Piaget and Organic Chemistry: Teaching Introductory Organic Chemistry through Learning Cycles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Libby, R. Daniel

1995-07-01

This paper describes the first application of the Piaget-based learning cycle technique (Atkin & Karplus, Sci. Teach. 1962, 29, 45-51) to an introductory organic chemistry course. It also presents the step-by-step process used to convert a lecture course into a discussion-based active learning course. The course is taught in a series of learning cycles. A learning cycle is a three phase process that provides opportunities for students to explore new material and work with an instructor to recognize logical patterns in data, and devise and test hypotheses. In this application, the first phase, exploration, involves out-of-class student evaluation of data in attempts to identify significant trends and develop hypotheses that might explain the trends in terms of fundamental scientific principles. In the second phase, concept invention, the students and instructor work together in-class to evaluate student hypotheses and find concepts that work best in explaining the data. The third phase, application, is an out-of-class application of the concept to new situations. The development of learning cycles from lecture notes is presented as an 8 step procedure. The process involves revaluation and restructuring of the course material to maintain a continuity of concept development according to the instructor's logic, dividing topics into individual concepts or techniques, and refocusing the presentation in terms of large numbers of examples that can serve as data for students in their exploration and application activities. A sample learning cycle and suggestions for ways of limited implementation of learning cycles into existing courses are also provided.

Using Chemistry Teaching Aids Based Local Wisdom as an Alternative Media for Chemistry Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Priyambodo, Erfan; Wulaningrum, Safira

2017-01-01

Students have difficulties in relating the chemistry phenomena they learned and the life around them. It is necessary to have teaching aids which can help them to relate between chemistry with the phenomena occurred in everyday life, which is chemistry's teaching aids based on local wisdom. There are 3 teaching aids which used in chemistry…

Doing the Research that Informs Practice: A Retrospective View of One Group's Attempt to Study The Teaching and Learning of Organic Chemistry.

PubMed

Bodner, George M; Ferguson, Rob; Çalimsiz, Selçuk

2017-07-04

The idea that the focus of educational research should be on results that can inform the practice of teaching has been an implicit assumption for so many years that one would be hard-pressed to trace it back to an individual source. At one time, the people doing such research in STEM disciplines were faculty in schools or colleges of education who focused on K-12 classrooms and looked for ideas, concepts, and principles that would be valid across a range of STEM disciplines. Eventually, this research was done on college- or university-level students, as well, and there was a shift toward what has been called discipline-based educational research (DBER) that looks at the problems associated with the teaching and learning of a given discipline, such as chemistry. This paper will discuss the results of research on problem-solving in chemistry that has been done in our research group, with particular emphasis on the challenges of teaching and learning organic chemistry. The goal of this paper is to show what can happen when one listens carefully to students and begins to appreciate the difference between what we think we have taught and what the students learned. The examples we will use have the potential for convincing those of us who teach chemistry to rethink what we do in our classes to find better ways of helping our students understand the material we are trying to teach. Although this paper will focus on results from the second-year organic chemistry course, similar results have been observed in both inorganic and physical chemistry, as well as biochemistry courses. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Caring for the Environment while Teaching Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santos, Elvira Santos; Gavilan Garcia, Irma Cruz; Lejarazo Gomez, Eva Florencia

2004-01-01

A comprehensive program in the field of green chemistry, which concentrates on processing and managing of wastes produced during laboratory experiments, is presented. The primary aim of the program is to instill a sense of responsibility and a concern for the environment through organic chemistry education.

Who Says Organic Chemistry Is Difficult? Exploring Perspectives and Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Dwyer, Anne; Childs, Peter E.

2017-01-01

Much research has identified organic chemistry as an area of difficulty for learners. There is also much literature pertaining to the factors that contribute to learners' difficulties. This paper explores the intersections of teachers' and learners' perceptions of teaching and learning organic chemistry respectively. Understanding these nuances…

Why Teach Environmental Chemistry?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Marjorie H.

1974-01-01

Discusses the importance of teaching environmental chemistry in secondary school science classes, and outlines five examples of environmental chemistry problems that focus on major concepts of chemistry and have critical implications for human survival and well-being. (JR)

Inverted Teaching: Applying a New Pedagogy to a University Organic Chemistry Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christiansen, Michael A.

2014-01-01

Inverted teaching, not to be confused with hybrid learning, is a relatively new pedagogy in which lecture is shifted outside of class and traditional homework is done in class. Though some inverted teaching (IT) designs have been published in different fields, peer-reviewed reports in university chemistry remain quite rare. To that end, herein is…

An Intensive Training Program for Effective Teaching Assistants in Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dragisich, Vera; Keller, Valerie; Zhao, Meishan

2016-01-01

We report an intensive graduate teaching assistant (GTA) training program developed at The University of Chicago. The program has been assessed and has been successful in preparing GTAs for effective discussion and laboratory teaching for both general and organic chemistry. We believe that this training program can provide insightful information…

Acid-Base Learning Outcomes for Students in an Introductory Organic Chemistry Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stoyanovich, Carlee; Gandhi, Aneri; Flynn, Alison B.

2015-01-01

An outcome-based approach to teaching and learning focuses on what the student demonstrably knows and can do after instruction, rather than on what the instructor teaches. This outcome-focused approach can then guide the alignment of teaching strategies, learning activities, and assessment. In organic chemistry, mastery of organic acid-base…

Saying What You Mean: Teaching Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friesen, J. Brent

2008-01-01

Organic reactions in introductory organic chemistry courses are most commonly taught with a mechanism-based approach to the understanding of molecular reactivity. However, the effectiveness of the popular curved arrow representation to describe reaction mechanisms is often compromised by the overuse of shortcuts and obscure notation. The…

Students' Perceptions of Teaching in Context-Based and Traditional Chemistry Classrooms: Comparing Content, Learning Activities, and Interpersonal Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Overman, Michelle; Vermunt, Jan D.; Meijer, Paulien C.; Bulte, Astrid M. W.; Brekelmans, Mieke

2014-01-01

Context-based curriculum reforms in chemistry education are thought to bring greater diversity to the ways in which chemistry teachers organize their teaching. First and foremost, students are expected to perceive this diversity. However, empirical research on how students perceive their teacher's teaching in context-based chemistry classrooms,…

The Importance of Undergraduate General and Organic Chemistry to the Study of Biochemistry in Medical School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scimone, Anthony; Scimone, Angelina A.

1996-01-01

Investigates chemistry topics necessary to facilitate the study of biochemistry in U.S. medical schools. Lists topics considered especially important and topics considered especially unimportant in general chemistry and organic chemistry. Suggests that in teaching undergraduate general or organic chemistry, the topics categorized as exceptionally…

Medical Mycology and the Chemistry Classroom: Germinating Student Interest in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bliss, Joseph M.; Reid, Christopher W.

2013-01-01

Efforts to provide active research context to introductory courses in basic sciences are likely to better engage learners and provide a framework for relevant concepts. A simple teaching and learning experiment was conducted to use concepts in organic chemistry to solve problems in the life sciences. Bryant University is a liberal arts university…

Sudoku Puzzles for First-Year Organic Chemistry Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perez, Alice L.; Lamoureux, G.

2007-01-01

Sudoku puzzle was designed to teach about amino acids and functional groups to the students of undergraduate organic chemistry students. The puzzles focus on helping the student learn the name, 3-letter code and 1-letter code of common amino acids and functional groups.

A Novel Philosophy for a First Course in Organic Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newman, Melvin S.

1982-01-01

Focusing on research is suggested as an approach for teaching organic chemistry for nonmajors. Topics of saturated hydrocarbons and unsaturated hydrocarbons are used as examples to illustrate the approach. (SK)

A Research Module for the Organic Chemistry Laboratory: Multistep Synthesis of a Fluorous Dye Molecule

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

A multi-session research-like module has been developed for use in the undergraduate organic teaching laboratory curriculum. Students are tasked with planning and executing the synthesis of a novel fluorous dye molecule and using it to explore a fluorous affinity chromatography separation technique, which is the first implementation of this technique in a teaching laboratory. Key elements of the project include gradually introducing students to the use of the chemical literature to facilitate their searching, as well as deliberate constraints designed to force them to think critically about reaction design and optimization in organic chemistry. The project also introduces students to some advanced laboratory practices such as Schlenk techniques, degassing of reaction mixtures, affinity chromatography, and microwave-assisted chemistry. This provides students a teaching laboratory experience that closely mirrors authentic synthetic organic chemistry practice in laboratories throughout the world. PMID:24501431

A Research Module for the Organic Chemistry Laboratory: Multistep Synthesis of a Fluorous Dye Molecule.

PubMed

Slade, Michael C; Raker, Jeffrey R; Kobilka, Brandon; Pohl, Nicola L B

2014-01-14

A multi-session research-like module has been developed for use in the undergraduate organic teaching laboratory curriculum. Students are tasked with planning and executing the synthesis of a novel fluorous dye molecule and using it to explore a fluorous affinity chromatography separation technique, which is the first implementation of this technique in a teaching laboratory. Key elements of the project include gradually introducing students to the use of the chemical literature to facilitate their searching, as well as deliberate constraints designed to force them to think critically about reaction design and optimization in organic chemistry. The project also introduces students to some advanced laboratory practices such as Schlenk techniques, degassing of reaction mixtures, affinity chromatography, and microwave-assisted chemistry. This provides students a teaching laboratory experience that closely mirrors authentic synthetic organic chemistry practice in laboratories throughout the world.

Improving the Effectiveness of Organic Chemistry Experiments through Multimedia Teaching Materials for Junior High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lou, Shi-Jer; Lin, Hui-Chen; Shih, Ru-Chu; Tseng, Kuo-Hung

2012-01-01

The purpose of the study aimed to explore the effects of three different forms of the multimedia teaching materials on the achievements and attitudes of junior high school students in a chemistry laboratory context. The three forms of the multimedia teaching materials, static pictures, video, and animation, were employed to teach chemistry…

Learning Organic Chemistry through a Study of Semiochemicals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pernaa, Johannes; Aksela, Maija

2011-01-01

The topics of nature, for example semiochemicals, are motivating topics, which can be used to teach organic chemistry at high school level. The history, classifications, a few important applications of semiochemicals, and an semiochemical that can be synthesized in the laboratory are presented. The laboratory synthesis is carried out through the…

Teaching a Modified Hendrickson, Cram, and Hammond Curriculum in Organic Chemistry. Curriculum Redesign To Turn Around Student Performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karty, Joel M.; Gooch, Gene; Gray Bowman, B.

2007-07-01

Prior to the 2004 2005 academic year, a variety of indicators suggested a severe problem with the two-semester organic chemistry series at Elon University, a private, liberal arts institution with an enrollment averaging about 4500 undergraduate students. Student evaluations of teaching for organic chemistry were below the university average, the student attrition rate was near 50%, students exhibited poor competency with mechanisms, and scores on the ACS final exam were quite low. In the fall of 2004, we introduced a new curriculum, reminiscent of the approach by Hendrickson, Cram, and Hammond. In this new curriculum, fundamental concepts are introduced before mechanisms, and mechanisms are introduced before reactions. Reactions are introduced according to similarities among mechanisms rather than the functional group involved. After the implementation of that curriculum, substantially positive changes were observed for all of the above indicators. This report examines which factors may be the specific causes of these positive changes.

Using Popular Nonfiction in Organic Chemistry: Teaching More than Content

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amaral, Katie E.; Shibley, Ivan A., Jr.

2010-01-01

Assigning a popular nonfiction book as a supplemental text in organic chemistry can help students learn valuable skills. An analysis of student feedback on assignments related to a nonfiction book in two different organic courses revealed that students applied the information from the book, improved their communication skills, and were more…

Teaching for quality learning in chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teixeira-Dias, José J. C.; Pedrosa de Jesus, Helena; Neri de Souza, Francislê; Watts, Mike

2005-09-01

In Portugal, the number of students in higher education increased from 80,000 in 1975 to 381,000 in 2000 (a change from 11% to 53% in the age group 18 22), meaning a major change in the diversity of student population with consequences well known and studied in other countries. The teaching of chemistry at the University of Aveiro, for the first-year students of science and engineering, has been subjected to continuous attention to implement quality and student-centred approaches. The work devoted to excellence and deep learning by several authors has been carefully followed and considered. This communication reports research work on chemistry teaching, associated with those developments for first-year students. The work included the design of strategies and the adoption of teaching and learning activities exploring ways to stimulate active learning by improving the quality of classroom interactions. In addition to regular lectures, large classes' teaching based on student-generated questions was explored. In order to improve students' motivation and stimulate their curiosity, conference-lectures were adopted to deal with selected topics of wide scientific, technological and social interest. Quantitative analysis and discussion of selected case studies, together with the organization of laboratory classes based on selected enquiry-based experiments, planned and executed by students, stimulated deep learning processes. A sample of 32 students was followed in the academic year of 2000/01 and the results obtained are here discussed in comparison with those of a sample of 100 students followed in 2001/02. Particular attention was paid to the quality of classroom interactions, the use of questions by students and their views about the course design.

Caring for the Environment While Teaching Organic Chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santos Santos, Elvira; Cruz Gavilan Garcia, Irma; Florencia Lejarazo Gomez, Eva

2004-02-01

In laboratory experiments it is common for students to acquire knowledge and develop the basic abilities needed to solve different types of problems related to synthesis and analysis. The students are so interested in this objective that they do not generally pay any attention to the wastes generated during their lab experiments. It is well known that experiments usually generate small quantities of a large variety of wastes. Nevertheless, the complexity of the wastes generated in the laboratories of educational institutions is large. Thus, detailed studies of their treatment should be undertaken. In North American and European universities the problem has been solved by sending these wastes to specialized companies that treat and dispose of them; however, in Mexico, such alternatives are not available owing to the high cost for waste disposal. Therefore, the Organic Chemistry Department of the Chemistry School at the National Autonomous University of Mexico has started a project concerned with the management and treatment of wastes generated during experimental lab sessions. In the United States and Europe, students do not generally treat their wastes. Therefore, it would be convenient to include this treatment as part of the educational aspects in organic experiments in all parts of the world to develop an environmentally conscience culture among them.

Developing Problem-Solving Skills through Retrosynthetic Analysis and Clickers in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flynn, Alison B.

2011-01-01

A unique approach to teaching and learning problem-solving and critical-thinking skills in the context of retrosynthetic analysis is described. In this approach, introductory organic chemistry students, who typically see only simple organic structures, undertook partial retrosynthetic analyses of real and complex synthetic targets. Multiple…

Students' Perceptions of Teaching in Context-based and Traditional Chemistry Classrooms: Comparing content, learning activities, and interpersonal perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Overman, Michelle; Vermunt, Jan D.; Meijer, Paulien C.; Bulte, Astrid M. W.; Brekelmans, Mieke

2014-07-01

Context-based curriculum reforms in chemistry education are thought to bring greater diversity to the ways in which chemistry teachers organize their teaching. First and foremost, students are expected to perceive this diversity. However, empirical research on how students perceive their teacher's teaching in context-based chemistry classrooms, and whether this teaching differs from traditional chemistry lessons, is scarce. This study aims to develop our understanding of what teaching looks like, according to students, in context-based chemistry classrooms compared with traditional chemistry classrooms. As such, it might also provide a better understanding of whether teachers implement and attain the intentions of curriculum developers. To study teacher behaviour we used three theoretical perspectives deemed to be important for student learning: a content perspective, a learning activities perspective, and an interpersonal perspective. Data were collected from 480 students in 24 secondary chemistry classes in the Netherlands. Our findings suggest that, according to the students, the changes in teaching in context-based chemistry classrooms imply a lessening of the emphasis on fundamental chemistry and the use of a teacher-centred approach, compared with traditional chemistry classrooms. However, teachers in context-based chemistry classrooms seem not to display more 'context-based' teaching behaviour, such as emphasizing the relation between chemistry, technology, and society and using a student-centred approach. Furthermore, students in context-based chemistry classrooms perceive their teachers as having less interpersonal control and showing less affiliation than teachers in traditional chemistry classrooms. Our findings should be interpreted in the context of former and daily experiences of both teachers and students. As only chemistry is reformed in the schools in which context-based chemistry is implemented, it is challenging for both students and teachers to

Turkish Pre-Service Teachers' Beliefs about the Importance of Teaching Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uzuntiryaki, Esen; Boz, Yezdan

2007-01-01

The purpose of this study was to describe Turkish preservice chemistry teachers' beliefs about the importance of teaching chemistry in high schools. For this purpose, 45 pre-service chemistry teachers were administered a questionnaire involving open-ended questions which asked what the importance of teaching chemistry is, and why we teach…

A context based approach using Green Chemistry/Bio-remediation principles to enhance interest and learning of organic chemistry in a high school AP chemistry classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Tricia

The ability of our planet to sustain life and heal itself is not as predictable as it used to be. Our need for educated future scientists who know what our planet needs, and can passionately apply that knowledge to find solutions should be at the heart of science education today. This study of learning organic chemistry through the lens of the environmental problem "What should be done with our food scraps?" explores student interest, and mastery of certain concepts in organic chemistry. This Green Chemistry/ Bio-remediation context-based teaching approach utilizes the Nature MillRTM, which is an indoor food waste composting machine, to learn about organic chemistry, and how this relates to landfill reduction possibilities, and resource production. During this unit students collected food waste from their cafeteria, and used the Nature MillRTM to convert food waste into compost. The use of these hands on activities, and group discussions in a context-based environment enhanced their interest in organic chemistry, and paper chromatography. According to a one-tailed paired T-test, the result show that this context-based approach is a significant way to increase both student interest and mastery of the content.

Inquiry Teaching in High School Chemistry Classrooms: The Role of Knowledge and Beliefs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roehrig, Gillian H.; Luft, Julie A.

2004-10-01

"Science as inquiry" is a key content standard in the National Science Education Standards, yet implementation of inquiry-based teaching is rare in secondary chemistry classrooms. This paper is the result of a study conducted to understand factors that effect the inquiry-based instruction of ten novice secondary chemistry teachers. The study focused on the influence of teaching beliefs and content knowledge on the instructional practices of these ten teachers. Case and cross-case comparisons revealed that chemistry teachers' intentions to implement inquiry teaching were strongly influenced by their teaching beliefs rather than their knowledge of chemistry. The quality of inquiry lessons, however, was found to depend on the teachers' knowledge of chemistry content. This study reinforces the need for chemistry-focused inservice training for beginning chemistry teachers that focuses on both inquiry teaching strategies and teaching beliefs.

How to Measure Elementary Teachers' Interest in Teaching Chemistry?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herranen, Jaana Kristiina; Vesterinen, Veli-Matti; Aksela, Maija Katariina

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to create an instrument to measure elementary teachers' interest in teaching chemistry. The interest in chemistry teaching instrument (ICTI) was created to measure both the affective and cognitive components of interest. After establishing the face and content validity of the instrument, the internal consistency of the…

Towards Teaching Chemistry as a Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laszlo, Pierre

2013-01-01

This paper presents views on the teaching of chemistry and directions for its further development. A detailed critical analysis is offered for the inadequacy of much of the current teaching, weighed that it is by a conventional, traditional and, as it turns out, rather outdated sense of the material to be covered. The ambient meta-discourse on the…

Improving the Teaching/Learning Process in General Chemistry: Report on the 1997 Stony Brook General Chemistry Teaching Workshop

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanson, David M.; Wolfskill, Troy

1998-02-01

Motivated by the widespread recognition that traditional teaching methods at postsecondary institutions no longer are meeting students' educational needs, 59 participants came to the first Stony Brook General Chemistry Teaching Workshop, July 20-July 25, 1997, on improving the teaching/learning process in General Chemistry. The instructors from 42 institutions across the country, including community colleges, liberal-arts colleges, and large research universities, had mutual concerns that students are having difficulty understanding and applying concepts, finding relevance, transferring knowledge within and across disciplines, and identifying and developing skills needed for success in college and a career. This situation has come about because challenges posed by students' increasing diversity in academic preparation, cultural background, motivation, and career goals go unmet, with too many courses maintaining the conventional objective of structuring and presenting information.

New Trends in Chemistry Teaching. Volume V. The Teaching of Basic Sciences: Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Paris (France).

This collection of articles, originally published in national and international journals, is fifth in a series devoted to trends in teaching chemistry. The volume is divided into nine sections, each with an introduction explaining why papers have been selected and outlining their particular interest. Section I provides a list of atomic masses,…

Reaction-Map of Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murov, Steven

2007-01-01

The Reaction-Map of Organic Chemistry lists all the most commonly studied reactions in organic chemistry on one page. The discussed Reaction-Map will act as another learning aide for the students, making the study of organic chemistry much easier.

Creativity in Teaching Chemistry: How Much Support Does the Curriculum Provide?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomasevic, Biljana; Trivic, Dragica

2014-01-01

In this study, the views of Serbian chemistry teachers (N = 334) on the ways in which contemporary chemistry curricula stimulate the creativity of students were surveyed. The majority of the teachers have a positive attitude towards promoting creativity through teaching chemistry. Most of them also stated that their teaching practice contained…

A Guided Inquiry Liquid/Liquid Extractions Laboratory for Introductory Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raydo, Margaret L.; Church, Megan S.; Taylor, Zane W.; Taylor, Christopher E.; Danowitz, Amy M.

2015-01-01

A guided inquiry laboratory experiment for teaching liquid/liquid extractions to first semester undergraduate organic chemistry students is described. This laboratory is particularly useful for introductory students as the analytes that are separated are highly colored dye molecules. This allows students to track into which phase each analyte…

Chemistry Teaching: Science or Alchemy?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnstone, A. H.

1997-01-01

Suggests that the development of good chemistry teaching and the pursuit of research have essentially the same structure. Similarities include the need for a clear focus, efficiency in time and effort, and a direction that is more often right than wrong. (DDR)

REACTS 1971, Regional Educators Annual Chemistry Teaching Symposium.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maryland Univ., College Park. Dept. of Chemistry.

These proceedings of a second annual symposium hosted by the Chemistry Department of the University of Maryland contain the tests of addresses given to approximately 300 chemistry teachers. A brief description of the University of Maryland Teaching Associate Program is given. Included are papers on the uses of chemistry during the Civil War,…

Teaching Analytical Chemistry to Pharmacy Students: A Combined, Iterative Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masania, Jinit; Grootveld, Martin; Wilson, Philippe B.

2018-01-01

Analytical chemistry has often been a difficult subject to teach in a classroom or lecture-based context. Numerous strategies for overcoming the inherently practical-based difficulties have been suggested, each with differing pedagogical theories. Here, we present a combined approach to tackling the problem of teaching analytical chemistry, with…

Jordanian Chemistry Teachers' Views on Teaching Practices and Educational Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Amoush, Siham A.; Markic, Silvija; Eilks, Ingo

2012-01-01

This study evaluates experienced teachers' views of chemistry teaching and learning and educational reform in Jordan. The main focus is an investigation of applied teaching practices in chemistry education, including educators' perception of the intentions and effects of ongoing educational reforms. The study is based on semi-structured interviews…

A Study of Faculty Approaches to Teaching Undergraduate Physical Chemistry Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mack, Michael Ryan

Chemistry education researchers have not adequately studied teaching and learning experiences at all levels in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum leaving gaps in discipline-based STEM education communities understanding about how the upper- division curricula works (National Research Council, 2012b; Towns, 2013). This study explored faculty approaches to teaching in upper-division physical chemistry course settings using an interview-based methodology. Two conceptualizations of approaches to teaching emerged from a phenomenographic analysis of interview transcripts: (1) faculty beliefs about the purposes for teaching physical chemistry and (2) their conceptions of their role as an instructor in these course settings. Faculty who reported beliefs predominantly centered on helping students develop conceptual knowledge and problem-solving skills in physical chemistry often worked with didactic models of teaching, which emphasized the transfer of expert knowledge to students. When faculty expressed beliefs that were more inclusive of conceptual, epistemic, and social learning goals in science education they often described more student-centered models of teaching and learning, which put more responsibilities on them to facilitate students' interactive engagement with the material and peers during regularly scheduled class time. Knowledge of faculty thinking, as evinced in a rich description of their accounts of their experience, provides researchers and professional developers with useful information about the potential opportunities or barriers that exist for helping faculty align their beliefs and goals for teaching with research-based instructional strategies.

Chemkarta: A Card Game for Teaching Functional Groups in Undergraduate Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knudtson, Christopher A.

