning of each semester, I make sure to emphasize the importance of working through problems in the textbook. For each chapter, I give students suggested problems to do, but with over 200 students in my organic I lecture this fall, it is impossible for me to know how well they are following my … Continue reading Warning: Use of the Student Manual May Result in Fewer Questions from Students
Getting Students to Connect Acid-Base Chemistry to the Rest of Organic Chemistry
Many professors agree that a strong foundation of acid-base chemistry is vital for students to understand the great majority of organic reactions they will face, and I firmly agree. Certainly, the importance of acid-base chemistry is reflected by the fact that organic textbooks typically discuss acids, bases, and proton transfer reactions early. Despite these early … Continue reading Getting Students to Connect Acid-Base Chemistry to the Rest of Organic Chemistry
Helping Students Learn How to Learn
I had been going through Ken Bain’s What the Best College Teachers Do with a new faculty member this semester. The overarching theme of Bain’s book is that the best college teachers are student-centered. These “best teachers” are constantly trying to get into students' heads to help them learn how to learn. It is not … Continue reading Helping Students Learn How to Learn
Six Things Students Should Be Able to Do upon Completing Chapter 7, and One Thing They Shouldn’t
In my previous post, I described how happy I’ve been with my students’ ability to process the relatively complex interplay between kinetics and thermodynamics to understand the outcome of a competing set of chemical reactions. The specific example I gave involved the competition between transesterification and the Claisen condensation reaction, and that got me thinking … Continue reading Six Things Students Should Be Able to Do upon Completing Chapter 7, and One Thing They Shouldn’t