Years ago, I switched to teaching a flipped classroom and using a classroom response system (aka CRS or clickers). In this format, my students are assigned to read about a dozen pages from the textbook before coming to class. At the start of class, I assign a problem to solve that is based on the … Continue reading Squarecap Is a Game Changer in My Flipped Classroom
Cis-trans isomerism: A valuable litmus test for things to come
Every time I teach Section 3.9, which covers rotations about single and double bonds and cis/trans isomerism, I’m reminded of how valuable an exercise it is to have students determine whether a particular double bond can have cis/trans configurations possible. It may not immediately jump out at you as a valuable exercise, but consider this. … Continue reading Cis-trans isomerism: A valuable litmus test for things to come
Proton Transfer Reactions and Thinking Like a Chemist
Teaching students how to think like a chemist is a challenging, but necessary feature of any organic chemistry course. A seemingly simple question such as, “How will these two compounds react when I mix them?” can stump even the best students. Since it is impossible to memorize every possible reaction combination, students must rely on … Continue reading Proton Transfer Reactions and Thinking Like a Chemist
What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander: Elementary Steps for Radicals
We have written a handful of blog posts that call attention to the benefits of Chapter 7, which introduces students to the 10 common elementary steps involving closed-shell species. Because of Chapter 7, students are exposed to the complete set of the elementary steps that make up the mechanisms for all reactions encountered through Chapter … Continue reading What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander: Elementary Steps for Radicals
A Great Teaching Moment with Aromatic Substitution Reactions
One of my favorite teaching moments throughout the entire year comes in Chapter 23, when, in the same lecture period, we examine aromatic substitution reactions proceeding through three different intermediates: arenium ion intermediates (first reaction below), Meisenheimer complexes (second reaction below), and benzyne intermediates (third reaction below). I love this as a teaching moment because … Continue reading A Great Teaching Moment with Aromatic Substitution Reactions
By the Numbers: Teaching the Mechanism and the ACS Exam
I was drawn to Joel Karty’s textbook because of its innovative mechanistic organization. I remembered my own undergraduate experience and the power that mechanisms held in the learning process to illuminate the reasoning behind the overwhelming number of transformations and seemingly random sets of reagents. Now, most of all, I want my students to see … Continue reading By the Numbers: Teaching the Mechanism and the ACS Exam
A Mechanistic Organization is More than Just Mechanistic Patterns
No doubt one of the greatest benefits of teaching a mechanistic organization is the opportunity afforded to students to see patterns among mechanisms—patterns that we experts know and value, but are challenging for students to see under a traditional functional group organization. For example, as I described in my previous post, Why a Mechanistic Organization?, … Continue reading A Mechanistic Organization is More than Just Mechanistic Patterns
Mechanisms and Synthesis Go Hand-in-Hand
In my recent post, Better at Mechanisms, Better at Synthesis, I highlighted research by Alison Flynn at the University of Ottawa, in which she showed that students have better success solving a synthesis problem when they draw reaction mechanisms. I recently had an opportunity to further probe this connection by analyzing my students’ success on … Continue reading Mechanisms and Synthesis Go Hand-in-Hand
My Surprising Favorite Second-Semester Chapter
My favorite chapter of second-semester organic chemistry is perhaps more surprising to me than anyone else, considering all the great mechanisms and reactions that fill the second-half of Karty's textbook. My enjoyment of Chapter 16 (“Structure Determination 2: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry”) is most likely due to my own experiences analyzing complex … Continue reading My Surprising Favorite Second-Semester Chapter
Plan of Attack: Building Around Chapter 7 to Complete the Picture
When I was young my father and I shared a common interest of working on jigsaw puzzles. There was always a lot of variety in the pictures and we could easily pick different sections to piece together that would help the puzzle to take shape. The one that stands out clearest in my memory was … Continue reading Plan of Attack: Building Around Chapter 7 to Complete the Picture