2015-01-01

Students in undergraduate organic chemistry courses are frequently overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of information they are expected to learn. To aid in students' learning of organic functional groups, a novel card game "ChemKarta" is reported that can serve as a useful alternative to flashcards. This pedagogy is a simple…

Chemistry Graduate Teaching Assistants' Experiences in Academic Laboratories and Development of a Teaching Self-image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gatlin, Todd Adam

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) play a prominent role in chemistry laboratory instruction at research based universities. They teach almost all undergraduate chemistry laboratory courses. However, their role in laboratory instruction has often been overlooked in educational research. Interest in chemistry GTAs has been placed on training and their perceived expectations, but less attention has been paid to their experiences or their potential benefits from teaching. This work was designed to investigate GTAs' experiences in and benefits from laboratory instructional environments. This dissertation includes three related studies on GTAs' experiences teaching in general chemistry laboratories. Qualitative methods were used for each study. First, phenomenological analysis was used to explore GTAs' experiences in an expository laboratory program. Post-teaching interviews were the primary data source. GTAs experiences were described in three dimensions: doing, knowing, and transferring. Gains available to GTAs revolved around general teaching skills. However, no gains specifically related to scientific development were found in this laboratory format. Case-study methods were used to explore and illustrate ways GTAs develop a GTA self-image---the way they see themselves as instructors. Two general chemistry laboratory programs that represent two very different instructional frameworks were chosen for the context of this study. The first program used a cooperative project-based approach. The second program used weekly, verification-type activities. End of the semester interviews were collected and served as the primary data source. A follow-up case study of a new cohort of GTAs in the cooperative problem-based laboratory was undertaken to investigate changes in GTAs' self-images over the course of one semester. Pre-semester and post-semester interviews served as the primary data source. Findings suggest that GTAs' construction of their self-image is shaped through the

Peer Mentoring in the General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry Laboratories: The Pinacol Rearrangement--An Exercise in NMR and IR Spectroscopy for General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry Laboratories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arrington, Caleb A.; Hill, Jameica B.; Radfar, Ramin; Whisnant, David M.; Bass, Charles G.

2008-01-01

This article describes a discovery experiment for general chemistry and organic chemistry labs. Although the pinacol rearrangement has been employed in undergraduate organic laboratories before, in this application organic chemistry students act as mentors to students of general chemistry. Students work together using distillation--a new technique…

Beliefs about Chemistry Teaching and Learning--A Comparison of Teachers' and Student Teachers' Beliefs from Jordan, Turkey and Germany

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Amoush, Siham; Markic, Silvija; Usak, Muhammet; Erdogan, Mehmet; Eilks, Ingo

2014-01-01

This paper discusses beliefs about teaching and learning chemistry. The sample includes chemistry student teachers and in-service teachers from Jordan, Turkey, and Germany. Two test instruments were used to investigate (student) teachers' beliefs. A qualitative instrument was used to explore Beliefs about Classroom Organization, Beliefs about…

Teaching Triple Science: GCSE Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Learning and Skills Network (NJ3), 2007

2007-01-01

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has contracted with the Learning and Skills Network to support awareness and take-up of Triple Science GCSEs through the Triple Science Support Programme. This publication provides an introduction to teaching and learning approaches for the extension topics within GCSE Chemistry. It…

Development of the Connected Chemistry as Formative Assessment Pedagogy for High School Chemistry Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Mihwa; Liu, Xiufeng; Waight, Noemi

2017-01-01

This paper describes the development of Connected Chemistry as Formative Assessment (CCFA) pedagogy, which integrates three promising teaching and learning approaches, computer models, formative assessments, and learning progressions, to promote student understanding in chemistry. CCFA supports student learning in making connections among the…

Apoc Social: A Mobile Interactive and Social Learning Platform for Collaborative Solving of Advanced Problems in Organic Chemistry.

PubMed

Sievertsen, Niels; Carreira, Erick M

2018-02-01

Mobile devices such as smartphones are carried in the pockets of university students around the globe and are increasingly cheap to come by. These portable devices have evolved into powerful and interconnected handheld computers, which, among other applications, can be used as advanced learning tools and providers of targeted, curated content. Herein, we describe Apoc Social (Advanced Problems in Organic Chemistry Social), a mobile application that assists both learning and teaching college-level organic chemistry both in the classroom and on the go. With more than 750 chemistry exercises available, Apoc Social facilitates collaborative learning through discussion boards and fosters enthusiasm for complex organic chemistry.

A Green, Guided-Inquiry Based Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution for the Organic Chemistry Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eby, Eric; Deal, S. Todd

2008-01-01

We developed an alternative electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction for the organic chemistry teaching laboratory. The experiment is an electrophilic iodination reaction of salicylamide, a popular analgesic, using environmentally friendly reagents--sodium iodide and household bleach. Further, we designed the lab as a guided-inquiry…

Green Chemistry Teaching in Higher Education: A Review of Effective Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andraos, John; Dicks, Andrew P.

2012-01-01

This account reviews published green chemistry teaching resources in print and online literature and our experiences in teaching the subject to undergraduate students. Effective practices in lecture and laboratory are highlighted and ongoing challenges are addressed, including areas in cutting edge green chemistry research that impact its teaching…

High-School Chemistry Teaching through Environmentally Oriented Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mandler, Daphna; Mamlok-Naaman, Rachel; Blonder, Ron; Yayon, Malka; Hofstein, Avi

2012-01-01

Discussions held in the chemical education community have generated a variety of reports and recommendations for reforming the chemistry curriculum. The recommendations refer to teaching chemistry in the context of real-world issues. This has been suggested as a way to enhance students' motivation. It is suggested that real-world problems…

Teaching and Learning Distillation in Chemistry Laboratory Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Keulen, Hanno; And Others

Distillation in the chemistry laboratory is an essential part of a practicing chemists' and a chemistry educators' work. Nevertheless, regardless of the degree of importance in each of the aforementioned professions, few educational studies on teaching and learning distillation exist. In an effort to rectify this oversight, the Department of…

The chemistry teaching laboratory: The student perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polles, John Steven

In this study, I investigated the Student/learner's experiences in the chemistry teaching laboratory and the meaning that she or he derived from these experiences. This study sought to answer these questions: (1) What was the students experience in the teaching laboratory?, (2) What aspects of the laboratory experience did the student value?, and (3) What beliefs did the student hold concerning the role of the laboratory experience in developing her or his understanding of chemistry? Students involved in an introductory chemistry course at Purdue University were asked to complete a two-part questionnaire consisting of 16 scaled response and 5 free response items, and 685 did so. Fourteen students also participated in a semi-structured individual interview. The questionnaire and interview were designed to probe the students' perceived experience and answer the above questions. I found that students possess strong conceptions of the laboratory experience: a pre-conception that colors their experience from the outset, and a post-conception that is a mix of positive and negative reflections. I also found that the learner deeply holds an implicit value in the laboratory experience. The other major finding was that the students' lived experience is dramatically shaped or influenced by external agencies, primarily the faculty (and by extension the teaching assistants). There is much debate in the extant literature over the learning value of the science teaching laboratory, but it is all from the perspective of faculty, curriculum designers, and administrators. This study adds the students' voice to the argument.

A Practical Introduction to Separation and Purification Techniques for the Beginning Organic Chemistry Laboratory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leonard, Jack E.

1981-01-01

Describes a sequence of experiments developed at Texas A&M University for use in one-semester and two-semester (nonmajors) organic chemistry courses to teach a maximum number of separation and purification techniques such as distillations, recrystallization, liquid-liquid extraction, and chromatography. (SK)

Stereoscopic Projection in Organic Chemistry: Bridging the Gap between Two and Three Dimensions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rozzelle, Arlene A.; Rosenfeld, Stuart M.

1985-01-01

Shows how to make stereo slides of three-dimensional molecular models. The slides have been used to teach chirality, conformational isomerism, how models and two-dimensional representations embody selected aspects of structure, and fundamentals of using the specific model set required in a particular organic chemistry course. (JN)

Should we learn culture in chemistry classroom? Integration ethnochemistry in culturally responsive teaching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahmawati, Yuli; Ridwan, Achmad; Nurbaity

2017-08-01

The papers report the first year of two-year longitudinal study of ethnochemistry integration in culturally responsive teaching in chemistry classrooms. The teaching approach is focusing on exploring the culture and indigenous knowledge in Indonesia from chemistry perspectives. Ethnochemistry looks at the culture from chemistry perspectives integrated into culturally responsive teaching has developed students' cultural identity and students' engagement in chemistry learning. There are limited research and data in exploring Indonesia culture, which has around 300 ethics, from chemistry perspectives. Students come to the chemistry classrooms from a different background; however, their chemistry learning disconnected with their background which leads to students' disengagement in chemistry learning. Therefore this approach focused on students' engagement within their differences. This research was conducted with year 10 and 11 from four classrooms in two secondary schools through qualitative methodology with observation, interviews, and reflective journals as data collection. The results showed that the integration of ethnochemistry in culturally responsive teaching approach can be implemented by involving 5 principles which are content integration, facilitating knowledge construction, prejudice reduction, social justice, and academic development. The culturally responsive teaching has engaged students in their chemistry learning and developed their cultural identity and soft skills. Students found that the learning experiences has helped to develop their chemistry knowledge and understand the culture from chemistry perspectives. The students developed the ability to work together, responsibility, curiosity, social awareness, creativity, empathy communication, and self-confidence which categorized into collaboration skills, student engagement, social and cultural awareness, and high order thinking skills. The ethnochemistry has helped them to develop the critical self

Put Some Movie Wow! in Your Chemistry Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frey, Christopher A.; Mikasen, Marjorie L.; Griep, Mark A.

2012-01-01

Movies and movie clips have been used by many instructors to teach chemistry. Entire movies based on true chemical stories are used because they provide students with a common experience after which instructors can launch writing lessons about the chemistry, the scientists, or engineers, or even postscripts to the story presented in the film. In…

The Birthday of Organic Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benfey, Otto Theodor; Kaufman, George B.

1979-01-01

Describes how the synthesis of urea, 150 years ago, was a major factor in breaking the artificial barrier that existed between organic and inorganic chemistry, and this contributed to the rapid growth of organic chemistry. (GA)

An Alternative Approach to the Teaching of Systematic Transition Metal Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hathaway, Brian

1979-01-01

Presents an alternative approach to teaching Systematic Transition Metal Chemistry with the transition metal chemistry skeleton features of interest. The "skeleton" is intended as a guide to predicting the chemistry of a selected compound. (Author/SA)

Case Study: The Chemistry of Cocaine

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dewprashad, Brahmadeo

2011-01-01

This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. This month's case study focuses on the chemistry of cocaine to teach a number of core concepts in organic chemistry. It also requires that students read and analyze an original research paper on…

A New Higher Education Curriculum in Organic Chemistry: What Questions Should Be Asked?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lafarge, David L.; Morge, Ludovic M.; Méheut, Martine M.

2014-01-01

Organic chemistry is often considered to be a difficult subject to teach and to learn, particularly as students prefer to resort to memorization alone rather than reasoning using models from chemical reactivity. Existing studies have led us to suggest principles for redefining the curriculum, ranging from its overall structure to the tasks given…

Teaching Organic Chemistry via Student-Directed Learning: A Technique that Promotes Independence and Responsibility in the Student

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Katz, Marlene

1996-05-01

One of the frustrations of teaching is the failure of talented students due to lack of effort on their part. We have to admit that Organic chemistry presents many challenges to students. At the same time we are aware that students often defeat themselves by a combination of procrastination and cramming. The Student-Directed Learning (SDL) method discourages this student strategy. Instead SDL fosters increased self-confidence, independence, and an awareness of the student's role in the teaching/learning process. This method incorporates four criteria for acceptance of responsibility: student ownership, student-active learning, student accountability, and student control. With SDL the course content is reorganized to make it more accessible to students. Learning modules are centered around "The Big Ideas". Each big idea is connected to its usefulness in pharmaceutical science, or is identified as a foundation idea for understanding subsequent course material. The class session is changed from traditional lecture to continuous dialogue between teacher and learners. Reading quizzes emphasize the importance of conscientious preparation for class. Structured retesting is offered to increase student self-confidence and learning. The extra effort required by the SDL method is more than compensated for by the improved grades, ACS exam scores, and student attitudes towards the course.

Mass spectrometry. [in organic chemistry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burlingame, A. L.; Shackleton, C. H. L.; Howe, I.; Chizhov, O. S.

1978-01-01

A review of mass spectrometry in organic chemistry is given, dealing with advances in instrumentation and computer techniques, selected topics in gas-phase ion chemistry, and applications in such fields as biomedicine, natural-product studies, and environmental pollution analysis. Innovative techniques and instrumentation are discussed, along with chromatographic-mass spectrometric on-line computer techniques, mass spectral interpretation and management techniques, and such topics in gas-phase ion chemistry as electron-impact ionization and decomposition, photoionization, field ionization and desorption, high-pressure mass spectrometry, ion cyclotron resonance, and isomerization reactions of organic ions. Applications of mass spectrometry are examined with respect to bio-oligomers and their constituents, biomedically important substances, microbiology, environmental organic analysis, and organic geochemistry.

Grade/Study-Performance Contracts, Enhanced Communication, Cooperative Learning, and Student Performance in Undergraduate Organic Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dougherty, Ralph C.

1997-01-01

Describes and evaluates a teaching strategy, designed to increase student retention while maintaining academic performance levels in undergraduate organic chemistry, that uses grade/study-performance contracts, enhanced communication using electronic mail, and cooperative learning. Concludes that a series of interventions can substantially…

Development and Validation of Teaching Practice Evaluation Instrument for Assessing Chemistry Students' Teaching Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ezeudu, F. O.; Chiaha, G. T. U.; Eze, J. U.

2013-01-01

The study was designed to develop and factorially validate an instrument for measuring teaching practice skills of chemistry student-teachers in University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Two research questions guided the study. The design of the study was instrumentation. All the chemistry student-teachers in the Department of Science Education, University…

Searching for the Formula: How Librarians Teach Chemistry Graduate Students Research Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fong, Bonnie L.

2014-01-01

An exploratory study was conducted in Summer 2012 in an effort to determine what librarians in the United States are doing to teach chemistry graduate students research skills. Chemistry librarians at ARL (Association of Research Libraries) institutions were surveyed about the content they teach; when, where, and how they present it; and what…

ACS-Hach Programs: Supporting Excellence in High School Chemistry Teaching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, Terri

2009-05-01

In January 2009, the ACS received a gift of approximately $33 million from the Hach Scientific Foundation, the largest gift in the society's 133-year history. The foundation's programs will be continued by the ACS and will complement pre-existing ACS resources that support high school chemistry teaching. Three activities serve as the pillars of the ACS-Hach programs—the High School Chemistry Grant Program, the Second Career Teacher Scholarship Program, and the Land Grant University Scholars Program. Collectively, the ACS-Hach programs support high school chemistry teaching and learning by responding to the needs of both in-service and pre-service secondary teachers. The goals of each of the ACS-Hach programs align well with the ACS Mission—to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people.

An approach to teaching general chemistry II that highlights the interdisciplinary nature of science.

PubMed

Sumter, Takita Felder; Owens, Patrick M

2011-01-01

The need for a revised curriculum within the life sciences has been well-established. One strategy to improve student preparation in the life sciences is to redesign introductory courses like biology, chemistry, and physics so that they better reflect their disciplinary interdependence. We describe a medically relevant, context-based approach to teaching second semester general chemistry that demonstrates the interdisciplinary nature of biology and chemistry. Our innovative method provides a model in which disciplinary barriers are diminished early in the undergraduate science curriculum. The course is divided into three principle educational modules: 1) Fundamentals of General Chemistry, 2) Medical Approaches to Inflammation, and 3) Neuroscience as a connector of chemistry, biology, and psychology. We accurately anticipated that this modified approach to teaching general chemistry would enhance student interest in chemistry and bridge the perceived gaps between biology and chemistry. The course serves as a template for context-based, interdisciplinary teaching that lays the foundation needed to train 21st century scientists. Copyright © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Synthesis-Spectroscopy Roadmap Problems: Discovering Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurth, Laurie L.; Kurth, Mark J.

2014-01-01

Organic chemistry problems that interrelate and integrate synthesis with spectroscopy are presented. These synthesis-spectroscopy roadmap (SSR) problems uniquely engage second-year undergraduate organic chemistry students in the personal discovery of organic chemistry. SSR problems counter the memorize-or-bust strategy that many students tend to…

Putting the Laboratory at the Center of Teaching Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bopegedera, A. M. R. P.

2011-01-01

This article describes an effective approach to teaching chemistry by bringing the laboratory to the center of teaching, to bring the excitement of discovery to the learning process. The lectures and laboratories are closely integrated to provide a holistic learning experience. The laboratories progress from verification to open-inquiry and…

Organic Chemistry Self Instructional Package 2: Methane.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zdravkovich, V.

This booklet, one of a series of 17 developed at Prince George's Community College, Largo, Maryland, provides an individualized, self-paced undergraduate organic chemistry instruction module designed to augment any course in organic chemistry but particularly those taught using the text "Organic Chemistry" by Morrison and Boyd. The…

Software platform virtualization in chemistry research and university teaching.

PubMed

Kind, Tobias; Leamy, Tim; Leary, Julie A; Fiehn, Oliver

2009-11-16

Modern chemistry laboratories operate with a wide range of software applications under different operating systems, such as Windows, LINUX or Mac OS X. Instead of installing software on different computers it is possible to install those applications on a single computer using Virtual Machine software. Software platform virtualization allows a single guest operating system to execute multiple other operating systems on the same computer. We apply and discuss the use of virtual machines in chemistry research and teaching laboratories. Virtual machines are commonly used for cheminformatics software development and testing. Benchmarking multiple chemistry software packages we have confirmed that the computational speed penalty for using virtual machines is low and around 5% to 10%. Software virtualization in a teaching environment allows faster deployment and easy use of commercial and open source software in hands-on computer teaching labs. Software virtualization in chemistry, mass spectrometry and cheminformatics is needed for software testing and development of software for different operating systems. In order to obtain maximum performance the virtualization software should be multi-core enabled and allow the use of multiprocessor configurations in the virtual machine environment. Server consolidation, by running multiple tasks and operating systems on a single physical machine, can lead to lower maintenance and hardware costs especially in small research labs. The use of virtual machines can prevent software virus infections and security breaches when used as a sandbox system for internet access and software testing. Complex software setups can be created with virtual machines and are easily deployed later to multiple computers for hands-on teaching classes. We discuss the popularity of bioinformatics compared to cheminformatics as well as the missing cheminformatics education at universities worldwide.

Teaching Chemistry Lab Safety through Comics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

di Raddo, Pasquale

2006-04-01

As a means for raising students' interest in aspects pertaining to chemistry lab safety, this article presents a novel approach to teaching this important subject. Comic book lab scenes that involve fictional characters familiar to many students are presented and discussed as to the safety concerns represented in those images. These are discussed in a safety prelab session. For the sake of comparison, students are then shown images taken from current chemistry journals of safety-conscious contemporary chemists at work in their labs. Finally the need to adhere to copyright regulations for the use of the images is discussed so as to increase students' awareness of academic honesty and copyright issues.

A Historical Analysis of the Curriculum of Organic Chemistry Using ACS Exams as Artifacts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raker, Jeffrey R.; Holme, Thomas A.

2013-01-01

Standardized examinations, such as those developed and disseminated by the ACS Examinations Institute, are artifacts of the teaching of a course and over time may provide a historical perspective on how curricula have changed and evolved. This study investigated changes in organic chemistry curricula across a 60-year period by evaluating 18 ACS…

Benefits of Using a Problem-Solving Scaffold for Teaching and Learning Synthesis in Undergraduate Organic Chemistry I

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sloop, Joseph C.; Tsoi, Mai Yin; Coppock, Patrick

2016-01-01

A problem-solving scaffold approach to synthesis was developed and implemented in two intervention sections of Chemistry 2211K (Organic Chemistry I) at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC). A third section of Chemistry 2211K at GGC served as the control group for the experiment. Synthesis problems for chapter quizzes and the final examination were…

Transforming the Organic Chemistry Lab Experience: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Reformed Experimental Activities--REActivities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collison, Christina G.; Kim, Thomas; Cody, Jeremy; Anderson, Jason; Edelbach, Brian; Marmor, William; Kipsang, Rodgers; Ayotte, Charles; Saviola, Daniel; Niziol, Justin

2018-01-01

Reformed experimental activities (REActivities) are an innovative approach to the delivery of the traditional material in an undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory. A description of the design and implementation of REActivities at both a four- and two-year institution is discussed. The results obtained using a reformed teaching observational…

New Thinking in School Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris (France).

This report contains the text of addresses given at a seminar on the status and development of the teaching of secondary school chemistry held in 1960 by the Organization for European Economic Development (now the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The speakers considered advances in theoretical chemistry since 1900, the…

Software platform virtualization in chemistry research and university teaching

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Background Modern chemistry laboratories operate with a wide range of software applications under different operating systems, such as Windows, LINUX or Mac OS X. Instead of installing software on different computers it is possible to install those applications on a single computer using Virtual Machine software. Software platform virtualization allows a single guest operating system to execute multiple other operating systems on the same computer. We apply and discuss the use of virtual machines in chemistry research and teaching laboratories. Results Virtual machines are commonly used for cheminformatics software development and testing. Benchmarking multiple chemistry software packages we have confirmed that the computational speed penalty for using virtual machines is low and around 5% to 10%. Software virtualization in a teaching environment allows faster deployment and easy use of commercial and open source software in hands-on computer teaching labs. Conclusion Software virtualization in chemistry, mass spectrometry and cheminformatics is needed for software testing and development of software for different operating systems. In order to obtain maximum performance the virtualization software should be multi-core enabled and allow the use of multiprocessor configurations in the virtual machine environment. Server consolidation, by running multiple tasks and operating systems on a single physical machine, can lead to lower maintenance and hardware costs especially in small research labs. The use of virtual machines can prevent software virus infections and security breaches when used as a sandbox system for internet access and software testing. Complex software setups can be created with virtual machines and are easily deployed later to multiple computers for hands-on teaching classes. We discuss the popularity of bioinformatics compared to cheminformatics as well as the missing cheminformatics education at universities worldwide. PMID:20150997

Teaching Chemistry with Electron Density Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shusterman, Gwendolyn P.; Shusterman, Alan J.

1997-07-01

Linus Pauling once said that a topic must satisfy two criteria before it can be taught to students. First, students must be able to assimilate the topic within a reasonable amount of time. Second, the topic must be relevant to the educational needs and interests of the students. Unfortunately, the standard general chemistry textbook presentation of "electronic structure theory", set as it is in the language of molecular orbitals, has a difficult time satisfying either criterion. Many of the quantum mechanical aspects of molecular orbitals are too difficult for most beginning students to appreciate, much less master, and the few applications that are presented in the typical textbook are too limited in scope to excite much student interest. This article describes a powerful new method for teaching students about electronic structure and its relevance to chemical phenomena. This method, which we have developed and used for several years in general chemistry (G.P.S.) and organic chemistry (A.J.S.) courses, relies on computer-generated three-dimensional models of electron density distributions, and largely satisfies Pauling's two criteria. Students find electron density models easy to understand and use, and because these models are easily applied to a broad range of topics, they successfully convey to students the importance of electronic structure. In addition, when students finally learn about orbital concepts they are better prepared because they already have a well-developed three-dimensional picture of electronic structure to fall back on. We note in this regard that the types of models we use have found widespread, rigorous application in chemical research (1, 2), so students who understand and use electron density models do not need to "unlearn" anything before progressing to more advanced theories.

Learning How to Teach Chemistry with Technology: Pre-Service Teachers' Experiences with Integrating Technology into Their Learning and Teaching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chittleborough, Gail

2014-06-01

The Australian Government initiative, Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF), was a targeted response to improve the preparation of future teachers with integrating technology into their practice. This paper reports on TTF research involving 28 preservice teachers undertaking a chemistry curriculum studies unit that adopted a technological focus. For chemistry teaching the results showed that technological knowledge augmented the fundamental pedagogical knowledge necessary for teaching chemistry content. All the pre-service teachers demonstrated an understanding of the role of technology in teaching and learning and reported an increased skill level in a variety of technologies, many they had not used previously. Some students were sceptical about this learning when schools did not have technological resources available. This paper argues that teacher education courses should include technological skills that match those available in schools, as well as introduce new technologies to support a change in the culture of using technology in schools.

An Approach to Teaching General Chemistry II that Highlights the Interdisciplinary Nature of Science*,†

PubMed Central

Sumter, Takita Felder; Owens, Patrick M.

2012-01-01

The need for a revised curriculum within the life sciences has been well-established. One strategy to improve student preparation in the life sciences is to redesign introductory courses like biology, chemistry, and physics so that they better reflect their disciplinary interdependence. We describe a medically relevant, context-based approach to teaching second semester general chemistry that demonstrates the interdisciplinary nature of biology and chemistry. Our innovative method provides a model in which disciplinary barriers are diminished early in the undergraduate science curriculum. The course is divided into three principle educational modules: 1) Fundamentals of General Chemistry, 2) Medical Approaches to Inflammation, and 3) Neuroscience as a connector of chemistry, biology, and psychology. We accurately anticipated that this modified approach to teaching general chemistry would enhance student interest in chemistry and bridge the perceived gaps between biology and chemistry. The course serves as a template for context-based, interdisciplinary teaching that lays the foundation needed to train 21st century scientists. PMID:21445902

Using the Cambridge Structural Database to Teach Molecular Geometry Concepts in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wackerly, Jay Wm.; Janowicz, Philip A.; Ritchey, Joshua A.; Caruso, Mary M.; Elliott, Erin L.; Moore, Jeffrey S.

