When I first perused the Preliminary Edition of Joel Karty’s textbook, I was apprehensive about the organization and whether students would really benefit from this change. Midway through the first semester it became clear to me that a mechanistically organized course creates a broad-based platform that gets to the heart of what we are trying … Continue reading Surprising Advances for Students at All Levels
Three Lessons from Student Exams
The advantages of Joel’s approach surfaced in the second semester of the first year I taught a mechanistically organized course while using Joel’s manuscript instead of a traditional textbook. Student experience on exams demonstrated to me three points: I had unwittingly expected students to memorize organic chemistry instead of think mechanistically; the focus on mechanisms … Continue reading Three Lessons from Student Exams
Other Benefits to Mechanistic Organization [Video]
Elon professor Joel Karty discusses how he believes a mechanistic organization allows him to have increased expectations about student involvement in lecture. Prof. Karty talks about his use of clicker questions within lecture, and how his mechanistic organization allows him to present questions that test students' emergent thinking. Why mechanisms? What does it mean to … Continue reading Other Benefits to Mechanistic Organization [Video]
The Benefits of a Mechanistically Organized Book When Teaching a 2-cycle Approach
Two-cycle organic chemistry is a pedagogical approach that has gained in popularity over the last couple decades. It’s a rather simple idea: The first semester course is treated as something of a survey, dealing primarily with the fundamentals, whereas the second semester revisits many of the same topics from the first semester, but treating them … Continue reading The Benefits of a Mechanistically Organized Book When Teaching a 2-cycle Approach
What About Transfer Students?
Instructors sometimes express concern about students who transfer from one institution to another in the middle of the two-semester organic sequence. Could starting (or ending) the sequence in a mechanistically organized course while ending (or starting) the sequence with a course organized by functional group cause students difficulty? Since I teach at a two-year public … Continue reading What About Transfer Students?
Predicting the Products of an SN1/SN2/E1/E2 Competition
When I teach nucleophilic substitution and elimination reactions, I find that students typically have very little trouble drawing each mechanism and predicting the products, so long as they are specifically told which reaction. But many students find one aspect very challenging: predicting the winner of an SN1/SN2/E1/E2 competition. In my first few years of teaching, … Continue reading Predicting the Products of an SN1/SN2/E1/E2 Competition
The Chapter Every Organic Textbook Should Have
This unique chapter is the game changer for how students perceive organic reactions. Whenever I discuss Joel’s textbook with colleagues, this chapter is the first aspect of the book that I mention. Chapter 7, “An Overview of the Most Common Elementary Steps,” briefly surveys ten steps: Proton transfer SN2 Bond formation (coordination) Bond breaking (heterolysis) … Continue reading The Chapter Every Organic Textbook Should Have
Why Mechanisms? [Video]
Why did Elon professor Joel Karty decide to author a textbook organized by mechanisms? Prof. Karty talks about how his frustration with teaching from a traditional, functional-group organized textbook spurred him to reorganize his course and to write his book. What does it mean to be mechanistically organized book? What advantages does a mechanistic organization … Continue reading Why Mechanisms? [Video]
On Nomenclature
In my first few years as a professor, I taught nomenclature in the way it was organized in the textbook I was using at the time—i.e., according to functional group. Each time my class began a new functional group chapter, I would teach aspects of nomenclature associated with that functional group. Indeed, I found this … Continue reading On Nomenclature
Nomenclature As An Independent Topic
When I first saw nomenclature presented as four independent chapters, instead of as small sections within functional group chapters, I reacted negatively. Who wants to teach multiple topics in nomenclature in one class period? Shouldn’t students be exposed to the material over time, developing their skills incrementally, similar to what occurs in a language class? … Continue reading Nomenclature As An Independent Topic