2009-01-01

This article reports a set of two homework assignments that can be used in a second-year undergraduate organic chemistry class. These assignments were designed to help reinforce concepts of molecular geometry and to give students the opportunity to use a technological database and data mining to analyze experimentally determined chemical…

Green Goggles: Designing and Teaching a General Chemistry Course to Nonmajors Using a Green Chemistry Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prescott, Sarah

2013-01-01

A novel course using green chemistry as the context to teach general chemistry fundamentals was designed, implemented and is described here. The course design included an active learning approach, with major course graded components including a weekly blog entry, exams, and a semester project that was disseminated by wiki and a public symposium.…

Life-Cycle Analysis and Inquiry-Based Learning in Chemistry Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Juntunen, Marianne; Aksela, Maija

2013-01-01

The purpose of this design research is to improve the quality of environmental literacy and sustainability education in chemistry teaching through combining a socio-scientific issue, life-cycle analysis (LCA), with inquiry-based learning (IBL). This first phase of the cyclic design research involved 20 inservice trained chemistry teachers from…

Donald J. Cram, Host-Guest Chemistry, Cram's Rule of Asymmetric Induction

Science.gov Websites

across organic chemistry, with applications in both basic research as well as specific fields, such as for life and science have forever changed "teaching in organic chemistry, and altered the shape organic chemistry; his research affects the many ways organic chemistry now appears in our daily lives

What Is Feminist Pedagogy? Useful Ideas for Teaching Chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurt Middlecamp, Catherine; Subramaniam, Banu

1999-04-01

In our experience, scientists are likely to be newcomers to the scholarship that has arisen from the field of women's studies. This paper will examine one such area of scholarship, feminist pedagogy, and relate it to the teaching and learning of chemistry. More correctly, one should refer to feminist pedagogies, as this scholarship is evolving and is a topic for continual debate. Generally speaking, feminist pedagogies share a number of themes: a focus on women/gender, authority, position, empowerment, voice, and non-neutrality. Each of these themes is described and then applied to the chemistry classroom. Examples include using technology to give students a voice, using same-sex groupings, instituting a class board of directors, examining textbook questions, and asking new or different questions as you teach. Although feminist pedagogy aims to make science classrooms and laboratories more hospitable to women, it can inform our teaching practices and benefit all our students.

Experienced Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Teaching Acid-Base Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drechsler, Michal; Van Driel, Jan

2008-01-01

We investigated the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of nine experienced chemistry teachers. The teachers took part in a teacher training course on students' difficulties and the use of models in teaching acid-base chemistry, electrochemistry, and redox reactions. Two years after the course, the teachers were interviewed about their PCK of (1)…

The Flipped Classroom for Teaching Organic Chemistry in Small Classes: Is It Effective?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fautch, Jessica M.

2015-01-01

The flipped classroom is a pedagogical approach that moves course content from the classroom to homework, and uses class time for engaging activities and instructor-guided problem solving. The course content in a sophomore level Organic Chemistry I course was assigned as homework using video lectures, followed by a short online quiz. In class,…

The Combined Effects of Classroom Teaching and Learning Strategy Use on Students' Chemistry Self-Efficacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheung, Derek

2015-02-01

For students to be successful in school chemistry, a strong sense of self-efficacy is essential. Chemistry self-efficacy can be defined as students' beliefs about the extent to which they are capable of performing specific chemistry tasks. According to Bandura (Psychol. Rev. 84:191-215, 1977), students acquire information about their level of self-efficacy from four sources: performance accomplishments, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological states. No published studies have investigated how instructional strategies in chemistry lessons can provide students with positive experiences with these four sources of self-efficacy information and how the instructional strategies promote students' chemistry self-efficacy. In this study, questionnaire items were constructed to measure student perceptions about instructional strategies, termed efficacy-enhancing teaching, which can provide positive experiences with the four sources of self-efficacy information. Structural equation modeling was then applied to test a hypothesized mediation model, positing that efficacy-enhancing teaching positively affects students' chemistry self-efficacy through their use of deep learning strategies such as metacognitive control strategies. A total of 590 chemistry students at nine secondary schools in Hong Kong participated in the survey. The mediation model provided a good fit to the student data. Efficacy-enhancing teaching had a direct effect on students' chemistry self-efficacy. Efficacy-enhancing teaching also directly affected students' use of deep learning strategies, which in turn affected students' chemistry self-efficacy. The implications of these findings for developing secondary school students' chemistry self-efficacy are discussed.

Polymer Chemistry--An Elective in the New Leaving Chemistry Course: A Method of Teaching It

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lister, G.

1972-01-01

A scheme is suggested for teaching concepts of polymer chemistry. Laboratory activities are suggested for the major topics. Interrelationships of different industrial uses of polymers are emphasized during the course. (PS)

A Case Study on German First Year Chemistry Student Teachers' Beliefs about Chemistry Teaching, and Their Comparison with Student Teachers from Other Science Teaching Domains

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Markic, Silvija; Eilks, Ingo

2008-01-01

This paper gives insights into the beliefs of 85 German first year chemistry student teachers about chemistry teaching and learning at the beginning of their teacher education. The study is based on student teachers' drawings of themselves in a typical classroom situation and four open questions. The approach evaluated: (I) Beliefs about Classroom…

Low-Achieving Students' Attitudes towards Learning Chemistry and Chemistry Teaching Methods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kousa, P.; Kavonius, R.; Aksela, M.

2018-01-01

The aims of this study were to determine low-achieving students' attitudes towards chemistry and how the attitudes differ within a low achieving group. The most preferred teaching methods were also defined. Empirical data (n = 2949) were collected by stratified sampling from fifteen-year-old Finnish lower-secondary school students as part of a…

Integrating Multiple Teaching Methods into a General Chemistry Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Francisco, Joseph S.; Nicoll, Gayle; Trautmann, Marcella

1998-02-01

In addition to the traditional lecture format, three other teaching strategies (class discussions, concept maps, and cooperative learning) were incorporated into a freshman level general chemistry course. Student perceptions of their involvement in each of the teaching methods, as well as their perceptions of the utility of each method were used to assess the effectiveness of the integration of the teaching strategies as received by the students. Results suggest that each strategy serves a unique purpose for the students and increased student involvement in the course. These results indicate that the multiple teaching strategies were well received by the students and that all teaching strategies are necessary for students to get the most out of the course.

Point of View: Teaching Chemistry for the Twenty-Second Century

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Steven M.

2013-01-01

In this article, the author reflects on chemistry teaching in the next century. He questions--Was anything he taught in his fundamental chemistry course of value? And, how will our current understanding of the molecular world change during his students' lifetimes? It reminded him of a pseudo-quote he remembered from his own university…

Organic Chemistry Self Instructional Package 15: Benzene, Aromaticity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zdravkovich, V.

This booklet, one of a series of 17 developed at Prince George's Community College, Largo, Maryland, provides an individualized, self-paced undergraduate organic chemistry instruction module designed to augment any course in organic chemistry but particularly those taught using the text "Organic Chemistry" by Morrison and Boyd. The…

Challenges in Teaching "Colloid and Surface Chemistry"--A Danish Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kontogeorgis, Georgios M.; Vigild, Martin E.

2009-01-01

Seven years ago we were asked, as one of our first teaching duties at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), to teach a 5 ECTS point course on "Colloid and Surface Chemistry". The topic is itself at the same time exciting and demanding, largely due to its multidisciplinary nature. Several "local" requirements posed…

Implementation of picoSpin Benchtop NMR Instruments into Organic Chemistry Teaching Laboratories through Spectral Analysis of Fischer Esterification Products

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yearty, Kasey L.; Sharp, Joseph T.; Meehan, Emma K.; Wallace, Doyle R.; Jackson, Douglas M.; Morrison, Richard W.

2017-01-01

[Superscript 1]H NMR analysis is an important analytical technique presented in introductory organic chemistry courses. NMR instrument access is limited for undergraduate organic chemistry students due to the size of the instrument, price of NMR solvents, and the maintenance level required for instrument upkeep. The University of Georgia Chemistry…

Understanding Academic Performance in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szu, Evan; Nandagopal, Kiruthiga; Shavelson, Richard J.; Lopez, Enrique J.; Penn, John H.; Scharberg, Maureen; Hill, Geannine W.

2011-01-01

Successful completion of organic chemistry is a prerequisite for many graduate and professional programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, yet the failure rate for this sequence of courses is notoriously high. To date, few studies have examined why some students succeed while others have difficulty in organic chemistry. This…

Organic Chemistry in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Charnley, Steven

2009-01-01

Astronomical observations, theoretical modeling, laboratory simulation and analysis of extraterrestrial material have enhanced our knowledge of the inventory of organic matter in the interstellar medium (ISM) and on small bodies such as comets and asteroids (Ehrenfreund & Charnley 2000). Comets, asteroids and their fragments, meteorites and interplanetary dust particles (IDPs), contributed significant amounts of extraterrestrial organic matter to the young Earth. This material degraded and reacted in a terrestrial prebiotic chemistry to form organic structures that may have served as building blocks for life on the early Earth. In this talk I will summarize our current understanding of the organic composition and chemistry of interstellar clouds. Molecules of astrobiological relevance include the building blocks of our genetic material: nucleic acids, composed of subunits such as N-heterocycles (purines and pyrimidines), sugars and amino acids. Signatures indicative of inheritance of pristine and modified interstellar material in comets and meteorites will also be discussed.

Organic chemistry on solid surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Zhen; Zaera, Francisco

2006-07-01

Chemistry on solid surfaces is central to many areas of practical interest such as heterogeneous catalysis, tribology, electrochemistry, and materials processing. With the development of many surface-sensitive analytical techniques in the past decades, great advances have been possible in our understanding of such surface chemistry at the molecular level. Earlier studies with model systems, single crystals in particular, have provided rich information about the adsorption and reaction kinetics of simple inorganic molecules. More recently, the same approach has been expanded to the study of the surface chemistry of relatively complex organic molecules, in large measure in connection with the selective synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. In this report, the chemical reactions of organic molecules and fragments on solid surfaces, mainly on single crystals of metals but also on crystals of metal oxides, carbides, nitrides, phosphides, sulfides and semiconductors as well as on more complex models such as bimetallics, alloys, and supported particles, are reviewed. A scheme borrowed from the organometallic and organic chemistry literature is followed in which key examples of representative reactions are cited first, and general reactivity trends in terms of both the reactants and the nature of the surface are then identified to highlight important mechanistic details. An attempt has been made to emphasize recent advances, but key earlier examples are cited as needed. Finally, correlations between surface and organometallic and organic chemistry, the relevance of surface reactions to applied catalysis and materials functionalization, and some promising future directions in this area are briefly discussed.

Integration of Open Educational Resources in Undergraduate Chemistry Teaching--A Mapping Tool and Lecturers' Considerations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feldman-Maggor, Yael; Rom, Amira; Tuvi-Arad, Inbal

2016-01-01

This study examines chemistry lecturers' considerations for using open educational resources (OER) in their teaching. Recent technological developments provide innovative approaches for teaching chemistry and visualizing chemical phenomena. End users' improved ability to upload information online enables integration of various pedagogical models…

The Chemistry Teaching Fellowship Program: Developing Curricula and Graduate Student Professionalism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Kris S.; Rackus, Darius G.; Mabury, Scott A.; Morra, Barbora; Dicks, Andrew P.

2017-01-01

The Chemistry Teaching Fellowship Program (CTFP) is offered to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at the University of Toronto as an opportunity to undertake curriculum development and chemistry education research. Projects are run with faculty supervision and focus on designing new laboratory activities, lectures, tutorials,…

The 'wired' universe of organic chemistry.

PubMed

Grzybowski, Bartosz A; Bishop, Kyle J M; Kowalczyk, Bartlomiej; Wilmer, Christopher E

2009-04-01

The millions of reactions performed and compounds synthesized by organic chemists over the past two centuries connect to form a network larger than the metabolic networks of higher organisms and rivalling the complexity of the World Wide Web. Despite its apparent randomness, the network of chemistry has a well-defined, modular architecture. The network evolves in time according to trends that have not changed since the inception of the discipline, and thus project into chemistry's future. Analysis of organic chemistry using the tools of network theory enables the identification of most 'central' organic molecules, and for the prediction of which and how many molecules will be made in the future. Statistical analyses based on network connectivity are useful in optimizing parallel syntheses, in estimating chemical reactivity, and more.

Using Games To Teach Chemistry: An Annotated Bibliography.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russell, Jeanne V.

1999-01-01

Lists 67 published or marketed chemistry games organized under the following categories: (1) general knowledge; (2) elements and atomic structure; (3) nomenclature, formulas, and equation writing; (4) chemical reactions; (5) solutions and solubilities; (6) organic chemistry, and (8) miscellaneous subjects. Includes a brief description of each…

Chemistry Professors' Descriptions of the Impact of Research Engagement on Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hua, Olivia; Shore, Bruce M.

2014-01-01

Professors endorse a symbiotic relationship between research and teaching, but empirical evidence supporting this relationship is inconsistent. Many studies operationalized research and teaching too narrowly to detect the believed relationship. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 27 chemistry professors from a large…

A Comparison of How Undergraduates, Graduate Students, and Professors Organize Organic Chemistry Reactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galloway, Kelli R.; Leung, Min Wah; Flynn, Alison B.

2018-01-01

To explore the differences between how organic chemistry students and organic chemistry professors think about organic chemistry reactions, we administered a card sort task to participants with a range of knowledge and experience levels. Beginning students created a variety of categories ranging from structural similarities to process oriented…

Plants and Chemistry: A Teaching Course Based on the Chemistry of Substances of Plant Origin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andreoli, Katia; Calascibetta, Franco; Campanella, Luigi; Favero, Gabriele; Occhionero, Francesca

2002-08-01

Over the past few years, we developed an idea about the teaching of chemistry by determining the links between theory and the real world. The principles, concepts, and experimental procedures of chemistry were illustrated through an original approach based on useful substances obtained from plants. The starting point was substances that have always been obtained from trees and vegetables. The approach was implemented during many refresher courses for secondary school teachers of chemistry. The courses were divided into sections, each called "Plants and ...", dedicated to colors, odors, tastes, medicines and drugs, fibers, soaps, and alcoholic beverages. Each section consisted of a theoretical lesson followed by a laboratory session.

Qualitative and Quantitative Evaluation of Three Types of Student-Generated Videos as Instructional Support in Organic Chemistry Laboratories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Box, Melinda C.; Dunnagan, Cathi L.; Hirsh, Lauren A. S.; Cherry, Clinton R.; Christianson, Kayla A.; Gibson, Radiance J.; Wolfe, Michael I.; Gallardo-Williams, Maria T.

2017-01-01

This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of student-generated videos as a supplement to teaching assistant (TA) instruction in an undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory. Three videos covering different aspects of lab instruction (experimental technique, use of instrumentation, and calculations) were produced using…

Faculty Beliefs about the Purposes for Teaching Undergraduate Physical Chemistry Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mack, Michael R.; Towns, Marcy H.

2016-01-01

We report the results of a phenomenographic analysis of faculty beliefs about the purposes for teaching upper-division physical chemistry courses in the undergraduate curriculum. A purposeful sampling strategy was used to recruit a diverse group of faculty for interviews. Collectively, the participating faculty regularly teach or have taught…

This Mechanistic Step Is ''Productive'': Organic Chemistry Students' Backward-Oriented Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caspari, I.; Weinrich, M. L.; Sevian, H.; Graulich, N.

2018-01-01

If an organic chemistry student explains that she represents a mechanistic step because ''it's a productive part of the mechanism,'' what meaning could the professor teaching the class attribute to this statement, what is actually communicated, and what does it mean for the student? The professor might think that the explanation is based on…

The Distribution of Macromolecular Principles throughout Introductory Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shulman, Joel I.

2017-01-01

Many of the principles of organic polymer chemistry are direct extensions of the information contained in the standard introductory organic chemistry course. Often, however, the discussion of macromolecules is relegated to a chapter at the end of the organic chemistry text and is covered briefly, if at all. Connecting the organic-chemical…

Investigating Students' Similarity Judgments in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graulich, N.; Bhattacharyya, G.

2017-01-01

Organic chemistry is possibly the most visual science of all chemistry disciplines. The process of scientific inquiry in organic chemistry relies on external representations, such as Lewis structures, mechanisms, and electron arrows. Information about chemical properties or driving forces of mechanistic steps is not available through direct…

Preservice Chemistry Teachers' Images about Science Teaching in Their Future Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elmas, Ridvan; Demirdogen, Betul; Geban, Omer

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study is to explore pre-service chemistry teachers' images of science teaching in their future classrooms. Also, association between instructional style, gender, and desire to be a teacher was explored. Sixty six pre-service chemistry teachers from three public universities participated in the data collection for this study. A…

A Survey of the Teaching Practices and Materials Used in Introductory College Chemistry. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dodson, B.C.

Surveyed were current objectives, teaching methods and teaching materials used in introductory college chemistry. Six general objectives were identified: (1) to develop the ability to do critical thinking, (2) to make the students familiar with the facts, principles, and concepts of chemistry, (3) to help the students understand the nature of…

Perspectives on Computational Organic Chemistry

PubMed Central

Streitwieser, Andrew

2009-01-01

The author reviews how his early love for theoretical organic chemistry led to experimental research and the extended search for quantitative correlations between experiment and quantum calculations. The experimental work led to ion pair acidities of alkali-organic compounds and most recently to equilibria and reactions of lithium and cesium enolates in THF. This chemistry is now being modeled by ab initio calculations. An important consideration is the treatment of solvation in which coordination of the alkali cation with the ether solvent plays a major role. PMID:19518150

Teaching Chemistry and Chemical Textbooks in France. From Beguin to Lemery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clericuzio, Antonio

2006-01-01

In the seventeenth century the status of chemistry changed remarkably. Chemistry was no longer regarded as a manual practice subordinated to medicine but as an independent discipline that was taught both privately and in universities. In Germany, it became part of the medical teaching in several universities, while in the rest of Europe the…

Teaching High School Chemistry in the Context of Pharmacology Helps Both Teachers and Students Learn

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz-Bloom, Rochelle D.; Halpin, Myra J.; Reiter, Jerome P.

2011-01-01

Few studies demonstrate the impact of teaching chemistry embedded in a context that has relevance to high school students. We build upon our prior work showing that pharmacology topics (i.e., drugs), which are inherently interesting to high school students, provide a useful context for teaching chemistry and biology. In those studies, teachers…

Organic Chemistry Self Instructional Package 10: Alkenes-Reactions 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zdravkovich, V.

This booklet, one of a series of 17 developed at Prince George's Community College, Largo, Maryland, provides an individualized, self-paced undergraduate organic chemistry instruction module designed to augment any course in organic chemistry but particularly those taught using the text "Organic Chemistry" by Morrison and Boyd. The…

Teaching Beginning Chemistry Students Simple Lewis Dot Structures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nassiff, Peter; Czerwinski, Wendy A.

2015-01-01

Students beginning their initial study of chemistry often have a difficult time mastering simple Lewis dot structures. Textbooks show students how to manipulate Lewis structures by moving valence electron dots around the chemical structure so each atom has an octet or duet. However, an easier method of teaching Lewis structures for simple…

Teaching Relative Acidity in the Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Traynham, James G.

1988-01-01

Described is a teaching method for connecting relative acidity among various species by the use of familiar references. Considered are teaching the acidity of alpha-hydrogens of ketones, alkylation of amides and imides, and others. (CW)

Organic Chemistry for the Gifted.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

deBeer, W. H. J.

In response to a serious shortage of chemists in South Africa, gifted secondary school students are enrolled in an enrichment program in organic chemistry and encouraged to consider chemistry or one of its related fields as a career. The introductory portion of the program involves approximately 90 hours over a 3-year period while the advanced…

Teaching Chemistry Students How To Use Patent Databases and Glean Patent Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacMillan, Margy; Shaw, Lawton

2008-07-01

Patent literature is an important source of chemical information that is often neglected by chemical educators. This paper describes an effort to teach chemistry students how to use patent databases to search for information on applied chemical technology related to the manufacture of industrial and specialty chemicals. Students in a second-year-level organic chemistry class were shown how to search patent literature as part of a group research paper assignment that involved determining the feasibility of starting an industrial chemical operation to manufacture a given industrial chemical. Students who were assigned high value or specialty chemicals were most likely to cite patent literature in their final papers. Students who were assigned plastics or bulk commodity chemicals were less likely to cite patents. It is suggested that students made choices about the usefulness of patent literature and that patents were most useful when current patents existed and provided the patent owner a competitive advantage. For plastics or commodity chemicals, manufacturing technologies tend to be mature and are well described by more accessible information sources. Suggestions are made for effective introduction of patent literature instruction into upper-level chemistry courses.

Organic Experiments for Introductory Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rayner-Canham, Geoff

1985-01-01

Describes test-tube organic chemistry procedures (using comparatively safe reagents) for the beginning student. These procedures are used to: examine differences between saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons; compare structural isomers; and compare organic and inorganic acids and bases. (DH)

Development of an Instrument for Assessing the Effectiveness of Chemistry Classroom Teaching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Changlong; Fu, Lihai; He, Peng

2014-04-01

Classroom teaching is a main frontier of the implementation of new curricular ideas in China. The study reported in this article is concerned with the effectiveness of system of classroom teaching (SCT) in chemistry lessons. According to the Systems Science theory, we took a macroscopic view on the SCT, arguing that SCT is a hierarchy of system, which includes class system, plate system, unit system, and primitive system. In this study, we focused on primitive system of classroom teaching (PrS)—the lowest level in a SCT. Using focus group interviews, this study investigated the variables related to the effectiveness of PrS. We found a total of 21 such variables. To identify the main factors underlying the effectiveness of PrS, we further used exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. We found five main factors: rational use of time, quality of teaching behavior chain, match degree, quality of using resource and technology, and rationality of primitive content. Based on these findings, we constructed an evaluation scale for assessing the effectiveness of primitive system of chemistry classroom teaching.

Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching and Their Pedagogical Content Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oskay, Ozge Ozyalcin; Erdem, Emine; Yilmaz, Ayhan

2009-01-01

In this study the relationship between pre-service chemistry teachers' beliefs about teaching and their pedagogical content knowledge were investigated. The sample of the study consists of 99 pre-service chemistry teachers attending Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education. As data collection tools the adapted form of "Beliefs About…

Introducing chemical biology applications to introductory organic chemistry students using series of weekly assignments.

PubMed

Kanin, Maralee R; Pontrello, Jason K

2016-01-01

Calls to bring interdisciplinary content and examples into introductory science courses have increased, yet strategies that involve course restructuring often suffer from the need for a significant faculty commitment to motivate change. Minimizing the need for dramatic course reorganization, the structure, reactivity, and chemical biology applications of classes of biological monomers and polymers have been integrated into introductory organic chemistry courses through three series of semester-long weekly assignments that explored (a) Carbohydrates and Oligosaccharides, (b) Amino Acids, Peptides, and Proteins, and (c) Nucleosides, Nucleotides, and Nucleic Acids. Comparisons of unannounced pre- and post tests revealed improved understanding of a reaction introduced in the assignments, and course examinations evaluated cumulative assignment topics. Course surveys revealed that demonstrating biologically relevant applications consistently throughout the semesters enhanced student interest in the connection between basic organic chemistry content and its application to new and unfamiliar bio-related examples. Covering basic material related to these classes of molecules outside of the classroom opened lecture time to allow the instructor to further build on information developed through the weekly assignments, teaching advanced topics and applications typically not covered in an introductory organic chemistry lecture course. Assignments were implemented as homework, either with or without accompanying discussion, in both laboratory and lecture organic courses within the context of the existing course structures. © 2015 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Fostering Teacher Development to a Tetrahedral Orientation in the Teaching of Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewthwaite, Brian; Wiebe, Rick

2011-01-01

This paper reports on the initial outcomes from the end of the fourth year of a 5 year research and professional development project to improve chemistry teaching among three cohorts of chemistry teachers in Manitoba, Canada. The project responds to a new curriculum introduction advocating a tetrahedral orientation (Mahaffy, "Journal of…

Creating a Sustainable Future: Some Philosophical and Educational Considerations for Chemistry Teaching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vilches, Amparo; Gil-Pérez, Daniel

2013-07-01

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and UNESCO have proposed that the International Year of Chemistry, 2011, should make a strong educational contribution to the goals of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. This emphasis is absolutely necessary because education for sustainability remains practically absent nowadays in many high school and university chemistry curricula all over the world. Behind this lack of attention to the current situation of planetary emergency, there are several obstacles that we analyse in this paper. We firstly discuss an extended conception of "pure Chemistry"—object of chemists' research and teaching- the object of which would just be to increase knowledge: moral problems should only appear in connection to the use of the applications of science by, generally, nonscientists. This belief that genuine scientific activity lies beyond the reach of moral judgment is logically transferred to teaching, voluntarily limited to the transmission of the corpus of knowledge. Consequently, the challenges of sustainable development, with so many social implications, are put aside. After questioning this and other obstacles, we develop the possible contribution of chemistry and chemical education to the construction of a sustainable future, in accordance with the goals of the International Year of Chemistry.

Titan: a laboratory for prebiological organic chemistry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sagan, C.; Thompson, W. R.; Khare, B. N.

1992-01-01

When we examine the atmospheres of the Jovian planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), the satellites in the outer solar system, comets, and even--through microwave and infrared spectroscopy--the cold dilute gas and grains between the stars, we find a rich organic chemistry, presumably abiological, not only in most of the solar system but throughout the Milky Way galaxy. In part because the composition and surface pressure of the Earth's atmosphere 4 x 10(9) years ago are unknown, laboratory experiments on prebiological organic chemistry are at best suggestive; but we can test our understanding by looking more closely at the observed extraterrestrial organic chemistry. The present Account is restricted to atmospheric organic chemistry, primarily on the large moon of Saturn. Titan is a test of our understanding of the organic chemistry of planetary atmospheres. Its atmospheric bulk composition (N2/CH4) is intermediate between the highly reducing (H2/He/CH4/NH3/H2O) atmospheres of the Jovian planets and the more oxidized (N2/CO2/H2O) atmospheres of the terrestrial planets Mars and Venus. It has long been recognized that Titan's organic chemistry may have some relevance to the events that led to the origin of life on Earth. But with Titan surface temperatures approximately equal to 94 K and pressures approximately equal to 1.6 bar, the oceans of the early Earth have no ready analogue on Titan. Nevertheless, tectonic events in the water ice-rich interior or impact melting and slow re-freezing may lead to an episodic availability of liquid water. Indeed, the latter process is the equivalent of a approximately 10(3)-year-duration shallow aqueous sea over the entire surface of Titan.

Discovery Lab in the Chemistry Lecture Room: Design and Evaluation of Audio-Visual Constructivist Methodology of Teaching Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Barbara N.; Hoffman, Lyubov

Demonstration of chemical reactions is a tool used in the teaching of inorganic descriptive chemistry to enable students to understand the fundamental concepts of chemistry through the use of concrete examples. For maximum benefit, students need to learn through discovery to observe, interpret, hypothesize, and draw conclusions; however, chemical…

Online Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Janowicz, Philip A.

2010-01-01

This is a comprehensive study of the many facets of an entirely online organic chemistry course. Online homework with structure-drawing capabilities was found to be more effective than written homework. Online lecture was found to be just as effective as in-person lecture, and students prefer an online lecture format with shorter Webcasts. Online…

What Do Conceptual Holes in Assessment Say about the Topics We Teach in General Chemistry?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luxford, Cynthia J.; Holme, Thomas A.

2015-01-01

Introductory chemistry has long been considered a service course by various departments that entrust chemistry departments with teaching their students. As a result, most introductory courses include a majority of students who are not chemistry majors, and many are health and science related majors who are required to take chemistry. To identify…

Teaching for Quality Learning in Chemistry. Research Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teixeira-Dias, Jose J. C.; Pedrosa de Jesus, Helena; Neri de Souza, Francisle; Watts, Mike

2005-01-01

In Portugal, the number of students in higher education increased from 80,000 in 1975 to 381,000 in 2000 (a change from 11% to 53% in the age group 18-22), meaning a major change in the diversity of student population with consequences well known and studied in other countries. The teaching of chemistry at the University of Aveiro, for the…

"Drug" Discovery with the Help of Organic Chemistry.

PubMed

Itoh, Yukihiro; Suzuki, Takayoshi

2017-01-01

The first step in "drug" discovery is to find compounds binding to a potential drug target. In modern medicinal chemistry, the screening of a chemical library, structure-based drug design, and ligand-based drug design, or a combination of these methods, are generally used for identifying the desired compounds. However, they do not necessarily lead to success and there is no infallible method for drug discovery. Therefore, it is important to explore medicinal chemistry based on not only the conventional methods but also new ideas. So far, we have found various compounds as drug candidates. In these studies, some strategies based on organic chemistry have allowed us to find drug candidates, through 1) construction of a focused library using organic reactions and 2) rational design of enzyme inhibitors based on chemical reactions catalyzed by the target enzyme. Medicinal chemistry based on organic chemical reactions could be expected to supplement the conventional methods. In this review, we present drug discovery with the help of organic chemistry showing examples of our explorative studies on histone deacetylase inhibitors and lysine-specific demethylase 1 inhibitors.

The Chemistry Teaching Program for Developing the Senior High School Students' Entrepreneurial Attitudes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Susianna, Nancy

2011-01-01

The objectives of this research were to identify the characteristics and effectiveness of chemistry teaching programs that increase students' entrepreneurial attitudes, chemistry concepts understanding and creativity. The research design application refers to the R & D (Research and Development) Design. Seventy-three senior high school students…

Networked Instructional Chemistry: Using Technology To Teach Chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Stanley; Stovall, Iris

1996-10-01

Networked multimedia microcomputers provide new ways to help students learn chemistry and to help instructors manage the learning environment. This technology is used to replace some traditional laboratory work, collect on-line experimental data, enhance lectures and quiz sections with multimedia presentations, provide prelaboratory training for beginning nonchemistry- major organic laboratory, provide electronic homework for organic chemistry students, give graduate students access to real NMR data for analysis, and provide access to molecular modeling tools. The integration of all of these activities into an active learning environment is made possible by a client-server network of hundreds of computers. This requires not only instructional software but also classroom and course management software, computers, networking, and room management. Combining computer-based work with traditional course material is made possible with software management tools that allow the instructor to monitor the progress of each student and make available an on-line gradebook so students can see their grades and class standing. This client-server based system extends the capabilities of the earlier mainframe-based PLATO system, which was used for instructional computing. This paper outlines the components of a technology center used to support over 5,000 students per semester.

Teaching High School Chemistry in the Context of Pharmacology Helps Both Teachers and Students Learn

PubMed Central

Schwartz-Bloom, Rochelle D.; Halpin, Myra J.; Reiter, Jerome P.

2014-01-01

Few studies demonstrate the impact of teaching chemistry embedded in a context that has relevance to high school students. We build upon our prior work showing that pharmacology topics (i.e., drugs), which are inherently interesting to high school students, provide a useful context for teaching chemistry and biology. In those studies, teachers were provided professional development for the Pharmacology Education Partnership (PEP) in an onsite venue (either five-day or one-day workshop). Given financial difficulties to travel, teachers have asked for alternatives for professional development. Thus, we developed the same PEP training workshop using a distance learning (DL) (two-way live video) approach. In this way, 121 chemistry and biology teachers participated in the DL workshops to learn how to incorporate the PEP modules into their teaching. They field-tested the modules over the year in high school chemistry and biology classes. Teacher knowledge of chemistry and biology increased significantly after the workshop and was maintained for at least a year. Their students (N = 2309) demonstrated a significant increase in knowledge of chemistry and biology concepts, with higher scores as the number of modules used increased. The increase in both teacher and student knowledge in these subjects was similar to that found previously when teachers were provided with onsite professional development. PMID:24882881

New Pathways for Teaching Chemistry: Reflective Judgment in Science.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finster, David C.

1992-01-01

The reflective judgment model offers a rich context for analysis of science and science teaching. It provides deeper understanding of the scientific process and its critical thinking and reveals fundamental connections between science and the other liberal arts. Classroom techniques from a college chemistry course illustrate the utility of the…

Conditions That Promote Teacher Learning for Effective Chemistry Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lythcott, Jean

2015-01-01

This article describes a professional development program that inspired some high school teachers to drastically reshape their teaching of chemistry toward a more learner-centered practice. Through interviews, they identified a freedom to explore and a sense of being trusted and respected as key aspects that supported this new approach. Rather…

Canonical Pedagogical Content Knowledge by Cores for Teaching Acid-Base Chemistry at High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alvarado, Clara; Cañada, Florentina; Garritz, Andoni; Mellado, Vicente

2015-01-01

The topic of acid-base chemistry is one of the oldest in general chemistry courses and it has been almost continuously in academic discussion. The central purpose of documenting the knowledge and beliefs of a group of ten Mexican teachers with experience in teaching acid-base chemistry in high school was to know how they design, prepare and…

Mixed-Methods Study of Online and Written Organic Chemistry Homework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malik, Kinza; Martinez, Nylvia; Romero, Juan; Schubel, Skyler; Janowicz, Philip A.

2014-01-01

Connect for organic chemistry is an online learning tool that gives students the opportunity to learn about all aspects of organic chemistry through the ease of the digital world. This research project consisted of two fundamental questions. The first was to discover whether there was a difference in undergraduate organic chemistry content…

Development of an Instrument for Assessing the Effectiveness of Chemistry Classroom Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zheng, Changlong; Fu, Lihai; He, Peng

2014-01-01

Classroom teaching is a main frontier of the implementation of new curricular ideas in China. The study reported in this article is concerned with the effectiveness of system of classroom teaching (SCT) in chemistry lessons. According to the Systems Science theory, we took a macroscopic view on the SCT, arguing that SCT is a hierarchy of system,…

Representational Translation with Concrete Models in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stull, Andrew T.; Hegarty, Mary; Dixon, Bonnie; Stieff, Mike

2012-01-01

In representation-rich domains such as organic chemistry, students must be facile and accurate when translating between different 2D representations, such as diagrams. We hypothesized that translating between organic chemistry diagrams would be more accurate when concrete models were used because difficult mental processes could be augmented by…

Problem-Based Learning in Teaching Chemistry: Enthalpy Changes in Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayyildiz, Yildizay; Tarhan, Leman

2018-01-01

Background: Problem-based learning (PBL) as a teaching strategy has recently become quite widespread in especially chemistry classes. Research has found that students, from elementary through college, have many alternative conceptions regarding "enthalpy changes in systems." Although there are several studies focused on identifying…

Advanced Organic Chemistry: Reactions and Mechanisms (by Bernard Miller)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berger, Daniel

1998-12-01

Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1998. 338 pp, index. ISBN 0-13-373275-4. $59.00. Recently several short texts on intermediate organic chemistry have been published, intended for use in one-term courses for advanced undergraduates and for graduate students who need more background before taking a graduate-level course. These books fill a need not fully met by graduate-level texts such as Lowry and Richardson's Mechanism and Theory in Organic Chemistry or Carey and Sundberg's Advanced Organic Chemistry.

Using Games To Teach Chemistry: An Annotated Bibliography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Russell, Jeanne V.

1999-04-01

A list of published or marketed games based on a chemistry motif is presented. Each game is listed according to its level, subject matter, and title. A bibliographic notation and a short description are given for each game. For Introductory/High School/General Chemistry, 45 games are listed under the subjects General Knowledge; Elements & Atomic Structure (not Symbols); Nomenclature, Formulas, & Equation Writing; Chemical Reactions: Solutions & Solubilities; and Other Subjects. Seventeen games are listed under Organic Chemistry and 4 games under Other Chemistry Games. Computer games designed for outdated computers (PDP-11, TRS-80, and Apple II) are not included.

Mass spectrometry. [in organic ion and biorganic chemistry and medicine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burlingame, A. L.; Cox, R. E.; Derrick, P. J.

1974-01-01

Review of the present status of mass spectrometry in the light of pertinent recent publications spanning the period from December 1971 to January 1974. Following an initial survey of techniques, instruments, and computer applications, a sharp distinction is made between the chemistry of organic (radical-)ions and analytical applications in biorganic chemistry and medicine. The emphasis is on the chemistry of organic (radical-)ions at the expense of inorganic, organometallic, and surface ion chemistry. Biochemistry and medicine are chosen because of their contemporary importance and because of the stupendous contributions of mass spectroscopy to these fields in the past two years. In the review of gas-phase organic ion chemistry, special attention is given to studies making significant contributions to the understanding of ion chemistry.

Love Story: Oxygen in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, John D.

1974-01-01

Significant discoveries and developments regarding oxygen and organic compounds are recounted to show that research in this specific area is worthwhile and relevant and to point out that research in other areas of organic chemistry deserves continued encouragement as well. (DT)

Teaching Organic Gardening.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reemer, Rita, Ed.

This teaching guide is designed as a text composed of factual outlines to help teachers interpret the organic method of gardening. Organized as a practical course for elementary through adult education levels, it presents examples and activities on how to plan, start, and maintain an organic garden. The first five chapters cover history and…

Incorporation of Medicinal Chemistry into the Organic Chemistry Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forbes, David C.

2004-01-01

Application of concepts presented in organic chemistry lecture using a virtual project involving the sythesis of medicinally important compounds is emphasized. The importance of reinforcing the concepts from lecture in lab, thus providing a powerful instructional means is discussed.

Measuring Meaningful Learning in the Undergraduate General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry Laboratories: A Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galloway, Kelli R.; Bretz, Stacey Lowery

2015-01-01

Understanding how students learn in the undergraduate chemistry teaching laboratory is an essential component to developing evidence-based laboratory curricula. The Meaningful Learning in the Laboratory Instrument (MLLI) was developed to measure students' cognitive and affective expectations and experiences for learning in the chemistry…

Interview: Bryce Hach--High School Chemistry Teaching Gets a Boost

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carr, Kate

2009-01-01

Science education reached the headlines of the local newspaper: "Foundation donates $33M! American Chemical Society gets support for chemistry teaching." This windfall came from the Hach Scientific Foundation in Fort Collins, Colorado. The $33 million will go to continue three programs initiated by the Hach Scientific Foundation. One…

Using a Thematic Laboratory-Centered Curriculum to Teach General Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hopkins, Todd A.; Samide, Michael

2013-01-01

This article describes an approach to general chemistry that involves teaching chemical concepts in the context of two thematic laboratory modules: environmental remediation and the fate of pharmaceuticals in the environment. These modules were designed based on active-learning pedagogies and involve multiple-week projects that dictate what…

Thalidomide Makes a Comeback: A Case Discussion Exercise That Integrates Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bennett, Nicole; Cornely, Kathleen

2001-06-01

The case discussion method, which involves teaching scientific theory in a framework that students can relate to their own world, is an interdisciplinary pedagogical tool. Therefore, case study exercises can be used to integrate biochemistry with other advanced chemistry courses. The case presented here can be used at the end of a second-semester organic chemistry course or in an introductory biochemistry course. The case is a fact-based, fictional story in which an FDA official must decide whether to carry out the agency's threat to shut down several buyers clubs that import thalidomide from overseas and dispense it to their members for the treatment of AIDS. Students are required to read the body of the case, analyze data, and search for information using limited leads. Using well-considered arguments based on their research, they are asked to come to conclusions about how the element of risk involved in thalidomide distribution is assessed. They apply their knowledge of biochemistry to assess how thalidomide acts at the cellular level and they apply their knowledge of organic chemistry in writing mechanisms of thalidomide hydrolysis and in the design of thalidomide analogs. Students are assessed on their ability to work in groups, to critically analyze scientific data, and to develop public policies based on risk-benefit analysis.

Cooperative studyware development of organic chemistry module by experts, teachers, and students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dori, Yehudit J.

1995-06-01

Experts, teachers, and students took active part in a process of organic chemistry studyware development. A unique characteristic of this process was the active involvement of three different groups of people in the authoring process: science educators, chemistry teachers, and chemistry students studying towards an education certificate. The science educators—the experts—advised the team on new methods of presenting the subject matter in an appealing way, using 3D computerized molecular modeling. The in-service chemistry teachers contributed from their rich field experience to constructing the studyware. This mutual development helped maintain the balance between expert requirements and expectations from students on one hand, and the actual student capabilities, as perceived by teachers through constant contact with the students, on the other. Finally, the preservice teachers—the undergraduate chemistry students—were often zealous, enthusiastic, and willing to put in the extra time and effort needed to produce quality studyware, while following the guidelines of the experts and teachers. Feedback on the qualities and shortcomings of the studyware was obtained in two cycles. The first one was done while the studyware was still under development by peers, and the second by individual target students, serving as a beta-site. This double feedback helped improve the studyware, mainly by elaborating on portions that require more detail and explanation. The paper describes the process as well as representative parts of the studyware. The combination of experts, teachers, and students in the development team seems to have the potential to yield studyware that is appropriate for effective science education in general and chemistry teaching in particular.

Effect of Case Studies on Primary School Teaching Students' Attitudes toward Chemistry Lesson

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayyildiz, Yildizay; Tarhan, Leman

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of case studies on Primary School Teaching students' attitudes toward chemistry lesson. The study was conducted on 63 freshmen from Department of Primary School Teaching at a university in Turkey. The students were taught using case studies about the subjects of Properties and States of…

The Significance of Implicit Knowledge for Learning and Teaching Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taber, Keith S.

2014-01-01

This article discusses the nature of implicit knowledge, something which is considered to be highly influential in learning. The notion of implicit knowledge is important in conceptualising studies exploring student thinking and learning in chemistry, and in considering how the results of such studies should be interpreted to inform teaching.…

How To Use Crystallographic Information in Teaching First-Year Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bevan, D. J. M.; And Others

1988-01-01

Emphasizes the role that crystallography plays and has played in building up the body of chemical fact. Shows how the teaching of much of this material is illuminated by reference to crystal structures and crystallochemical relationships in all areas of chemistry. Discusses close packing, silicate structures, and salt hydrates. (CW)

Understanding the Impact of a General Chemistry Course on Students' Transition to Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collins-Webb, Alexandra; Jeffery, Kathleen A.; Sweeder, Ryan D.

2016-01-01

The move from general chemistry to organic chemistry can be a challenge for students as it often involves a transition from quantitatively-oriented to mechanistically-oriented thinking. This study found that the design of the general chemistry course can change the student experience of this transition as assessed by a reflective survey. The…

Cellular uptake: lessons from supramolecular organic chemistry.

PubMed

Gasparini, Giulio; Bang, Eun-Kyoung; Montenegro, Javier; Matile, Stefan

2015-07-04

The objective of this Feature Article is to reflect on the importance of established and emerging principles of supramolecular organic chemistry to address one of the most persistent problems in life sciences. The main topic is dynamic covalent chemistry on cell surfaces, particularly disulfide exchange for thiol-mediated uptake. Examples of boronate and hydrazone exchange are added for contrast, comparison and completion. Of equal importance are the discussions of proximity effects in polyions and counterion hopping, and more recent highlights on ring tension and ion pair-π interactions. These lessons from supramolecular organic chemistry apply to cell-penetrating peptides, particularly the origin of "arginine magic" and the "pyrenebutyrate trick," and the currently emerging complementary "disulfide magic" with cell-penetrating poly(disulfide)s. They further extend to the voltage gating of neuronal potassium channels, gene transfection, and the delivery of siRNA. The collected examples illustrate that the input from conceptually innovative chemistry is essential to address the true challenges in biology beyond incremental progress and random screening.

Free Radical Addition Polymerization Kinetics without Steady-State Approximations: A Numerical Analysis for the Polymer, Physical, or Advanced Organic Chemistry Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iler, H. Darrell; Brown, Amber; Landis, Amanda; Schimke, Greg; Peters, George

2014-01-01

A numerical analysis of the free radical addition polymerization system is described that provides those teaching polymer, physical, or advanced organic chemistry courses the opportunity to introduce students to numerical methods in the context of a simple but mathematically stiff chemical kinetic system. Numerical analysis can lead students to an…

DanceChemistry: Helping Students Visualize Chemistry Concepts through Dance Videos

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tay, Gidget C.; Edwards, Kimberly D.

2015-01-01

A visual aid teaching tool, the DanceChemistry video series, has been developed to teach fundamental chemistry concepts through dance. These educational videos portray chemical interactions at the molecular level using dancers to represent chemical species. Students reported that the DanceChemistry videos helped them visualize chemistry ideas in a…

Flipping organic chemistry course: Possibilities and challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cha, J.; Kim, H. B.

2016-06-01

The flipped classroom approach was applied to an introductory organic chemistry course. A total of 76 video clips (15 hours of running time) were developed and delivered to 41 sophomores (21 females and 20 males) through Youtube in addition to the university's learning management system. The students were asked to preview the lecture contents before each class by watching a pre-class video. For in-class activities, exercise problems were presented to groups of 3-5 students. An instructor and a teaching assistant guided each group to solve problems cooperatively, monitored the students’ group activity and answered their questions. At the end of every chapter, the students were asked to evaluate their group work and personal preparedness for the class and also to write a short reflective journal. The muddiest point of each chapter, i.e., the topic posing the most difficulty to students’ understanding, was surveyed through Google Forms®. The students liked watching the videos before each class and performing student-centered, in-class group activities but a few limitations were also found and reported.

Using a Sequence of Experiments with Turmeric Pigments from Food to Teach Extraction, Distillation, and Thin-Layer Chromatography to Introductory Organic Chemistry Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

da S. F. Fagundes, Thayssa; Dutra, Karen Danielle B.; Ribeiro, Carlos Magno R.; de A. Epifanio, Rosa^ngela; Valverde, Alessandra L.

2016-01-01

This experiment encourages students to use deductive reasoning skills to understand the correlation between different techniques used in a chemistry laboratory and to extract and analyze curcuminoids using natural products and processed food from a grocery store. Turmeric pigments were used to teach continuous or discontinuous extraction, vacuum…

Problems in Teaching the Topic of Redox Reactions: Actions and Conceptions of Chemistry Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Jong, Onno; And Others

1995-01-01

Presents a case study of problems that can occur when teaching the topic of redox reactions to grade-11 students. Concludes that the teachers' scientific expertise is an important source of difficulties when teaching redox reactions. Discusses implications for improvement of current chemistry classroom practice and content-related teacher…

Vial OrganicTM-Organic Chemistry Labs for High School and Junior College

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Russo, Thomas J.; Meszaros, Mark

1999-01-01

Vial Organic is the most economical, safe, and time-effective method of performing organic chemistry experiments. Activities are carried out in low-cost, sealed vials. Vial Organic is extremely safe because only micro quantities of reactants are used, reactants are contained in tightly sealed vials, and only water baths are used for temperature control. Vial Organic laboratory activities are easily performed within one 50-minute class period. When heat is required, a simple hot-water bath is prepared from a beaker of water and an inexpensive immersion heater. The low cost, ease of use, and relatively short time requirement will allow organic chemistry to be experienced by more students with less confusion and intimidation.

Experimental interstellar organic chemistry: Preliminary findings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Khare, B. N.; Sagan, C.

1971-01-01

In a simulation of interstellar organic chemistry in dense interstellar clouds or on grain surfaces, formaldehyde, water vapor, ammonia and ethane are deposited on a quartz cold finger and ultraviolet-irradiated in high vacuum at 77K. The HCHO photolytic pathway which produces an aldehyde radical and a superthermal hydrogen atom initiates solid phase chain reactions leading to a range of new compounds, including methanol, ethanol, acetaldehyde, acetonitrile, acetone, methyl formate, and possibly formic acid. Higher nitriles are anticipated. Genetic relations among these interstellar organic molecules (e.g., the Cannizzaro and Tischenko reactions) must exist. Some of them, rather than being synthesized from smaller molecules, may be degradation products of larger organic molecules, such as hexamethylene tetramine, which are candidate consitituents of the interstellar grains. The experiments reported here may also be relevant to cometary chemistry.

A Colorful Solubility Exercise for Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shugrue, Christopher R.; Mentzen, Hans H., II; Linton, Brian R.

2015-01-01

A discovery chemistry laboratory has been developed for the introductory organic chemistry student to investigate the concepts of polarity, miscibility, solubility, and density. The simple procedure takes advantage of the solubility of two colored dyes in a series of solvents or solvent mixtures, and the diffusion of colors can be easily…

Organic chemistry in a CO2 rich early Earth atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fleury, Benjamin; Carrasco, Nathalie; Millan, Maëva; Vettier, Ludovic; Szopa, Cyril

2017-12-01

The emergence of life on the Earth has required a prior organic chemistry leading to the formation of prebiotic molecules. The origin and the evolution of the organic matter on the early Earth is not yet firmly understood. Several hypothesis, possibly complementary, are considered. They can be divided in two categories: endogenous and exogenous sources. In this work we investigate the contribution of a specific endogenous source: the organic chemistry occurring in the ionosphere of the early Earth where the significant VUV contribution of the young Sun involved an efficient formation of reactive species. We address the issue whether this chemistry can lead to the formation of complex organic compounds with CO2 as only source of carbon in an early atmosphere made of N2, CO2 and H2, by mimicking experimentally this type of chemistry using a low pressure plasma reactor. By analyzing the gaseous phase composition, we strictly identified the formation of H2O, NH3, N2O and C2N2. The formation of a solid organic phase is also observed, confirming the possibility to trigger organic chemistry in the upper atmosphere of the early Earth. The identification of Nitrogen-bearing chemical functions in the solid highlights the possibility for an efficient ionospheric chemistry to provide prebiotic material on the early Earth.

Teaching School Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waddington, D. J., Ed.

This eight-chapter book is intended for use by chemistry teachers, curriculum developers, teacher educators, and other key personnel working in the field of chemical education. The chapters are: (1) "The Changing Face of Chemistry" (J. A. Campbell); (2) "Curriculum Innovation in School Chemistry" (R. B. Ingel and A. M.…

Organic First: A Biology-Friendly Chemistry Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reingold, I. David

2005-01-01

In this essay, the author describes to biologists the advantages of organic-first curriculum, on the assumption that few biologists are regular readers of "Journal of Chemistry Education" and therefore are probably unaware of the method for integrating chemistry and biology curricula. The author begins with the assumption that the majority of…

Creating Semantic Waves: Using Legitimation Code Theory as a Tool to Aid the Teaching of Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blackie, Margaret A. L.

2014-01-01

This is a conceptual paper aimed at chemistry educators. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the use of the semantic code of Legitimation Code Theory in chemistry teaching. Chemistry is an abstract subject which many students struggle to grasp. Legitimation Code Theory provides a way of separating out abstraction from complexity both of…

Beyond "Inert" Ideas to Teaching General Chemistry from Rich Contexts: Visualizing the Chemistry of Climate Change (VC3)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahaffy, Peter G.; Holme, Thomas A.; Martin-Visscher, Leah; Martin, Brian E.; Versprille, Ashley; Kirchhoff, Mary; McKenzie, Lallie; Town, Marcy

2017-01-01

As one approach to moving beyond transmitting "inert" ideas to chemistry students, we use the term "teaching from rich contexts" to describe implementations of case studies or context-based learning based on systems thinking that provide deep and rich opportunities for learning crosscutting concepts through contexts. This…

Development and Evaluation of a Prep Course for Chemistry Graduate Teaching Assistants at a Research University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marbach-Ad, Gili; Schaefer, Kathryn L.; Kumi, Bryna C.; Friedman, Lee A.; Thompson, Katerina V.; Doyle, Michael P.

2012-01-01

This study describes the development and evaluation of a prep course for chemistry graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). The course was developed around three major goals: (i) building a community for new GTAs and socializing them into the department; (ii) modeling teaching with well-documented, innovative teaching and learning techniques; and…

Practicing What We Preach: Assessing "Critical Thinking" in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stowe, Ryan L.; Cooper, Melanie M.

2017-01-01

Organic chemistry is often promoted as a course designed to cultivate skill in scientific "ways of thinking." Expert organic chemists perceive their field as one in which plausible answers to complex questions are arrived at through analytical thought processes. They draw analogy between problem solving in organic chemistry and diagnosis…

Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory Safety

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luckenbaugh, Raymond W.

1996-11-01

Each organic chemistry student should become familiar with the educational and governmental laboratory safety requirements. One method for teaching laboratory safety is to assign each student to locate safety resources for a specific class laboratory experiment. The student should obtain toxicity and hazardous information for all chemicals used or produced during the assigned experiment. For example, what is the LD50 or LC50 for each chemical? Are there any specific hazards for these chemicals, carcinogen, mutagen, teratogen, neurotixin, chronic toxin, corrosive, flammable, or explosive agent? The school's "Chemical Hygiene Plan", "Prudent Practices for Handling Hazardous Chemicals in the Laboratory" (National Academy Press), and "Laboratory Standards, Part 1910 - Occupational Safety and Health Standards" (Fed. Register 1/31/90, 55, 3227-3335) should be reviewed for laboratory safety requirements for the assigned experiment. For example, what are the procedures for safe handling of vacuum systems, if a vacuum distillation is used in the assigned experiment? The literature survey must be submitted to the laboratory instructor one week prior to the laboratory session for review and approval. The student should then give a short presentation to the class on the chemicals' toxicity and hazards and describe the safety precautions that must be followed. This procedure gives the student first-hand knowledge on how to find and evaluate information to meet laboartory safety requirements.

Applications of the Cambridge Structural Database in organic chemistry and crystal chemistry.

PubMed

Allen, Frank H; Motherwell, W D Samuel

2002-06-01

The Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) and its associated software systems have formed the basis for more than 800 research applications in structural chemistry, crystallography and the life sciences. Relevant references, dating from the mid-1970s, and brief synopses of these papers are collected in a database, DBUse, which is freely available via the CCDC website. This database has been used to review research applications of the CSD in organic chemistry, including supramolecular applications, and in organic crystal chemistry. The review concentrates on applications that have been published since 1990 and covers a wide range of topics, including structure correlation, conformational analysis, hydrogen bonding and other intermolecular interactions, studies of crystal packing, extended structural motifs, crystal engineering and polymorphism, and crystal structure prediction. Applications of CSD information in studies of crystal structure precision, the determination of crystal structures from powder diffraction data, together with applications in chemical informatics, are also discussed.

Infusing the Chemistry Curriculum with Green Chemistry Using Real-World Examples, Web Modules, and Atom Economy in Organic Chemistry Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cann, Michael C.; Dickneider, Trudy A.

2004-01-01

Green chemistry is the awareness of the damaging environmental effects due to chemical research and inventions. There is emphasis on a need to include green chemistry in synthesis with atom economy in organic chemistry curriculum to ensure an environmentally conscious future generation of chemists, policy makers, health professionals and business…

Active Learning and Cooperative Learning in the Organic Chemistry Lecture Class

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paulson, Donald R.

1999-08-01

Faculty in the physical sciences are one of the academic groups least receptive to the use of active learning strategies and cooperative learning in their classrooms. This is particularly so in traditional lecture classes. It is the objective of this paper to show how effective these techniques can be in improving student performance in classes. The use of active learning strategies and cooperative learning groups in my organic chemistry lecture classes has increased the overall pass rate in my classes by an astounding 20-30% over the traditional lecture mode. This has been accomplished without any reduction in "standards". The actual methods employed are presented as well as a discussion of how I came to radically change the way I teach my classes.

Organic Chemistry Educators' Perspectives on Fundamental Concepts and Misconceptions: An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duis, Jennifer M.

2011-01-01

An exploratory study was conducted with 23 organic chemistry educators to discover what general chemistry concepts they typically review, the concepts they believe are fundamental to introductory organic chemistry, the topics students find most difficult in the subject, and the misconceptions they observe in undergraduate organic chemistry…

Validating the Use of Concept-Mapping as a Diagnostic Assessment Tool in Organic Chemistry: Implications for Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopez, Enrique; Kim, Jennifer; Nandagopal, Kiruthiga; Cardin, Nate; Shavelson, Richard J.; Penn, John H.

2011-01-01

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has become a key focus in the U.S. government's public education agenda. Many STEM degrees require the successful completion of undergraduate introductory organic chemistry (O-Chem), which is notorious for its difficulty and high attrition rate. Concept Maps (CM) have been used as…

The Need for Innovative Methods of Teaching and Learning Chemistry in Higher Education--Reflections from a Project of the European Chemistry Thematic Network

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eilks, Ingo; Byers, Bill

2010-01-01

This paper summarizes the work and conclusions of a working group established by the European Chemistry Thematic Network (ECTN). The aim of the working group was to identify potential areas for innovative approaches to the teaching and learning of chemistry in Higher Education, and to survey good practice throughout the EU. The paper starts by…

Organic nutrient chemistry and the marine microbiome

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Repeta, Daniel J.; Boiteau, Rene M.

Vast expanses of the ocean are characterized by extraordinarily low concentrations of nutrients but nevertheless support vibrant communities of marine microbes. In aggregate, these communities drive many of the important elemental cycles that sustain life on Earth. Microbial communities are organized to maximize nutrient and energy transfer between cells, and efficiently recycle organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and trace metals. Energy and nutrient transfer occurs across a broad range of spatial scales. Large-sized marine algae and bacteria support epibiont communities that are physically in contact, exchanging nutrients and energy across cell membranes, while other communities that are physically far apart, relymore » on the horizontal mixing of ocean currents or the vertical pull of gravity to transfer nutrient and energy containing organic matter. Marine organic geochemists are making rapid progress in understanding the chemistry of the marine microbiome. These advances have benefited from parallel developments in analytical chemistry, microbial isolation and culture techniques, and advances in microbial genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics. The combination of all three approaches has proven to be quite powerful. Here we highlight two aspects of the chemistry of organic phosphorus and trace metal cycling and the marine microbiome. In each study, advances in chemical analyses, microbial culture, and microbial genomics played key roles in understanding how microbial communities interact to facilitate nutrient cycling in the open ocean.« less

Investigating Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers' Problem Solving Strategies: Towards Developing a Framework in Teaching Stoichiometry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Espinosa, Allen A.; Nueva España, Rebecca C.; Marasigan, Arlyne C.

2016-01-01

The present study investigated pre-service chemistry teachers' problem solving strategies and alternative conceptions in solving stoichiometric problems and later on formulate a teaching framework based from the result of the study. The pre-service chemistry teachers were given four stoichiometric problems with increasing complexity and they need…

Gender Differences in Cognitive and Noncognitive Factors Related to Achievement in Organic Chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turner, Ronna C.; Lindsay, Harriet A.

2003-05-01

For many college students in the sciences, organic chemistry poses a difficult challenge. Indeed, success in organic chemistry has proven pivotal in the careers of a vast number of students in a variety of science disciplines. A better understanding of the factors that contribute to achievement in this course should contribute to efforts to increase the number of students in the science disciplines. Further, an awareness of gender differences in factors associated with achievement should aid efforts to bolster the participation of women in chemistry and related disciplines. Using a correlation research design, the individual relationships between organic chemistry achievement and each of several cognitive variables and noncognitive variables were assessed. In addition, the relationships between organic chemistry achievement and combinations of these independent variables were explored. Finally, gender- and instructor-related differences in the relationships between organic chemistry achievement and the independent variables were investigated. Cognitive variables included the second-semester general chemistry grade, the ACT English, math, reading, and science-reasoning scores, and scores from a spatial visualization test. Noncognitive variables included anxiety, confidence, effectance motivation, and usefulness. The second-semester general chemistry grade was found to be the best indicator of performance in organic chemistry, while the effectiveness of other predictors varied between instructors. In addition, gender differences were found in the explanations of organic chemistry achievement variance provided by this study. In general, males exhibited stronger correlations between predictor variables and organic chemistry achievement than females.

Factors related to achievement in sophomore organic chemistry at the University of Arkansas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lindsay, Harriet Arlene

The purpose of this study was to identify the significant cognitive and non-cognitive variables that related to achievement in the first semester of organic chemistry at the University of Arkansas. Cognitive variables included second semester general chemistry grade, ACT composite score, ACT English, mathematics, reading, and science reasoning subscores, and spatial ability. Non-cognitive variables included anxiety, confidence, effectance motivation, and usefulness. Using a correlation research design, the individual relationships between organic chemistry achievement and each of the cognitive variables and non-cognitive variables were assessed. In addition, the relationships between organic chemistry achievement and combinations of these independent variables were explored. Finally, gender- and instructor-related differences in the relationships between organic chemistry achievement and the independent variables were investigated. The samples consisted of volunteers from the Fall 1999 and Fall 2000 sections of Organic Chemistry I at the University of Arkansas. All students in each section were asked to participate. Data for spatial ability and non-cognitive independent variables were collected using the Purdue Visualization of Rotations test and the modified Fennema-Sherman Attitude Scales. Data for other independent variables, including ACT scores and second semester general chemistry grades, were obtained from the Office of Institutional Research. The dependent variable, organic chemistry achievement, was measured by each student's accumulated points in the course and consisted of scores on quizzes and exams in the lecture section only. These totals were obtained from the lecture instructor at the end of each semester. Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to measure the relationships between organic chemistry achievement and the independent variables. Prior performance in chemistry as measured by second semester general

Organic Chemistry Trivia: A Way to Interest Nonchemistry Majors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farmer, Steven C.

2011-01-01

The use of in-class stories is an excellent way to keep a class interested in subject matter. Many organic chemistry classes are populated by nonchemistry majors, such as pre-med, pre-pharm, and biology students. Trivia questions are presented that are designed to show how organic chemistry is an important subject to students regardless of their…

Greening a Chemistry Teaching Methods Course at the School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karpudewan, Mageswary; Hj Ismail, Zurida; Mohamed, Norita

2011-01-01

Green chemistry is the design, development and implementation of chemical products and processes to reduce or eliminate the use of sub-stances hazardous to human health and the environment. This article reports on the integration of green chemistry and sustainable development concepts (SDCs) into an existing teaching methods course for chemistry…

11(th) National Meeting of Organic Chemistry and 4(th) Meeting of Therapeutic Chemistry.

PubMed

Sousa, Maria Emília; Araújo, Maria João; do Vale, Maria Luísa; Andrade, Paula B; Branco, Paula; Gomes, Paula; Moreira, Rui; Pinho E Melo, Teresa M V D; Freitas, Victor

2016-03-17

For the first time under the auspices of Sociedade Portuguesa de Química, the competences of two important fields of Chemistry are brought together into a single event, the 11st National Organic Chemistry Meeting and the the 4th National Medicinal Chemistry Meeting, to highlight complementarities and to promote new synergies. Abstracts of plenary lectures, oral communications, and posters presented during the meeting are collected in this report.

Problem-based learning in teaching chemistry: enthalpy changes in systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ayyildiz, Yildizay; Tarhan, Leman

2018-01-01

Problem-based learning (PBL) as a teaching strategy has recently become quite widespread in especially chemistry classes. Research has found that students, from elementary through college, have many alternative conceptions regarding enthalpy changes in systems. Although there are several studies focused on identifying student alternative conceptions and misunderstandings of this subject, studies on preventing the formation of these alternative conceptions are limited.

Teaching Assistants' Perceptions of a Training to Support an Inquiry-Based General Chemistry Laboratory Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wheeler, Lindsay B.; Maeng, Jennifer L.; Whitworth, Brooke A.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to better understand teaching assistants' (TAs') perceptions of training in a guided inquiry undergraduate general chemistry laboratory context. The training was developed using existing TA training literature and informed by situated learning theory. TAs engaged in training prior to teaching (~25…

Radiation Chemistry in Organized Assemblies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, J. K.; Chen, T. S.

1981-01-01

Expands the basic concepts regarding the radiation chemistry of simple aqueous systems to more complex, but well defined, organized assemblies. Discusses the differences in behavior in comparison to simple systems. Reviews these techniques: pulse radiolysis, laser flash, photolysis, and steady state irradiation by gamma rays or light. (CS)

"No one does this for fun": Contextualization and process writing in an organic chemistry laboratory course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gay, Andrea

This study investigated the introduction of curriculum innovations into an introductory organic chemistry laboratory course. Pre-existing experiments in a traditional course were re-written in a broader societal context. Additionally, a new laboratory notebook methodology was introduced, using the Decision/Explanation/Observation/Inference (DEOI) format that required students to explicitly describe the purpose of procedural steps and the meanings of observations. Experts in organic chemistry, science writing, and chemistry education examined the revised curriculum and deemed it appropriate. The revised curriculum was introduced into two sections of organic chemistry laboratory at Columbia University. Field notes were taken during the course, students and teaching assistants were interviewed, and completed student laboratory reports were examined to ascertain the impact of the innovations. The contextualizations were appreciated for making the course more interesting; for lending a sense of purpose to the study of chemistry; and for aiding in students' learning. Both experts and students described a preference for more extensive connections between the experiment content and the introduced context. Generally, students preferred the DEOI method to journal-style laboratory reports believing it to be more efficient and more focused on thinking than stylistic formalities. The students claimed that the DEOI method aided their understanding of the experiments and helped scaffold their thinking, though some students thought that the method was over-structured and disliked the required pre-laboratory work. The method was used in two distinct manners; recursively writing and revising as intended and concept contemplation only after experiment completion. The recursive use may have been influenced by TA attitudes towards the revisions and seemed to engender a sense of preparedness. Students' engagement with the contextualizations and the DEOI method highlight the need for

Photoredox Catalysis in Organic Chemistry

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

In recent years, photoredox catalysis has come to the forefront in organic chemistry as a powerful strategy for the activation of small molecules. In a general sense, these approaches rely on the ability of metal complexes and organic dyes to convert visible light into chemical energy by engaging in single-electron transfer with organic substrates, thereby generating reactive intermediates. In this Perspective, we highlight the unique ability of photoredox catalysis to expedite the development of completely new reaction mechanisms, with particular emphasis placed on multicatalytic strategies that enable the construction of challenging carbon–carbon and carbon–heteroatom bonds. PMID:27477076

The Khat and Meow Meow Tale: Teaching the Relevance of Chemistry through Novel Recreational Drugs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fergus, Suzanne; Kellett, Kathryn; Gerhard, Ute

2015-01-01

Using current research and real-life scenarios to motivate students to understand chemistry principles is a key strategy in learning and teaching. An illustration of psychoactive drugs referred to as "legal highs" used in the U.K. and Europe is presented to highlight key chemistry principles and relate the importance of chemistry…

How Important are the Laws of Definite and Multiple Proportions in Chemistry and Teaching Chemistry? A History and Philosophy of Science Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niaz, Mansoor

The main objectives of this study are:(1) to elaborate a framework based on a rational reconstruction of developments that led to the formulation of the laws of definite and multiple proportions; (2) to ascertain students' views of the two laws; (3) to formulate criteria based on the framework for evaluating chemistry textbooks' treatment of the two laws; and (4) to provide a rationale for chemistry teachers to respond to the question: Can we teach chemistry without the laws of definite and multiple proportions? Results obtained show that most of the textbooks present the laws of definite and multiple proportions within an inductivist perspective, characterized by the following sequence: experimental findings showed that chemical elements combined in fixed/multiple proportions, followed by the formulation of the laws of definite and multiple proportions, and finally Dalton's atomic theory was postulated to explain the laws. Students were found to be reluctant to question the laws that they learnt as the building blocks of chemistry. It is concluded that by emphasizing the laws of definite and multiple proportions, textbooks inevitably endorse the dichotomy between theories and laws, which is questioned by philosophers of science (Lakatos 1970; Giere 1995a, b). An alternative approach is presented which shows that we can teach chemistry without the laws of definite and multiple proportions.

Assessing Student Knowledge of Chemistry and Climate Science Concepts Associated with Climate Change: Resources to Inform Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Versprille, Ashley; Zabih, Adam; Holme, Thomas A.; McKenzie, Lallie; Mahaffy, Peter; Martin, Brian; Towns, Marcy

2017-01-01

Climate change is one of the most critical problems facing citizens today. Chemistry faculty are presented with the problem of making general chemistry content simultaneously relevant and interesting. Using climate science to teach chemistry allows faculty to help students learn chemistry content in a rich context. Concepts related to…

11th National Meeting of Organic Chemistry and 4th Meeting of Therapeutic Chemistry

PubMed Central

Sousa, Maria Emília; Araújo, Maria João; do Vale, Maria Luísa; Andrade, Paula B.; Branco, Paula; Gomes, Paula; Moreira, Rui; Pinho e Melo, Teresa M.V.D.; Freitas, Victor

2016-01-01

For the first time under the auspices of Sociedade Portuguesa de Química, the competences of two important fields of Chemistry are brought together into a single event, the 11st National Organic Chemistry Meeting and the the 4th National Medicinal Chemistry Meeting, to highlight complementarities and to promote new synergies. Abstracts of plenary lectures, oral communications, and posters presented during the meeting are collected in this report. PMID:27102166

Creatine Synthesis: An Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Andri L.; Tan, Paula

2006-01-01

Students in introductory chemistry classes typically appreciate seeing the connection between course content and the "real world". For this reason, we have developed a synthesis of creatine monohydrate--a popular supplement used in sports requiring short bursts of energy--for introductory organic chemistry laboratory courses. Creatine monohydrate…

Chemistry Rocks: Redox Chemistry as a Geologic Tool.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Mary Sue

2001-01-01

Applies chemistry to earth science, uses rocks in chemistry laboratories, and teaches about transition metal chemistry, oxidation states, and oxidation-reduction reactions from firsthand experiences. (YDS)

Potential Changes in Prospective Chemistry Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching and Learning--A Cross-Level Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Markic, Silvija; Eilks, Ingo

2013-01-01

This paper presents a cross-level study of German student teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning chemistry. It covers different stages of their teacher training program. The study is based upon drawings of teaching situations, which were analyzed using an evaluation pattern developed using grounded theory. The qualitative scales analyze…

Students' Understanding of Alkyl Halide Reactions in Undergraduate Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cruz-Ramirez de Arellano, Daniel

2013-01-01

Organic chemistry is an essential subject for many undergraduate students completing degrees in science, engineering, and pre-professional programs. However, students often struggle with the concepts and skills required to successfully solve organic chemistry exercises. Since alkyl halides are traditionally the first functional group that is…

Evaluating the Impact of the "Teaching as a Chemistry Laboratory Graduate Teaching Assistant" Program on Cognitive and Psychomotor Verbal Interactions in the Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flaherty, A.; O'Dwyer, A.; Mannix-McNamara, P.; Leahy, J. J.

2017-01-01

Designing and evaluating teacher development programs for graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) who teach in the laboratory is a prominent feature of chemistry education research. However, few studies have investigated the impact of a GTA teacher development program on the verbal interactions between participating GTAs and students in the…

Impact of STS (Context-Based Type of Teaching) in Comparison With a Textbook Approach on Attitudes and Achievement in Community College Chemistry Classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perkins, Gita

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of a context-based teaching approach (STS) versus a more traditional textbook approach on the attitudes and achievement of community college chemistry students. In studying attitudes toward chemistry within this study, I used a 30-item Likert scale in order to study the importance of chemistry in students' lives, the importance of chemistry, the difficulty of chemistry, interest in chemistry, and the usefulness of chemistry for their future career. Though the STS approach students had higher attitude post scores, there was no significant difference between the STS and textbook students' attitude post scores. It was noted that females had higher postattitude scores in the STS group, while males had higher postattitude scores in the textbook group. With regard to postachievement, I noted that males had higher scores in both groups. A correlation existed between postattitude and postachievement in the STS classroom. In summary, while an association between attitude and achievement was found in the STS classroom, teaching approach or sex was not found to influence attitudes, while sex was also not found to influence achievement. These results, overall, suggest that attitudes are not expected to change on the basis of either teaching approach or gender, and that techniques other than changing the teaching approach would need to be used in order to improve the attitudes of students. Qualitative analysis of an online discussion activity on Energy revealed that STS students were able to apply aspects of chemistry in decision making related to socioscientific issues. Additional analysis of interview and written responses provided insight regarding attitudes toward chemistry, with respect to topics of applicability of chemistry to life, difficulties with chemistry, teaching approach for chemistry, and the intent for enrolling in additional chemistry courses. In addition, the surveys of female students brought out

Concept-Oriented Task Design: Making Purposeful Case Comparisons in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graulich, Nicole; Schween, Michael

2018-01-01

Acquiring conceptual understanding seems to be one of the main challenges students face when studying organic chemistry. Traditionally, organic chemistry presents an extensive variety of chemical transformations, which often lead students to recall an organic transformation rather than apply conceptual knowledge. Strong surface level focus and…

Profiles in chemistry: a historical perspective on the national organic symposium.

PubMed

Fenlon, Edward E; Myers, Brian J

2013-06-21

This perspective delineates the history of the National Organic Chemistry Symposium (NOS) and, in doing so, traces the development of organic chemistry over the past 88 years. The NOS is the premier event sponsored by the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry (ORGN) and has been held in odd-numbered years since 1925, with the exceptions of 1943 and 1945. During the 42 symposia, 332 chemists have given 549 plenary lectures. The role the NOS played in the launch of The Journal of Organic Chemistry and Organic Reactions and the initiation of the Roger Adams Award are discussed. Representative examples highlighting the chemistry presented in each era are described, and the evolution of the field is examined by assigning each NOS talk to one of seven subdisciplines and analyzing how the number of talks in each subdiscipline has changed over time. Comparisons of the demographics of speakers, attendees, and ORGN members are made, and superlatives are noted. Personal interest stories of the speakers are discussed, along with the relationships among them, especially their academic lineage. Logistical aspects of the NOS and their historical trends are reviewed. Finally, the human side of science is examined, where over the past century, the NOS has been intertwined with some of the most heated debates in organic chemistry. Conflicts and controversies involving free radicals, reaction mechanisms, and nonclassical carbocations are discussed.

Newer Reagents in Preparative Organic Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grundy, J.

1990-01-01

Outlined is the development and use of oxidants for use in elementary organic chemistry classes. Discussed is the oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds, and the oxidation of primary alcohols or aldehydes to carboxylic acids. (CW)

1980 Survey of Faculty Teaching in Departments of Medicinal/Pharmaceutical Chemistry at American Colleges of Pharmacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matuszak, Alice Jean; Sarnoff, Darwin

1981-01-01

An American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy survey of medicinal/pharmaceutical chemistry faculty is reported. Data, including academic and experience backgrounds of faculty and their teaching load, are presented. Differences in training are noted in comparing the average chemistry professor to the average assistant professor. (Author/MLW)

Chemistry Teachers' Views on Teaching "Climate Change"--An Interview Case Study from Research-Oriented Learning in Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feierabend, Timo; Jokmin, Sebastian; Eilks, Ingo

2011-01-01

This paper presents a case study from research-oriented learning in chemistry teacher education. The study evaluates the views of twenty experienced German chemistry teachers about the teaching of climate change in chemistry education. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews about the teachers' experiences and their views about…

We Don't Get Any Training: The Impact of a Professional Development Model on Teaching Practices of Chemistry and Biology Graduate Teaching Assistants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mutambuki, Jacinta M.; Schwartz, Renee

2018-01-01

This study investigated the implementation of best teaching practices by science graduate teaching assistants [GTAs] (3 chemists and 2 biologists) in five inquiry-based, interdisciplinary chemistry-biology experiments during a six-week professional development (PD) program, Engage PD. Additionally, we examined GTAs' experiences in implementing…

Modules for Introducing Organometallic Reactions: A Bridge between Organic and Inorganic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaller, Chris P.; Graham, Kate J.; Johnson, Brian J.

2015-01-01

Transition metal organometallic reactions have become increasingly important in the synthesis of organic molecules. A new approach has been developed to introduce organometallic chemistry, along with organic and inorganic chemistry, at the foundational level. This change highlights applications of organometallic chemistry that have dramatically…

Techniques To Enhance Instructors' Teaching Effectiveness with Chemistry Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Supalo, Cary

2005-10-01

This paper describes techniques developed as solutions to problems encountered while teaching blind or visually impaired students in chemistry courses at high school and postsecondary levels. Establishing and maintaining a sound student instructor relationship is critical to the success and implementation of a plan of action for blind or visually impaired students enrolled in chemistry courses.

Setting a Standard for Chemistry Education in the Next Generation: A Retrosynthetic Analysis

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

A diverse and highly qualified chemistry teaching workforce is critical for preparing equally diverse, qualified STEM professionals. Here, we analyze National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) data to provide a demographic comparison of the U.S. secondary chemistry teaching population in high-needs and non-high-needs public schools as well as private schools during the 2011–2012 academic year. Our analysis reveals that the chemistry teaching workforce is predominantly white and significantly lacks in-field degrees or certification across school types, though high-needs and private schools are most affected by this lack of teacher qualification. Given these results, we attempt to retrosynthetically identify the pathway yielding a qualified chemistry teaching workforce to draw attention to the various steps in this scheme where reform efforts on the part of individual faculty, academic institutions, and organizations can be concentrated. PMID:27924311

Setting a Standard for Chemistry Education in the Next Generation: A Retrosynthetic Analysis.

PubMed

Rushton, Gregory T; Dewar, Andrew; Ray, Herman E; Criswell, Brett A; Shah, Lisa

2016-11-23

A diverse and highly qualified chemistry teaching workforce is critical for preparing equally diverse, qualified STEM professionals. Here, we analyze National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) data to provide a demographic comparison of the U.S. secondary chemistry teaching population in high-needs and non-high-needs public schools as well as private schools during the 2011-2012 academic year. Our analysis reveals that the chemistry teaching workforce is predominantly white and significantly lacks in-field degrees or certification across school types, though high-needs and private schools are most affected by this lack of teacher qualification. Given these results, we attempt to retrosynthetically identify the pathway yielding a qualified chemistry teaching workforce to draw attention to the various steps in this scheme where reform efforts on the part of individual faculty, academic institutions, and organizations can be concentrated.

Students' perception of an integrated approach of teaching entire sequence of medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmacotherapeutics courses in PharmD curriculum.

PubMed

Islam, Mohammed A; Schweiger, Teresa A

2015-04-01

To develop an integrated approach of teaching medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmacotherapeutics and to evaluate students' perceptions of integration as they progress through the PharmD curriculum. Instructors from each discipline jointly mapped the course contents and sequenced the course delivery based on organ systems/disease states. Medicinal chemistry and pharmacology contents were integrated and aligned with respective pharmacotherapeutics contents to deliver throughout second and third year of the curriculum. In addition to classroom lectures, active learning strategies such as recitation, case studies, online-discussion boards, open book quizzes, and writing patient progress notes were incorporated to enhance student learning. Student learning was assessed by examination scores, patient progress notes, and writing assignments. The impact of course integration was evaluated by a Web-based survey. One hundred and sixty-nine students completed the survey. Students exhibited positive attitude toward the integrated approach of teaching medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and therapeutics. The P3 and P4 students better appreciated the benefits of integration compared to P2 students (P < .05). Students perceived the course integration as an effective way of learning. This study supports course improvement and the viability of expanding the concept of integration to other courses in the curriculum. © The Author(s) 2014.

Using the Plan View to Teach Basic Crystallography in General Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cushman, Cody V.; Linford, Matthew R.

2015-01-01

The plan view is used in crystallography and materials science to show the positions of atoms in crystal structures. However, it is not widely used in teaching general chemistry. In this contribution, we introduce the plan view, and show these views for the simple cubic, body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic, hexagonal close packed, CsCl, NaCl,…

Jordanian Prospective and Experienced Chemistry Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching and Learning and Their Potential Role for Educational Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Amoush, Siham A.; Markic, Silvija; Abu-Hola, Imfadi; Eilks, Ingo

2011-01-01

This paper presents an exploratory study of Jordanian chemistry student teachers' and experienced teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning. Different instruments were used, focusing on different aspects of teaching and learning. The first instrument is based on teachers' and students' drawings of teaching situations. It includes open…

Designing an educative curriculum unit for teaching molecular geometry in high school chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Makarious, Nader N.

Chemistry is a highly abstract discipline that is taught and learned with the aid of various models. Among the most challenging, yet a fundamental topic in general chemistry at the high school level, is molecular geometry. This study focused on developing exemplary educative curriculum materials pertaining to the topic of molecular geometry. The methodology used in this study consisted of several steps. First, a diverse set of models were analyzed to determine to what extent each model serves its purpose in teaching molecular geometry. Second, a number of high school teachers and college chemistry professors were asked to share their experiences on using models in teaching molecular geometry through an online questionnaire. Third, findings from the comparative analysis of models, teachers’ experiences, literature review on models and students’ misconceptions, the curriculum expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards and their emphasis on three-dimensional learning and nature of science (NOS) contributed to the development of the molecular geometry unit. Fourth, the developed unit was reviewed by fellow teachers and doctoral-level science education experts and was revised to further improve its coherence and clarity in support of teaching and learning of the molecular geometry concepts. The produced educative curriculum materials focus on the scientific practice of developing and using models as promoted in the Next Generations Science Standards (NGSS) while also addressing nature of science (NOS) goals. The educative features of the newly developed unit support teachers’ pedagogical knowledge (PK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The unit includes an overview, teacher’s guide, and eight detailed lesson plans with inquiry oriented modeling activities replete with models and suggestions for teachers, as well as formative and summative assessment tasks. The unit design process serves as a model for redesigning other instructional units in

Organic chemistry and biology of the interstellar medium

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sagan, C.

1973-01-01

Interstellar organic chemistry is discussed as the field of study emerging from the discovery of microwave lines of formaldehyde and of hydrogen cyanide in the interstellar medium. The reliability of molecular identifications and comparisons of interstellar and cometary compounds are considered, along with the degradational origin of simple organics. It is pointed out that the contribution of interstellar organic chemistry to problems in biology is not substantive but analogical. The interstellar medium reveals the operation of chemical processes which, on earth and perhaps on vast numbers of planets throughout the universe, led to the origin of life, but the actual molecules of the interstellar medium are unlikely to play any significant biological role.

Modeling the Explicit Chemistry of Anthropogenic and Biogenic Organic Aerosols

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Madronich, Sasha

2015-12-09

The atmospheric burden of Secondary Organic Aerosols (SOA) remains one of the most important yet uncertain aspects of the radiative forcing of climate. This grant focused on improving our quantitative understanding of SOA formation and evolution, by developing, applying, and improving a highly detailed model of atmospheric organic chemistry, the Generation of Explicit Chemistry and Kinetics of Organics in the Atmosphere (GECKO-A) model. Eleven (11) publications have resulted from this grant.

Incorporating Service-Learning, Technology, and Research Supportive Teaching Techniques into the University Chemistry Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saitta, E. K. H.; Bowdon, M. A.; Geiger, C. L.

2011-12-01

Technology was integrated into service-learning activities to create an interactive teaching method for undergraduate students at a large research institution. Chemistry students at the University of Central Florida partnered with high school students at Crooms Academy of Information Technology in interactive service learning projects. The projects allowed UCF students to teach newly acquired content knowledge and build upon course lecture and lab exercises. Activities utilized the web-conferencing tool Adobe Connect Pro to enable interaction with high school students, many of whom have limited access to supplemental educational opportunities due to low socioeconomic status. Seventy chemistry I students created lessons to clarify high school students' misconceptions through the use of refutational texts. In addition, 21 UCF students enrolled in the chemistry II laboratory course acted as virtual lab partners with Crooms students in an interactive guided inquiry experiment focused on chemical kinetics. An overview of project's design, implementation, and assessments are detailed in the case study and serve as a model for future community partnerships. Emerging technologies are emphasized as well as a suggested set of best practices for future projects.

The Chemistry of Curcumin, the Health Promoting Ingredient in Turmeric

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dewprashad, Brahmadeo

2010-01-01

Case studies pertaining to the health benefits of foods can be particularly effective in engaging students and in teaching core concepts in science (Heidemann and Urquart 2005). This case study focuses on the chemistry of curcumin, the health-promoting ingredient in turmeric. The case was developed to review core concepts in organic chemistry and…

Implementing a Student-Designed Green Chemistry Laboratory Project in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graham, Kate J.; Jones, T. Nicholas; Schaller, Chris P.; McIntee, Edward J.

2014-01-01

A multiweek organic chemistry laboratory project is described that emphasizes sustainable practices in experimental design. An emphasis on student-driven development of the project is meant to mirror the independent nature of research. Students propose environmentally friendly modifications of several reactions. With instructor feedback, students…

Development and analysis of educational technologies for a blended organic chemistry course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, Michael James

Blended courses incorporate elements of both face-to-face and online instruction. The extent to which blended courses are conducted online, and the proper role of the online components of blended courses, have been debated and may vary. What can be said in general, however, is that online tools for blended courses are typically culled together from a variety of sources, are often very large scale, and may present distractions for students that decrease their utility as teaching tools. Furthermore, large-scale educational technologies may not be amenable to rigorous, detailed study, limiting evaluation of their effectiveness. Small-scale educational technologies run from the instructor's own server have the potential to mitigate many of these issues. Such tools give the instructor or researcher direct access to all available data, facilitating detailed analysis of student use. Code modification is simple and rapid if errors arise, since code is stored where the instructor can easily access it. Finally, the design of a small-scale tool can target a very specific application. With these ideas in mind, this work describes several projects aimed at exploring the use of small-scale, web-based software in a blended organic chemistry course. A number of activities were developed and evaluated using the Student Assessment of Learning Gains survey, and data from the activities were analyzed using quantitative methods of statistics and social network analysis methods. Findings from this work suggest that small-scale educational technologies provide significant learning benefits for students of organic chemistry---with the important caveat that instructors must offer appropriate levels of technical and pedagogical support for students. Most notably, students reported significant learning gains from activities that included collaborative learning supported by novel online tools. For the particular context of organic chemistry, which has a unique semantic language (Lewis

Benchmarking Problems Used in Second Year Level Organic Chemistry Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raker, Jeffrey R.; Towns, Marcy H.

2010-01-01

Investigations of the problem types used in college-level general chemistry examinations have been reported in this Journal and were first reported in the "Journal of Chemical Education" in 1924. This study extends the findings from general chemistry to the problems of four college-level organic chemistry courses. Three problem…

Teaching Three-Dimensional Structural Chemistry Using Crystal Structure Databases. 2. Teaching Units that Utilize an Interactive Web-Accessible Subset of the Cambridge Structural Database

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Battle, Gary M.; Allen, Frank H.; Ferrence, Gregory M.

2010-01-01

A series of online interactive teaching units have been developed that illustrate the use of experimentally measured three-dimensional (3D) structures to teach fundamental chemistry concepts. The units integrate a 500-structure subset of the Cambridge Structural Database specially chosen for their pedagogical value. The units span a number of key…

Visualizing the Chemistry of Climate Change (VC3Chem): Online resources for teaching and learning chemistry through the rich context of climate science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKenzie, L.; Versprille, A.; Towns, M.; Mahaffy, P.; Martin, B.; Kirchhoff, M.

2013-12-01

Global climate change is one of the most pressing environmental challenges facing humanity. Many of the important underlying concepts require mental models that are built on a fundamental understanding of chemistry, yet connections to climate science and global climate change are largely missing from undergraduate chemistry courses for science majors. In Visualizing the Chemistry of Climate Change (VC3Chem), we have developed and piloted a set of online modules that addresses this gap by teaching core chemistry concepts through the rich context of climate science. These interactive web-based digital learning experiences enable students to learn about isotopes and their relevance in determining historical temperature records, IR absorption by greenhouse gases, and acid/base chemistry and the impacts on changing ocean pH. The efficacy of these tools and this approach has been assessed through measuring changes in students' understanding about both climate change and core chemistry concepts.

Learning How to Teach Chemistry with Technology: Pre-Service Teachers' Experiences with Integrating Technology into Their Learning and Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chittleborough, Gail

2014-01-01

The Australian Government initiative, Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF), was a targeted response to improve the preparation of future teachers with integrating technology into their practice. This paper reports on TTF research involving 28 preservice teachers undertaking a chemistry curriculum studies unit that adopted a technological focus.…

An Experienced Chemistry Teacher's Practical Knowledge of Teaching with Practical Work: The PCK Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wei, Bing; Liu, Hao

2018-01-01

We have examined an experienced chemistry teacher's pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of teaching with practical work in China. Based on the well-known PCK model by Magnusson S. J., Krajcik J. and Borko H., (1999), "Nature, sources, and development of pedagogical content knowledge for science teaching," in Gess-Newsome J. and Lederman…

Students' Understanding of Alkyl Halide Reactions in Undergraduate Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cruz-Ramírez de Arellano, Daniel; Towns, Marcy H.

2014-01-01

Organic chemistry is an essential subject for many undergraduate students completing degrees in science, engineering, and pre-professional programs. However, students often struggle with the concepts and skills required to successfully solve organic chemistry exercises. Since alkyl halides are traditionally the first functional group that is…

Supramolecular chemistry: from molecular information towards self-organization and complex matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lehn, Jean-Marie

2004-03-01

Molecular chemistry has developed a wide range of very powerful procedures for constructing ever more sophisticated molecules from atoms linked by covalent bonds. Beyond molecular chemistry lies supramolecular chemistry, which aims at developing highly complex chemical systems from components interacting via non-covalent intermolecular forces. By the appropriate manipulation of these interactions, supramolecular chemistry became progressively the chemistry of molecular information, involving the storage of information at the molecular level, in the structural features, and its retrieval, transfer, and processing at the supramolecular level, through molecular recognition processes operating via specific interactional algorithms. This has paved the way towards apprehending chemistry also as an information science. Numerous receptors capable of recognizing, i.e. selectively binding, specific substrates have been developed, based on the molecular information stored in the interacting species. Suitably functionalized receptors may perform supramolecular catalysis and selective transport processes. In combination with polymolecular organization, recognition opens ways towards the design of molecular and supramolecular devices based on functional (photoactive, electroactive, ionoactive, etc) components. A step beyond preorganization consists in the design of systems undergoing self-organization, i.e. systems capable of spontaneously generating well-defined supramolecular architectures by self-assembly from their components. Self-organization processes, directed by the molecular information stored in the components and read out at the supramolecular level through specific interactions, represent the operation of programmed chemical systems. They have been implemented for the generation of a variety of discrete functional architectures of either organic or inorganic nature. Self-organization processes also give access to advanced supramolecular materials, such as

Organic chemistry on Titan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chang, S.; Scattergood, T.; Aronowitz, S.; Flores, J.

1978-01-01

Observations of nonequilibrium phenomena on the Saturn satellite Titan indicate the occurrence of organic chemical evolution. Greenhouse and thermal inversion models of Titan's atmosphere provide environmental constraints within which various pathways for organic chemical synthesis are assessed. Experimental results and theoretical modeling studies suggest that the organic chemistry of the satellite may be dominated by two atmospheric processes: energetic-particle bombardment and photochemistry. Reactions initiated in various levels of the atmosphere by cosmic ray, Saturn wind, and solar wind particle bombardment of a CH4 - N2 atmospheric mixture can account for the C2-hydrocarbons, the UV-visible-absorbing stratospheric haze, and the reddish color of the satellite. Photochemical reactions of CH4 can also account for the presence of C2-hydrocarbons. In the lower Titan atmosphere, photochemical processes will be important if surface temperatures are sufficiently high for gaseous NH3 to exist. Hot H-atom reactions initiated by photo-dissociation of NH3 can couple the chemical reactions of NH3 and CH4 and produce organic matter.

Synthesis and Self-Assembly of the "Tennis Ball" Dimer and Subsequent Encapsulation of Methane. An Advanced Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hof, Fraser; Palmer, Liam C.; Rebek, Julius, Jr.

2001-11-01

While important to the biological and materials sciences, noncovalent interactions, self-folding, and self-assembly often receive little discussion in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. The synthesis and NMR characterization of a molecular "tennis ball" in an advanced undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory is a simple and effective way to introduce the relevance of these concepts. In appropriate solvents, the monomer dimerizes through a seam of eight hydrogen bonds with encapsulation of a guest molecule and symmetry reminiscent of a tennis ball. The entire experiment can be completed in three lab periods, however large-scale synthetic preparation of the starting monomer by a teaching assistant would reduce the laboratory to a single lab period for NMR studies.

Semiempirical and ab initio Calculations of Charged Species Used in the Physical Organic Chemistry Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilliom, Richard D.

1989-01-01

Concentrates on the semiempirical methods MINDO/3, MNDO, and AMI available in the program AMPAC from the Quantum Chemistry Program Exchange at Indiana University. Uses charged ions in the teaching of computational chemistry. Finds that semiempirical methods are accurate enough for the general use of the bench chemist. (MVL)

The Effectiveness of Substituting Locally Available Materials in Teaching Chemistry in Nigeria: A Case for Science Education in Developing Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DomNwachukwu, Nkechi S.; DomNwachukwu, Chinaka S.

2006-01-01

This article investigates the effectiveness of improvising locally available materials for teaching chemistry in Nigeria, as a case for a culture of improvisation for teaching the sciences in developing countries. The scarcity and cost of imported materials for teaching science has remained a major challenge to teaching sciences in developing…

Organic chemistry on Titan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chang, S.; Scattergood, T.; Aronowitz, S.; Flores, J.

1979-01-01

Features taken from various models of Titan's atmosphere are combined in a working composite model that provides environmental constraints within which different pathways for organic chemical synthesis are determined. Experimental results and theoretical modeling suggest that the organic chemistry of the satellite is dominated by two processes: photochemistry and energetic particle bombardment. Photochemical reactions of CH4 in the upper atmosphere can account for the presence of C2 hydrocarbons. Reactions initiated at various levels of the atmosphere by cosmic rays, Saturn 'wind', and solar wind particle bombardment of a CH4-N2 atmospheric mixture can account for the UV-visible absorbing stratospheric haze, the reddish appearance of the satellite, and some of the C2 hydrocarbons. In the lower atmosphere photochemical processes will be important if surface temperatures are sufficiently high for gaseous NH3 to exist. It is concluded that the surface of Titan may contain ancient or recent organic matter (or both) produced in the atmosphere.

One Country, Two Cultures--A Multi-Perspective View on Israeli Chemistry Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Markic, Silvija; Eilks, Ingo; Mamlok-Naaman, Rachel; Hugerat, Muhamad; Kortam, Naji; Dkeidek, Iyad; Hofstein, Avi

2016-01-01

This paper presents a study focusing on differences in Israeli Jewish and Arab chemistry teachers' beliefs regarding teaching and learning of chemistry in the upper secondary schools. Israel is a country experiencing the problems of diverse cultural orientation of its inhabitants but applying the same educational system to its diverse cultural…

Perception of the Relevance of Organic Chemistry in a German Pharmacy Students’ Course

PubMed Central

Wehle, Sarah

2016-01-01

Objective. To investigate German pharmacy students’ attitudes toward the relevance of organic chemistry training in Julius Maximilian University (JMU) of Würzburg with regard to subsequent courses in the curricula and in later prospective career options. Methods. Surveys were conducted in the second-year organic chemistry course (50 participants) as well as during the third-year and fourth-year lecture cycle on medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry (66 participants) in 2014. Results. Students’ attitudes were surprisingly consistent throughout the progress of the degree course. Students considered organic chemistry very relevant to the pharmacy study program (95% junior and 97% senior students), and of importance for their future pharmacy program (88% junior and 94% senior students). With regard to prospective career options, the perceived relevance was considerably lower and attitudes were less homogenous. Conclusions. German pharmacy students at JMU Würzburg consider organic chemistry of high relevance for medicinal chemistry and other courses in JMU’s pharmacy program. PMID:27170811

Perception of the Relevance of Organic Chemistry in a German Pharmacy Students' Course.

PubMed

Wehle, Sarah; Decker, Michael

2016-04-25

Objective. To investigate German pharmacy students' attitudes toward the relevance of organic chemistry training in Julius Maximilian University (JMU) of Würzburg with regard to subsequent courses in the curricula and in later prospective career options. Methods. Surveys were conducted in the second-year organic chemistry course (50 participants) as well as during the third-year and fourth-year lecture cycle on medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry (66 participants) in 2014. Results. Students' attitudes were surprisingly consistent throughout the progress of the degree course. Students considered organic chemistry very relevant to the pharmacy study program (95% junior and 97% senior students), and of importance for their future pharmacy program (88% junior and 94% senior students). With regard to prospective career options, the perceived relevance was considerably lower and attitudes were less homogenous. Conclusions. German pharmacy students at JMU Würzburg consider organic chemistry of high relevance for medicinal chemistry and other courses in JMU's pharmacy program.

Teaching Complex Organizations: A Survey Essay.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dobratz, Betty

1988-01-01

Briefly reviews six textbooks for teaching about complex organizations: ORGANIZATIONS: STRUCTURES, PROCESSES, AND OUTCOMES (Hall, 1987); ORGANIZATIONS: RATIONAL, NATURAL, AND OPEN SYSTEMS (Scott, 1987); ORGANIZATIONS IN SOCIETY (Etzioni, 1985); ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR (Hellriegel et al, 1986); ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR: EXPERIENCES AND CASES (Hai,…

Impact of a Library Instruction Session on Bibliographies of Organic Chemistry Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kromer, John

2015-01-01

Students in Chemistry 254: Organic Chemistry for Majors were required to write a paper about an organic name reaction. Before turning in this assignment, students had the option of attending a one-hour library instruction session covering SciFinder, sources for spectra, ACS Style, and print resources about organic name reactions. Twenty-five…

Evaluation of an instructional model to teach clinically relevant medicinal chemistry in a campus and a distance pathway.

PubMed

Alsharif, Naser Z; Galt, Kimberly A

2008-04-15

To evaluate an instructional model for teaching clinically relevant medicinal chemistry. An instructional model that uses Bloom's cognitive and Krathwohl's affective taxonomy, published and tested concepts in teaching medicinal chemistry, and active learning strategies, was introduced in the medicinal chemistry courses for second-professional year (P2) doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students (campus and distance) in the 2005-2006 academic year. Student learning and the overall effectiveness of the instructional model were assessed. Student performance after introducing the instructional model was compared to that in prior years. Student performance on course examinations improved compared to previous years. Students expressed overall enthusiasm about the course and better understood the value of medicinal chemistry to clinical practice. The explicit integration of the cognitive and affective learning objectives improved student performance, student ability to apply medicinal chemistry to clinical practice, and student attitude towards the discipline. Testing this instructional model provided validation to this theoretical framework. The model is effective for both our campus and distance-students. This instructional model may also have broad-based applications to other science courses.

[Techniques of mediation. Chemistry as a combination of work, teaching and research: the case of J. F. A. Göttling].

PubMed

Frercks, Jan

2008-01-01

Atypical career of a chemist in Germany around 1800 consisted of being trained as an apothecary, followed by an occupation as a professor at a university or another institution of higher education. These conditions deeply influenced the concept and the practice of chemistry as a science. Johann Friedrich August Göttling is an intriguing example for merging education and daily duties of teaching with the self-image of a scientific chemist. He linked chemical teaching, work, and research by using different hybrid media, such as the Almanach oder Taschenbuch für Scheidekünstler und Apotheker, a stove specifically designed for the narrow student's room, portable laboratories, a pharmaceutical boarding school and textbooks. This allowed him to practice three different forms of chemistry as a science. A "socio-epistemological diagram" of German chemistry around 1800 shows that these forms neatly corresponded to the then predominant three-level epistemology. In particular, the concept of a chemical fact served to link pharmaceutical practice with teaching practice, while granting only the chemistry done by professors the status of a science.

Improving Chemistry Education by Offering Salient Technology Training to Preservice Teachers: A Graduate-Level Course on Using Software to Teach Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tofan, Daniel C.

2009-01-01

This paper describes an upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level course on computers in chemical education that was developed and offered for the first time in Fall 2007. The course provides future chemistry teachers with exposure to current software tools that can improve productivity in teaching, curriculum development, and education…

Chemistry teaching in the new degrees of Agricultural Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arce, Augusto; Tarquis, Ana Maria; Castellanos, Maria Teresa; Requejo, Maria Isabel; Cartagena, Maria Carmen

2013-04-01

The academic year 2011-12 is the second one implementing Bologna process in ETSI at the subjects of Agricultural Chemistry I and Chemistry II in the new four Degrees: Graduate in Engineering and Agricultural Science, Food Engineering Graduate, Graduate Environmental and engineering Graduate in Biotechnology, for it has been necessary to design and implement new interactive methodologies in the teaching-learning process based on the use of the virtual platform of the UPM, implement new evaluation systems that promote continued participation active student and the development of educational materials to support the subjects of chemistry designed new degrees within the EEES. In addition to the above actions, an assessment test prior chemistry knowledge has been made to all students who enter into Agricultural Grades, improving laboratory practices and the comparative study of academic obtained by the students of the new grades in the subjects of chemistry during the year 2011-12 compared to the 2010-11 academic year. More than 15,000 data have showed a good correlation between the student's prior knowledge, the level test performed, test scores, the overall success rate of the course and the abandonment of the different degrees. Academic results show a higher percentage of students enrolled and presented on a greater number of passes on students enrolled in the 2011-12 academic year for students enrolled in the previous academic year. The improved results have influenced the actions taken and the level of knowledge with students entering. Finally, we propose possible solutions to fix these results in future courses, aiming to improve the degree of efficiency, success and significant absenteeism in the first year as it will condition the dropout rate of these new degrees. Acknowledgements: Proyecto de Innovación Educativa N° IE02054-11/12 UPM. 2012.

Abiotic Organic Chemistry in Hydrothermal Systems.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simoneit, B. R.; Rushdi, A. I.

2004-12-01

Abiotic organic chemistry in hydrothermal systems is of interest to biologists, geochemists and oceanographers. This chemistry consists of thermal alteration of organic matter and minor prebiotic synthesis of organic compounds. Thermal alteration has been extensively documented to yield petroleum and heavy bitumen products from contemporary organic detritus. Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia and sulfur species have been used as precursors in prebiotic synthesis experiments to organic compounds. These inorganic species are common components of hot spring gases and marine hydrothermal systems. It is of interest to further test their reactivities in reductive aqueous thermolysis. We have synthesized organic compounds (lipids) in aqueous solutions of oxalic acid, and with carbon disulfide or ammonium bicarbonate at temperatures from 175-400° C. The synthetic lipids from oxalic acid solutions consisted of n-alkanols, n-alkanoic acids, n-alkyl formates, n-alkanones, n-alkenes and n-alkanes, typically to C30 with no carbon number preferences. The products from CS2 in acidic aqueous solutions yielded cyclic thioalkanes, alkyl polysulfides, and thioesters with other numerous minor compounds. The synthesis products from oxalic acid and ammonium bicarbonate solutions were homologous series of n-alkyl amides, n-alkyl amines, n-alkanes and n-alkanoic acids, also to C30 with no carbon number predominance. Condensation (dehydration) reactions also occur under elevated temperatures in aqueous medium as tested by model reactions to form amide, ester and nitrile bonds. It is concluded that the abiotic formation of aliphatic lipids, condensation products (amides, esters, nitriles, and CS2 derivatives (alkyl polysulfides, cyclic polysulfides) is possible under hydrothermal conditions and warrants further studies.

From organic chemistry in small bodies of the solar system to low temperature chemistry in the universe. Preface.

PubMed

Levasseur-Regourd, A C; Raulin, F

1995-01-01

A COSPAR two days Symposium has been dedicated to "Prebiotic chemistry in Space" at the COSPAR Plenary Meeting, (Hamburg, Germany, July 1994). This Symposium was jointly organized by Commissions B (Space studies of the Earth-Moon system, planets and small bodies of the solar system) and F (Life sciences as related to space). Its goal was to review, from an interdisciplinary approach, our knowledge on organic and prebiotic chemistry in small bodies of the Solar System, and on low temperature chemistry and exobiology. The Symposium was sponsored by COSPAR and the IAU (session 1), ESA, NASA, and ISSOL (session 2).

Planetary Organic Chemistry and the Origins of Biomolecules

PubMed Central

Benner, Steven A.; Kim, Hyo-Joong; Kim, Myung-Jung; Ricardo, Alonso

2010-01-01

Organic chemistry on a planetary scale is likely to have transformed carbon dioxide and reduced carbon species delivered to an accreting Earth. According to various models for the origin of life on Earth, biological molecules that jump-started Darwinian evolution arose via this planetary chemistry. The grandest of these models assumes that ribonucleic acid (RNA) arose prebiotically, together with components for compartments that held it and a primitive metabolism that nourished it. Unfortunately, it has been challenging to identify possible prebiotic chemistry that might have created RNA. Organic molecules, given energy, have a well-known propensity to form multiple products, sometimes referred to collectively as “tar” or “tholin.” These mixtures appear to be unsuited to support Darwinian processes, and certainly have never been observed to spontaneously yield a homochiral genetic polymer. To date, proposed solutions to this challenge either involve too much direct human intervention to satisfy many in the community, or generate molecules that are unreactive “dead ends” under standard conditions of temperature and pressure. Carbohydrates, organic species having carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in a ratio of 1:2:1 and an aldehyde or ketone group, conspicuously embody this challenge. They are components of RNA and their reactivity can support both interesting spontaneous chemistry as part of a “carbohydrate world,” but they also easily form mixtures, polymers and tars. We describe here the latest thoughts on how on this challenge, focusing on how it might be resolved using minerals containing borate, silicate, and molybdate, inter alia. PMID:20504964

Using Rasch Measurement to Validate an Instrument for Measuring the Quality of Classroom Teaching in Secondary Chemistry Lessons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Peng; Liu, Xiufeng; Zheng, Changlong; Jia, Mengying

2016-01-01

This study intends to develop a standardized instrument for measuring classroom teaching and learning in secondary chemistry lessons. Based on previous studies and interviews with expert teachers, the progression of five quality levels was constructed hypothetically to represent the quality of chemistry lessons in Chinese secondary schools. The…

Lunar carbon chemistry - Relations to and implications for terrestrial organic geochemistry.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eglinton, G.; Maxwell, J. R.; Pillinger, C. T.

1972-01-01

Survey of the various ways in which studies of lunar carbon chemistry have beneficially affected terrestrial organic geochemistry. A lunar organic gas-analysis operating system is cited as the most important instrumental development in relation to terrestrial organic geochemistry. Improved methods of analysis and handling of organic samples are cited as another benefit derived from studies of lunar carbon chemistry. The problem of controlling contamination and minimizing organic vapors is considered, as well as the possibility of analyzing terrestrial samples by the techniques developed for lunar samples. A need for new methods of analyzing carbonaceous material which is insoluble in organic solvents is indicated.

Organic chemistry in the atmosphere. [laboratory modeling of Titan atmosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sagan, C.

1974-01-01

The existence of an at least moderately complex organic chemistry on Titan is stipulated based on clear evidence of methane, and at least presumptive evidence of hydrogen in its atmosphere. The ratio of methane to hydrogen is the highest of any atmosphere in the solar system. Irradiation of hydrogen/methane mixtures produces aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons. A very reasonable hypothesis assumes that the red cloud cover of Titan is made of organic chemicals. Two-carbon hydrocarbons experimentally produced from irradiated mixtures of methane, ammonia, water, and hydrogen bear out the possible organic chemistry of the Titanian environment.

Titan's organic chemistry: Results of simulation experiments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sagan, Carl; Thompson, W. Reid; Khare, Bishun N.

1992-01-01

Recent low pressure continuous low plasma discharge simulations of the auroral electron driven organic chemistry in Titan's mesosphere are reviewed. These simulations yielded results in good accord with Voyager observations of gas phase organic species. Optical constants of the brownish solid tholins produced in similar experiments are in good accord with Voyager observations of the Titan haze. Titan tholins are rich in prebiotic organic constituents; the Huygens entry probe may shed light on some of the processes that led to the origin of life on Earth.

The James Webb Space Telescope: Inspiration and Context for Physics and Chemistry Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hillier, Dan; Johnston, Tania; Davies, John

2012-01-01

This article describes the design, delivery, evaluation and impact of a CPD course for physics and chemistry teachers. A key aim of the course was to use the context of the James Webb Space Telescope project to inspire teachers and lead to enriched teaching of STEM subjects. (Contains 1 box and 3 figures.)

Development of an Augmented Reality Game to Teach Abstract Concepts in Food Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crandall, Philip G.; Engler, Robert K.; Beck, Dennis E.; Killian, Susan A.; O'Bryan, Corliss A.; Jarvis, Nathan; Clausen, Ed

2015-01-01

One of the most pressing issues for many land grant institutions is the ever increasing cost to build and operate wet chemistry laboratories. A partial solution is to develop computer-based teaching modules that take advantage of animation, web-based or off-campus learning experiences directed at engaging students' creative experiences. We…

Experimental interstellar organic chemistry - Preliminary findings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Khare, B. N.; Sagan, C.

1973-01-01

Review of the results of some explicit experimental simulation of interstellar organic chemistry consisting in low-temperature high-vacuum UV irradiation of condensed simple gases known or suspected to be present in the interstellar medium. The results include the finding that acetonitrile may be present in the interstellar medium. The implication of this and other findings are discussed.

Evaluation of an Instructional Model to Teach Clinically Relevant Medicinal Chemistry in a Campus and a Distance Pathway

PubMed Central

Galt, Kimberly A.

2008-01-01

Objectives To evaluate an instructional model for teaching clinically relevant medicinal chemistry. Methods An instructional model that uses Bloom's cognitive and Krathwohl's affective taxonomy, published and tested concepts in teaching medicinal chemistry, and active learning strategies, was introduced in the medicinal chemistry courses for second-professional year (P2) doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students (campus and distance) in the 2005-2006 academic year. Student learning and the overall effectiveness of the instructional model were assessed. Student performance after introducing the instructional model was compared to that in prior years. Results Student performance on course examinations improved compared to previous years. Students expressed overall enthusiasm about the course and better understood the value of medicinal chemistry to clinical practice. Conclusion The explicit integration of the cognitive and affective learning objectives improved student performance, student ability to apply medicinal chemistry to clinical practice, and student attitude towards the discipline. Testing this instructional model provided validation to this theoretical framework. The model is effective for both our campus and distance-students. This instructional model may also have broad-based applications to other science courses. PMID:18483599

Patterning Self-Assembled Monolayers on Gold: Green Materials Chemistry in the Teaching Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McFarland, Adam D.; Huffman, Lauren M.; Parent, Kathryn, E.; Hutchison, James E.; Thompson, John E.

2004-01-01

An experiment demonstrating self-assembled monolayer (SAM) chemistry, organic thin-film patterning and the use of molecular functionality to control macroscopic properties is described. Several important green chemistry principles are introduced.

UNESCO Chemistry Teaching Project in Asia, Newsletter, Volume 3, Number 1, August 1969.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Bangkok (Thailand).

The "Chemistry Card Game" for teaching stoichiometry of inorganic precipitation and ionic complex reactions is described in the first article of this UNESCO newsletter. The game is played with 106 cards consisting of 19 kinds of cations, 14 kinds of anions, and one kind of molecules (NH3). Included are the instructions for making the…

Teaching about Ethics through Socioscientific Issues in Physics and Chemistry: Teacher Candidates' Beliefs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrett, Sarah Elizabeth; Nieswandt, Martina

2010-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and explain the origins of physics and chemistry teacher candidates' beliefs about teaching about ethics through socioscientific issues (SSI). This study utilized a series of in-depth interviews, while the participants (n = 12) were enrolled in a 9-month teacher education program at an urban…

Incorporating Service-Learning, Technology, and Research Supportive Teaching Techniques into the University Chemistry Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saitta, E. K. H.; Bowdon, M. A.; Geiger, C. L.

2011-01-01

Technology was integrated into service-learning activities to create an interactive teaching method for undergraduate students at a large research institution. Chemistry students at the University of Central Florida partnered with high school students at Crooms Academy of Information Technology in interactive service learning projects. The…

Extraterrestrial organic chemistry: from the interstellar medium to the origins of life. Part 2: complex organic chemistry in the environment of planets and satellites.

PubMed

Raulin, F; Kobayashi, K

2001-01-01

During COSPAR'00 in Warsaw, Poland, in the frame of Sub-Commission F.3 events (Planetary Biology and Origins of Life), part of COSPAR Commission F (Life Sciences as Related to Space), and Commission B events (Space Studies of the Earth-Moon System, Planets, and Small Bodies of the Solar System) a large joint symposium (F.3.4/B0.8) was held on extraterrestrial organic chemistry. Part 2 of this symposium was devoted to complex organic chemistry in the environment of planets and satellites. The aim of this event was to cover and review new data which have been recently obtained and to give new insights on data which are expected in the near future to increase our knowledge of the complex organic chemistry occurring in several planets and satellites of the Solar System, outside the earth, and their implications for exobiology and life in the universe. The event was composed of two main parts. The first part was mainly devoted to the inner planets and Europa and the search for signatures of life or organics in those environments. The second part was related to the study of the outer solar system.

MIANN models in medicinal, physical and organic chemistry.

PubMed

González-Díaz, Humberto; Arrasate, Sonia; Sotomayor, Nuria; Lete, Esther; Munteanu, Cristian R; Pazos, Alejandro; Besada-Porto, Lina; Ruso, Juan M

2013-01-01

Reducing costs in terms of time, animal sacrifice, and material resources with computational methods has become a promising goal in Medicinal, Biological, Physical and Organic Chemistry. There are many computational techniques that can be used in this sense. In any case, almost all these methods focus on few fundamental aspects including: type (1) methods to quantify the molecular structure, type (2) methods to link the structure with the biological activity, and others. In particular, MARCH-INSIDE (MI), acronym for Markov Chain Invariants for Networks Simulation and Design, is a well-known method for QSAR analysis useful in step (1). In addition, the bio-inspired Artificial-Intelligence (AI) algorithms called Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are among the most powerful type (2) methods. We can combine MI with ANNs in order to seek QSAR models, a strategy which is called herein MIANN (MI & ANN models). One of the first applications of the MIANN strategy was in the development of new QSAR models for drug discovery. MIANN strategy has been expanded to the QSAR study of proteins, protein-drug interactions, and protein-protein interaction networks. In this paper, we review for the first time many interesting aspects of the MIANN strategy including theoretical basis, implementation in web servers, and examples of applications in Medicinal and Biological chemistry. We also report new applications of the MIANN strategy in Medicinal chemistry and the first examples in Physical and Organic Chemistry, as well. In so doing, we developed new MIANN models for several self-assembly physicochemical properties of surfactants and large reaction networks in organic synthesis. In some of the new examples we also present experimental results which were not published up to date.

Microscale Experiments in the Organic Chemistry Laboratory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williamson, Kenneth L.

1991-01-01

Discusses the advent of microscale experiments within undergraduate organic chemistry laboratories mainly resulting from environmental safety concerns involving waste disposal. Considers the cost savings in purchasing less reagents and chemicals, the typical glassware and apparatus, the reduced hazards from elimination of open flames, and other…

Visualization and Interactivity in the Teaching of Chemistry to Science and Non-Science Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Venkataraman, Bhawani

2009-01-01

A series of interactive, instructional units have been developed that integrate computational molecular modelling and visualization to teach fundamental chemistry concepts and the relationship between the molecular and macro-scales. The units span the scale from atoms, small molecules to macromolecular systems, and introduce many of the concepts…

High-Throughput Synthetic Chemistry Enabled by Organic Solvent Disintegrating Tablet.

PubMed

Li, Tingting; Xu, Lei; Xing, Yanjun; Xu, Bo

2017-01-17

Synthetic chemistry remains a time- and labor-intensive process of inherent hazardous nature. Our organic solvent disintegrating tablet (O-Tab) technology has shown potential to make industrial/synthetic chemistry more efficient. As is the case with pharmaceutical tablets, our reagent-containing O-Tabs are mechanically strong, but disintegrate rapidly when in contact with reaction media (organic solvents). For O-Tabs containing sensitive chemicals, they can be further coated to insulate them from air and moisture. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Correlation of preadmission organic chemistry courses and academic performance in biochemistry at a midwest chiropractic doctoral program.

PubMed

McRae, Marc P

2010-01-01

Organic chemistry has been shown to correlate with academic success in the preclinical years of medicine, dentistry, and graduate physiology. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between undergraduate organic chemistry grades and first-semester biochemistry grades at a Midwest chiropractic doctoral program. Students enrolled in a first-semester biochemistry course who had completed the prerequisite courses in organic chemistry offered at this same institution were entered into the study. The total grade for each of the three courses was calculated using the midterm and final exam raw scores with a weighting of 50% each. Analysis consisted of obtaining correlation coefficients between the total grades of organic 1 with biochemistry and organic 2 with biochemistry. Using the biochemistry total grade, the students were divided into quartiles and course grades for both organic chemistry 1 and 2 were calculated. For the 109 students in the study, the correlation coefficient between the biochemistry and organic chemistry 1 and biochemistry and organic chemistry 2 courses was r = 0.744 and r = 0.725, respectively. The difference in organic chemistry grades between those in the first and fourth quartiles was 63.2% and 86.9% for organic chemistry 1 (p < .001) and 60.9% and 79.4% for organic chemistry 2 (p < .001). This study shows that organic chemistry can be used as an indicator of future academic success in a chiropractic biochemistry course. Knowledge of such a relationship could prove useful to identify students who may potentially run into academic difficulty with first-year biochemistry.

Teaching organization theory for healthcare management: three applied learning methods.

PubMed

Olden, Peter C

2006-01-01

Organization theory (OT) provides a way of seeing, describing, analyzing, understanding, and improving organizations based on patterns of organizational design and behavior (Daft 2004). It gives managers models, principles, and methods with which to diagnose and fix organization structure, design, and process problems. Health care organizations (HCOs) face serious problems such as fatal medical errors, harmful treatment delays, misuse of scarce nurses, costly inefficiency, and service failures. Some of health care managers' most critical work involves designing and structuring their organizations so their missions, visions, and goals can be achieved-and in some cases so their organizations can survive. Thus, it is imperative that graduate healthcare management programs develop effective approaches for teaching OT to students who will manage HCOs. Guided by principles of education, three applied teaching/learning activities/assignments were created to teach OT in a graduate healthcare management program. These educationalmethods develop students' competency with OT applied to HCOs. The teaching techniques in this article may be useful to faculty teaching graduate courses in organization theory and related subjects such as leadership, quality, and operation management.

QM/MM investigations of organic chemistry oriented questions.

PubMed

Schmidt, Thomas C; Paasche, Alexander; Grebner, Christoph; Ansorg, Kay; Becker, Johannes; Lee, Wook; Engels, Bernd

2014-01-01

About 35 years after its first suggestion, QM/MM became the standard theoretical approach to investigate enzymatic structures and processes. The success is due to the ability of QM/MM to provide an accurate atomistic picture of enzymes and related processes. This picture can even be turned into a movie if nuclei-dynamics is taken into account to describe enzymatic processes. In the field of organic chemistry, QM/MM methods are used to a much lesser extent although almost all relevant processes happen in condensed matter or are influenced by complicated interactions between substrate and catalyst. There is less importance for theoretical organic chemistry since the influence of nonpolar solvents is rather weak and the effect of polar solvents can often be accurately described by continuum approaches. Catalytic processes (homogeneous and heterogeneous) can often be reduced to truncated model systems, which are so small that pure quantum-mechanical approaches can be employed. However, since QM/MM becomes more and more efficient due to the success in software and hardware developments, it is more and more used in theoretical organic chemistry to study effects which result from the molecular nature of the environment. It is shown by many examples discussed in this review that the influence can be tremendous, even for nonpolar reactions. The importance of environmental effects in theoretical spectroscopy was already known. Due to its benefits, QM/MM can be expected to experience ongoing growth for the next decade.In the present chapter we give an overview of QM/MM developments and their importance in theoretical organic chemistry, and review applications which give impressions of the possibilities and the importance of the relevant effects. Since there is already a bunch of excellent reviews dealing with QM/MM, we will discuss fundamental ingredients and developments of QM/MM very briefly with a focus on very recent progress. For the applications we follow a similar

Changes in IUPAC Nomenclature Rules for Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klesney, Stanley P.

1972-01-01

Changes in the 1971 edition of the IUPAC book, Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry," from the previous editions (Sections A and B, 1966, and Section C, 1965) are listed with details of the changes. (Author)

Analysis of the Effect of Sequencing Lecture and Laboratory Instruction on Student Learning and Motivation Towards Learning Chemistry in an Organic Chemistry Lecture Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pakhira, Deblina

2012-01-01

Exposure to organic chemistry concepts in the laboratory can positively affect student performance, learning new chemistry concepts and building motivation towards learning chemistry in the lecture. In this study, quantitative methods were employed to assess differences in student performance, learning, and motivation in an organic chemistry…

Do Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers Reflect Their Beliefs about Constructivism in Their Teaching Practices?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uzuntiryaki, Esen; Boz, Yezdan; Kirbulut, Demet; Bektas, Oktay

2010-01-01

This study aimed to explore pre-service chemistry teachers' beliefs about constructivism and the influence of their beliefs in their teaching practice. For this purpose, semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight pre-service teachers in order to understand their belief structures. Pre-service teachers' beliefs about constructivism were…

Chemistry of Covalent Organic Frameworks.

PubMed

Waller, Peter J; Gándara, Felipe; Yaghi, Omar M

2015-12-15

growing library of linkers amenable to the synthesis of COFs is now available, and new COFs and topologies made by reticular synthesis are being reported. Much research is also directed toward the development of new methods of linking organic building units to generate other crystalline COFs. These efforts promise not only new COF chemistry and materials, but also the chance to extend the precision of molecular covalent chemistry to extended solids.

Correlation of Preadmission Organic Chemistry Courses and Academic Performance in Biochemistry at a Midwest Chiropractic Doctoral Program*

PubMed Central

McRae, Marc P.

2010-01-01

Purpose: Organic chemistry has been shown to correlate with academic success in the preclinical years of medicine, dentistry, and graduate physiology. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between undergraduate organic chemistry grades and first-semester biochemistry grades at a Midwest chiropractic doctoral program. Methods: Students enrolled in a first-semester biochemistry course who had completed the prerequisite courses in organic chemistry offered at this same institution were entered into the study. The total grade for each of the three courses was calculated using the midterm and final exam raw scores with a weighting of 50% each. Analysis consisted of obtaining correlation coefficients between the total grades of organic 1 with biochemistry and organic 2 with biochemistry. Using the biochemistry total grade, the students were divided into quartiles and course grades for both organic chemistry 1 and 2 were calculated. Results: For the 109 students in the study, the correlation coefficient between the biochemistry and organic chemistry 1 and biochemistry and organic chemistry 2 courses was r = 0.744 and r = 0.725, respectively. The difference in organic chemistry grades between those in the first and fourth quartiles was 63.2% and 86.9% for organic chemistry 1 (p < .001) and 60.9% and 79.4% for organic chemistry 2 (p < .001). Conclusion: This study shows that organic chemistry can be used as an indicator of future academic success in a chiropractic biochemistry course. Knowledge of such a relationship could prove useful to identify students who may potentially run into academic difficulty with first-year biochemistry PMID:20480012

Teaching the Societal Dimension of Chemistry Using a Socio-Critical and Problem-Oriented Lesson Plan Based on Bioethanol Usage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feierabend, Timo; Eilks, Ingo

2011-01-01

This paper discusses a chemistry lesson plan based on the use of ethanol as an alternative and renewable energy source. The lessons were developed by participatory action research and follow a socio-critical and problem-oriented approach to chemistry teaching. This approach specifically focuses on the handling of scientific and technological…

Molecular Images in Organic Chemistry: Assessment of Understanding in Aromaticity, Symmetry, Spectroscopy, and Shielding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ealy, Julie B.; Hermanson, Jim

2006-01-01

When students take General Chemistry there are substantially fewer molecular images than they will encounter in Organic Chemistry. The molecular images Organic Chemistry students see in their textbooks are ones that use dashes and wedges to represent 2D and semi 3D views, ball and spoke, ball and wire, and structural formulas, to name just a few.…

Recent Discoveries and Future Challenges in Atmospheric Organic Chemistry.

PubMed

Glasius, Marianne; Goldstein, Allen H

2016-03-15

Earth's atmosphere contains a multitude of organic compounds, which differ by orders of magnitude regarding fundamental properties such as volatility, reactivity, and propensity to form cloud droplets, affecting their impact on global climate and human health. Despite recent major research efforts and advances, there are still substantial gaps in understanding of atmospheric organic chemistry, hampering efforts to understand, model, and mitigate environmental problems such as aerosol formation in both polluted urban and more pristine regions. The analytical toolbox available for chemists to study atmospheric organic components has expanded considerably during the past decade, opening new windows into speciation, time resolution and detection of reactive and semivolatile compounds at low concentrations. This has provided unprecedented opportunities, but also unveiled new scientific challenges. Specific groundbreaking examples include the role of epoxides in aerosol formation especially from isoprene, the importance of highly oxidized, reactive organics in air-surface processes (whether atmosphere-biosphere exchange or aerosols), as well as the extent of interactions of anthropogenic and biogenic emissions and the resulting impact on atmospheric organic chemistry.

Spectroscopic diagnostics of organic chemistry in the protostellar environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Charnley, S. B.; Ehrenfreund, P.; Kuan, Y. J.

2001-01-01

A combination of astronomical observations, laboratory studies, and theoretical modelling is necessary to determine the organic chemistry of dense molecular clouds. We present spectroscopic evidence for the composition and evolution of organic molecules in protostellar environments. The principal reaction pathways to complex molecule formation by catalysis on dust grains and by reactions in the interstellar gas are described. Protostellar cores, where warming of dust has induced evaporation of icy grain mantles, are excellent sites in which to study the interaction between gas phase and grain-surface chemistries. We investigate the link between organics that are observed as direct products of grain surface reactions and those which are formed by secondary gas phase reactions of evaporated surface products. Theory predicts observable correlations between specific interstellar molecules, and also which new organics are viable for detection. We discuss recent infrared observations obtained with the Infrared Space Observatory, laboratory studies of organic molecules, theories of molecule formation, and summarise recent radioastronomical searches for various complex molecules such as ethers, azaheterocyclic compounds, and amino acids.

Organic Chemistry Students' Ideas about Nucleophiles and Electrophiles: The Role of Charges and Mechanisms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anzovino, Mary E.; Bretz, Stacey Lowery

2015-01-01

Organic chemistry students struggle with reaction mechanisms and the electron-pushing formalism (EPF) used by practicing organic chemists. Faculty have identified an understanding of nucleophiles and electrophiles as one conceptual prerequisite to mastery of the EPF, but little is known about organic chemistry students' knowledge of nucleophiles…

Measuring Student Performance in General Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Austin, Ara C.; Ben-Daat, Hagit; Zhu, Mary; Atkinson, Robert; Barrows, Nathan; Gould, Ian R.

2015-01-01

Student performance in general organic chemistry courses is determined by a wide range of factors including cognitive ability, motivation and cultural capital. Previous work on cognitive factors has tended to focus on specific areas rather than exploring performance across all problem types and cognitive skills. In this study, we have categorized…

Undergraduate Oral Examinations in a University Organic Chemistry Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dicks, Andrew P.; Lautens, Mark; Koroluk, Katherine J.; Skonieczny, Stanislaw

2012-01-01

This article describes the successful implementation of an oral examination format in the organic chemistry curriculum at the University of Toronto. Oral examinations are used to replace traditional written midterm examinations in several courses. In an introductory organic class, each student is allotted 15 min to individually discuss one…

Teaching through Research: Alignment of Core Chemistry Competencies and Skills within a Multidisciplinary Research Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghanem, Eman; Long, S. Reid; Rodenbusch, Stacia E.; Shear, Ruth I.; Beckham, Josh T.; Procko, Kristen; DePue, Lauren; Stevenson, Keith J.; Robertus, Jon D.; Martin, Stephen; Holliday, Bradley; Jones, Richard A.; Anslyn, Eric V.; Simmons, Sarah L.

2018-01-01

Innovative models of teaching through research have broken the long-held paradigm that core chemistry competencies must be taught with predictable, scripted experiments. We describe here five fundamentally different, course-based undergraduate research experiences that integrate faculty research projects, accomplish ACS accreditation objectives,…

Use of Chemistry Software to Teach and Assess Model-Based Reaction and Equation Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pyatt, Kevin

2014-01-01

This study investigated the challenges students face when learning chemical reactions in a first-year chemistry course and the effectiveness of a curriculum and software implementation that was used to teach and assess student understanding of chemical reactions and equations. This study took place over a two year period in a public suburban…

Chemistry for whom? Gender awareness in teaching and learning chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andersson, Kristina

2017-06-01

Marie Ståhl and Anita Hussénius have defined what discourses dominate national tests in chemistry for Grade 9 in Sweden by using feminist, critical didactic perspectives. This response seeks to expand the results in Ståhl and Hussénius's article Chemistry inside an epistemological community box!— Discursive exclusions and inclusions in the Swedish national tests in chemistry, by using different facets of gender awareness. The first facet—Gender awareness in relations to the test designers' own conceptions—highlighted how the gender order where women are subordinated men becomes visible in the national tests as a consequence of the test designers internalized conceptions. The second facet—Gender awareness in relation to chemistry—discussed the hierarchy between discourses within chemistry. The third facet—Gender awareness in relation to students—problematized chemistry in relation to the students' identity formation. In summary, I suggest that the different discourses can open up new ways to interpret chemistry and perhaps dismantle the hegemonic chemistry discourse.

Integration of Video-Based Demonstrations to Prepare Students for the Organic Chemistry Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nadelson, Louis S.; Scaggs, Jonathan; Sheffield, Colin; McDougal, Owen M.

2015-01-01

Consistent, high-quality introductions to organic chemistry laboratory techniques effectively and efficiently support student learning in the organic chemistry laboratory. In this work, we developed and deployed a series of instructional videos to communicate core laboratory techniques and concepts. Using a quasi-experimental design, we tested the…

An Example of Learning about Plastics and Their Evaluation as a Contribution to Education for Sustainable Development in Secondary School Chemistry Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burmeister, Mareike; Eilks, Ingo

2012-01-01

This paper describes the development and evaluation of a secondary school lesson plan for chemistry education on the topic Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The lessons focus both on the chemistry of plastics and on learning about the societal evaluation of competing, chemistry-based industrial products. A specific teaching method was…

Teaching Green and Sustainable Chemistry: A Revised One-Semester Course Based on Inspirations and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marteel-Parrish, Anne E.

2014-01-01

An elective course, "Toward the Greening of Our Minds": Green and Sustainable Chemistry, has been offered at Washington College since 2005. This new course without laboratory is designed for chemistry and biology majors and minors who have previously taken two semesters of general chemistry and organic chemistry. Due to the popularity of…

Molecular Electron Density Theory: A Modern View of Reactivity in Organic Chemistry.

PubMed

Domingo, Luis R

2016-09-30

A new theory for the study of the reactivity in Organic Chemistry, named Molecular Electron Density Theory (MEDT), is proposed herein. MEDT is based on the idea that while the electron density distribution at the ground state is responsible for physical and chemical molecular properties, as proposed by the Density Functional Theory (DFT), the capability for changes in electron density is responsible for molecular reactivity. Within MEDT, the reactivity in Organic Chemistry is studied through a rigorous quantum chemical analysis of the changes of the electron density as well as the energies associated with these changes along the reaction path in order to understand experimental outcomes. Studies performed using MEDT allow establishing a modern rationalisation and to gain insight into molecular mechanisms and reactivity in Organic Chemistry.

Six Impossible Mechanisms before Breakfast: Arrow Pushing as an Instructional Device in Inorganic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berg, Steffen; Ghosh, Abhik

2013-01-01

In a recent article by the authors, the suggestion was made that arrow pushing, a widely used tool in organic chemistry, could also be profitably employed in the teaching of introductory inorganic chemistry. A number of relatively simple reactions were used to illustrate this thesis, raising the question whether the same approach might rationalize…

Improvements to the Characterization of Organic Nitrogen Chemistry

EPA Science Inventory

Excess atmospheric nitrogen deposition can cause significant harmful effects to ecosystems. Organic nitrogen deposition can be an important contributor to the total nitrogen budget, contributing 10-30%, however there are large uncertainties in the chemistry and deposition of thes...

Placing Science into Its Human Context: Using Scientific Autobiography to Teach Chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carroll, Felix A.; Seeman, Jeffrey I.

2001-12-01

Scientific autobiography and biography can improve chemistry learning by helping students relate otherwise abstract concepts to important events in the lives of fellow human beings. In advanced courses, reading scientific autobiography and biography can help students see how scientific collaboration, advances in instrumentation, and major events in human lives influence the development of chemical ideas over time. In addition, studying many years of an individual's research program can demonstrate the progress of science, the connectivity of research findings, and the validity of experimental results over many decades. This paper describes the use of an autobiography of an eminent chemist in an advanced undergraduate chemistry course. This approach not only enhances the teaching of chemical concepts, but it also provides students with expanded opportunities for cooperative and self-directed learning activities.

How to teach artificial organs.

PubMed

Zapanta, Conrad M; Borovetz, Harvey S; Lysaght, Michael J; Manning, Keefe B

2011-01-01

Artificial organs education is often an overlooked field for many bioengineering and biomedical engineering students. The purpose of this article is to describe three different approaches to teaching artificial organs. This article can serve as a reference for those who wish to offer a similar course at their own institutions or incorporate these ideas into existing courses. Artificial organ classes typically fulfill several ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) criteria, including those specific to bioengineering and biomedical engineering programs.

Chemistry on Stamps.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schreck, James O.

1986-01-01

Suggests how postage stamps can be incorporated into chemistry teaching. Categories considered include emergence of chemistry as a science, metric system, atoms (and molecules and ions), stoichiometry, energy relationships in chemical systems, chemical bonding, nuclear chemistry, biochemistry, geochemistry, matter (gases, liquids, and solids),…

Biobased Organic Chemistry Laboratories as Sustainable Experiment Alternatives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silverman, Julian R.

2016-01-01

As nonrenewable resources deplete and educators seek relevant interdisciplinary content for organic chemistry instruction, biobased laboratory experiments present themselves as potential alternatives to petroleum-based transformations, which offer themselves as sustainable variations on important themes. Following the principles of green chemistry…

Waterless Condensers for the Teaching Laboratory: An Adaptation of Traditional Glassware

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baum, Erich W.; Esteb, John J.; Wilson, Anne M.

2014-01-01

A simple adaptation of traditional "chemistry kit" condensers for the organic chemistry teaching laboratory is described. These waterless condensers have been employed safely with most solvents. They can be easily fabricated, stored, and used in the same manner as water-cooled condensers. These condensers were utilized in several…

Non-Mathematical Problem Solving in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cartrette, David P.; Bodner, George M.

2010-01-01

Differences in problem-solving ability among organic chemistry graduate students and faculty were studied within the domain of problems that involved the determination of the structure of a molecule from the molecular formula of the compound and a combination of IR and [to the first power]H NMR spectra. The participants' performance on these tasks…

Introducing Undergraduates to Research Using a Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-Coupling Organic Chemistry Miniproject

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oliveira, Deyvid G. M.; Rosa, Clarissa H.; Vargas, Bruna P.; Rosa, Diego S.; Silveira, Ma´rcia V.; de Moura, Neusa F.; Rosa, Gilber R.

2015-01-01

A five-week miniproject is described for an upper-division experimental organic chemistry course. The activities include synthesis of a phenylboronic acid via a Grignard reaction and its use in a Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction. Technical skills and concepts normally presented in practical organic chemistry courses are covered, including…

Is There a Need to Discuss Atomic Orbital Overlap When Teaching Hydrogen-Halide Bond Strength and Acidity Trends in Organic Chemistry?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Devarajan, Deepa; Gustafson, Samantha J.; Bickelhaupt, F. Matthias; Ess, Daniel H.

2015-01-01

Undergraduate organic chemistry textbooks and Internet websites use a variety of approaches for presenting and explaining the impact of halogen atom size on trends in bond strengths and/or acidity of hydrogen halides. In particular, several textbooks and Internet websites explain these trends by invoking decreasing orbital overlap between the…

Topic Sequence and Emphasis Variability of Selected Organic Chemistry Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houseknecht, Justin B.

2010-01-01

Textbook choice has a significant effect upon course success. Among the factors that influence this decision, two of the most important are material organization and emphasis. This paper examines the sequencing of 19 organic chemistry topics, 21 concepts and skills, and 7 biological topics within nine of the currently available organic textbooks.…

Chemistry Notes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

School Science Review, 1981

1981-01-01

Outlines laboratory procedures, demonstrations, teaching suggestions, and content information related to chemistry. Topics include polarizing power; calorimetry and momentum; microcomputers in school chemistry; a constant-volume dispenser for liquids, floating magnets, and crystal lattices; preparation of chromium; and solvent polarity and…

The Effect of Laboratory Training Model of Teaching and Traditional Method on Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Skills-Components of Achievement, Total Achievement and Retention Level in Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Badeleh, Alireza

2011-01-01

The present study aimed at finding the effectiveness of the Laboratory Training Model of Teaching (LTM) and comparing it with the traditional methods of teaching chemistry to seventh standard students. It strived to determine whether the (LTM) method in chemistry would be significantly more effective than the Traditional method in respect to the…

Perceptions of Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers on the Utilization of Productive Lesson Study as a Framework for Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Espinosa, Allen A.; Datukan, Janir T.; Butron, Benilda R.; Tameta, Anna Danica C.

2018-01-01

The present study determined the perceptions of pre-service teachers on utilizing productive lesson study as a framework in teaching high school chemistry. Participants of the study were thirty (30) junior pre-service chemistry teachers from a state-funded teacher education institution in Manila, Philippines. Participants were exposed to a…

The Application of Physical Organic Chemistry to Biochemical Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westheimer, Frank

1986-01-01

Presents the synthesis of the science of enzymology from application of the concepts of physical organic chemistry from a historical perspective. Summarizes enzyme and coenzyme mechanisms elucidated prior to 1963. (JM)

Plastic Organic Scintillator Chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brightwell, C. R.; Temanson, E. S.; Febbraro, M. T.

2017-09-01

Due to their high light output, quick decay time, affordability, durability and ability to be molded, plastic organic scintillators are increasingly becoming a more viable method of particle detection. Since the plastic is composed entirely of single molecular chains with repeating units, scintillating properties remain stable despite changes in experimental conditions. Different scintillating plastics can be modified and tailored to suit specific experiments depending on a variety of requirements such as light output, scintillating wavelength, and PMT compatibility. The synthesis chemistry of a recent but well-known scintillating polyester, polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) will be presented to demonstrate how plastic organic scintillators can be modified for different particle detection experiments. PEN has been successfully synthesized at ORNL, and procedures are currently being investigated to modify PEN using different reactants and catalysts. The goal is to achieve a transparent scintillating plastic with an incorporated wavelength shifter in the chain that scintillates with a wavelength around 440 nm. The status of this project will be presented. This research is supported by the U. S. Department of Energy Office of Science.

Development and Implementation of a Two-Semester Introductory Organic-Bioorganic Chemistry Sequence: Conclusions from the First Six Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goess, Brian C.

2014-01-01

A two-semester second-year introductory organic chemistry sequence featuring one semester of accelerated organic chemistry followed by one semester of bioorganic chemistry is described. Assessment data collected over a six-year period reveal that such a course sequence can facilitate student mastery of fundamental organic chemistry in the first…

Saturn's satellites: Potential for organic chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delitsky, M. L.; Lane, A. L.; Henry-Riyad, H.; Tidwell, T. T.

2003-05-01

The surfaces of the Saturnian satellites are subjected to irradiation from solar wind ions, photons, and magnetospheric ions and electrons. This bombardment will transform the chemical nature of the surfaces. At present, only water ice has been detected on their surfaces. Further studies by the Cassini spacecraft may reveal other molecules. If CO2 ice is found there, a whole panoply of new species may be detected. As nitrogen ions in the magnetosphere are thought to be an important species bombarding the satellites, Delitsky and Lane (2002) outlined the nitrogen oxides chemistry that may result from implantation of N+ into the water ice surfaces. Sittler et al (2002) showed that N+ ions originating from Titan will be enriched in the magnetospheric ion population as they move inwards towards Saturn, making the nitrogen oxides chemistry more likely. If CO2 is present, a complicated C-H-N-O chemistry may result from deposition of the N+ into a H2O/CO2 mixed ice, including nitriles, isocyanates, polymers, and amino acids. The combination of H2O/CO2 upon irradiation may also yield a complex mixture of hydrocarbons, esters, alcohols, organic acids and ketones. Possible chemical pathways and computations of their energetics will be presented. -Ref:- 1. Delitsky and Lane, Saturn's inner satellites: Ice chemistry and magnetosphere effects, JGR (Planets), Nov 2002, 3-1;; 2. Sittler et al., Energetic nitrogen ions within the inner magnetosphere of Saturn, Fall AGU meeting, Dec 2002, abstracts, pg F858, P21B-0379

An Exploratory Study of Universal Design for Teaching Chemistry to Students with and without Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King-Sears, Margaret E.; Johnson, Todd M.; Berkeley, Sheri; Weiss, Margaret P.; Peters-Burton, Erin E.; Evmenova, Anya S.; Menditto, Anna; Hursh, Jennifer C.

2015-01-01

In this exploratory study, students in four co-taught high school chemistry classes were randomly assigned to a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) treatment or a comparison condition. Each co-teaching team taught one comparison and treatment class. UDL principles were operationalized for treatment: (a) a self-management strategy (using a…

The Effect of Teaching the Entire Academic Year of High School Chemistry Utilizing Abstract Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Page, Michael F. Z.; Escott, Patrick; Silva, Maritza; Barding, Gregory A., Jr.

2018-01-01

This case study demonstrates the ability of high school chemistry students, with varying levels of math preparation, to experience learning-gains on state and district assessments as it relates to chemical reactions, thermodynamics, and kinetics. These advances were predicated on the use of a teaching style rooted in abstract reasoning. The…

Atmospheric Chemistry of Micrometeoritic Organic Compounds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kress, M. E.; Belle, C. L.; Pevyhouse, A. R.; Iraci, L. T.

2011-01-01

Micrometeorites approx.100 m in diameter deliver most of the Earth s annual accumulation of extraterrestrial material. These small particles are so strongly heated upon atmospheric entry that most of their volatile content is vaporized. Here we present preliminary results from two sets of experiments to investigate the fate of the organic fraction of micrometeorites. In the first set of experiments, 300 m particles of a CM carbonaceous chondrite were subject to flash pyrolysis, simulating atmospheric entry. In addition to CO and CO2, many organic compounds were released, including functionalized benzenes, hydrocarbons, and small polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In the second set of experiments, we subjected two of these compounds to conditions that simulate the heterogeneous chemistry of Earth s upper atmosphere. We find evidence that meteor-derived compounds can follow reaction pathways leading to the formation of more complex organic compounds.

Chemistry Notes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

School Science Review, 1983

1983-01-01

Presents chemistry experiments, laboratory procedures, demonstrations, teaching suggestions, and classroom materials/activities. These include: game for teaching ionic formulas; method for balancing equations; description of useful redox series; computer programs (with listings) for water electrolysis simulation and for determining chemical…

Teaching Community Organizing in a BSW Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grodofsky, Merav Moshe; Bakun-Mazor, Hagar

2012-01-01

The article describes a community organizing course that was as dynamic as community organizing itself. By employing a combination of teaching approaches, community organizing philosophy, and pedagogical and andragogical techniques for student training, the course challenged students to discover their beliefs and the role of the community and the…

Building Bridges between Science Courses Using Honors Organic Chemistry Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hickey, Timothy; Pontrello, Jason

2016-01-01

Introductory undergraduate science courses are traditionally offered as distinct units without formalized student interaction between classes. To bridge science courses, the authors used three Honors Organic Chemistry projects paired with other science courses. The honors students delivered presentations to mainstream organic course students and…

Ethnically Diverse Students' Knowledge Structures in First-Semester Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopez, Enrique J.; Shavelson, Richard J.; Nandagopal, Kiruthiga; Szu, Evan; Penn, John

2014-01-01

Chemistry courses remain a challenge for many undergraduate students. In particular, first-semester organic chemistry has been labeled as a gatekeeper with high attrition rates, especially among students of color. Our study examines a key factor related to conceptual understanding in science and predictive of course outcomes-knowledge structures.…

Logic, History, and the Chemistry Textbook: I. Does Chemistry Have a Logical Structure?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jensen, William B.

1998-01-01

Presents the first of three invited keynote lectures from the 1995 conference of the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers. Discusses the relevance of the history of chemistry to the teaching of chemistry. Contains 27 references. (DDR)

Promoting Scientific Literacy Using a Sociocritical and Problem-Oriented Approach to Chemistry Teaching: Concept, Examples, Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marks, Ralf; Eilks, Ingo

2009-01-01

This paper revisits the discussion about the objectives of scientific literacy-oriented chemistry teaching, its connection to the German concept of "Allgemeinbildung", and the debate of "science through education" vs. "education through science". About 10 years ago the sociocritical and problem-oriented approach to…

Biodiesel Synthesis and Evaluation: An Organic Chemistry Experiment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bucholtz, Ehren C.

2007-01-01

A new lab esterification reaction based on biodiesel preparation and viscosity, which provides a model experience of industrial process to understand oxidation of vicinal alcohols by periodic acid, is presented. This new desertification experiment and periodate analysis of glycerol for the introductory organic chemistry laboratory provides an…

Biodiesel from Seeds: An Experiment for Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldstein, Steven W.

2014-01-01

Plants can store the chemical energy required by their developing offspring in the form of triglycerides. These lipids can be isolated from seeds and then converted into biodiesel through a transesterification reaction. This second-year undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory experiment exemplifies the conversion of an agricultural energy…

The Discovery-Oriented Approach to Organic Chemistry. 7. Rearrangement of "trans"-Stilbene Oxide with Bismuth Trifluoromethanesulfonate and Other Metal Triflates: A Microscale Green Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christensen, James E.; Huddle, Matthew G.; Rogers, Jamie L.; Yung, Herbie; Mohan, Ram S.

2008-01-01

Although green chemistry principles are increasingly stressed in the undergraduate curriculum, there are only a few lab experiments wherein the toxicity of reagents is taken into consideration in the design of the experiment. We report a microscale green organic chemistry laboratory experiment that illustrates the utility of metal triflates,…

"Molecules-in-Medicine": Peer-Evaluated Presentations in a Fast-Paced Organic Chemistry Course for Medical Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kadnikova, Ekaterina N.

2013-01-01

To accentuate the importance of organic chemistry in development of contemporary pharmaceuticals, a three-week unit entitled "Molecules-in-Medicine" was included in the curriculum of a comprehensive one-semester four-credit organic chemistry course. After a lecture on medicinal chemistry concepts and pharmaceutical practices, students…

3D Printed Potential and Free Energy Surfaces for Teaching Fundamental Concepts in Physical Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaliakin, Danil S.; Zaari, Ryan R.; Varganov, Sergey A.

2015-01-01

Teaching fundamental physical chemistry concepts such as the potential energy surface, transition state, and reaction path is a challenging task. The traditionally used oversimplified 2D representation of potential and free energy surfaces makes this task even more difficult and often confuses students. We show how this 2D representation can be…

CARBINOLAMINES AND GEMINAL DIOLS IN AQUEOUS ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

EPA Science Inventory

Organic chemistry textbooks generally treat geminal diols as curiosities-exceptions to the stability of the C=O double bond. However, most aldehydes of environmental significance, to wit, trichloroethanal (chloral), methanala (formaldehyde), ethanal (acetaldehyde), and propanal ...

The Critical Role of Organic Chemistry in Drug Discovery.

PubMed

Rotella, David P

2016-10-19

Small molecules remain the backbone for modern drug discovery. They are conceived and synthesized by medicinal chemists, many of whom were originally trained as organic chemists. Support from government and industry to provide training and personnel for continued development of this critical skill set has been declining for many years. This Viewpoint highlights the value of organic chemistry and organic medicinal chemists in the complex journey of drug discovery as a reminder that basic science support must be restored.

Research-Based Development of a Lesson Plan on Shower Gels and Musk Fragrances Following a Socio-Critical and Problem-Oriented Approach to Chemistry Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marks, Ralf; Eilks, Ingo

2010-01-01

A case is described of the development of a lesson plan for 10th grade (age range 15-16) chemistry classes on the chemistry of shower gels. The lesson plan follows a socio-critical and problem-oriented approach to chemistry teaching. This means that, aside from learning about the basic chemistry of the components making up modern shower gels in…

Omar Yaghi on Chemistry and Metal Organic Frameworks

ScienceCinema

Omar Yaghi

2017-12-09

In this edited version of the hour long talk, Omar Yaghi, director of the Molecular Foundry, sat down in conversation with Jeff Miller, head of Public Affairs, on July 11th, 2012 to discuss his fascination with the hidden world of chemistry and his work on Metal Organic Frameworks.

Synthesis of Bisphenol Z: An Organic Chemistry Experiment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregor, Richard W.

2012-01-01

A student achievable synthesis of bisphenol Z, 4,4'-(cyclohexane-1,1-diyl)diphenol, from the acid-catalyzed reaction of phenol with cyclohexanone is presented. The experiment exemplifies all the usual pedagogy for the standard topic of electrophilic aromatic substitution present in the undergraduate organic chemistry curriculum, while providing…

Evaluation of a Flipped, Large-Enrollment Organic Chemistry Course on Student Attitude and Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mooring, Suazette R.; Mitchell, Chloe E.; Burrows, Nikita L.

2016-01-01

Organic Chemistry is recognized as a course that presents many difficulties and conceptual challenges for students. To combat the high failure rates and poor student attitudes associated with this challenging course, we implemented a "flipped" model for the first-semester, large-enrollment, Organic Chemistry course. In this flipped…

Stepwise Approach to Writing Journal-Style Lab Reports in the Organic Chemistry Course Sequence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wackerly, Jay Wm.

2018-01-01

An approach is described that gradually transitions second-year organic chemistry students to writing full "The Journal of Organic Chemistry" ("JOC") style lab reports. The primary goal was to introduce students to and build rhetorical skills in scientific and technical writing. This was accomplished by focusing on four main…

A Multistep Synthesis for an Advanced Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang Ji; Peters, Dennis G.

2006-01-01

Multistep syntheses are often important components of the undergraduate organic laboratory experience and a three-step synthesis of 5-(2-sulfhydrylethyl) salicylaldehyde was described. The experiment is useful as a special project for an advanced undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory course and offers opportunities for students to master a…

Challenges Faced by Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers Teaching in a Laboratory and Their Solution Proposals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yalcin-Celik, Ayse; Kadayifci, Hakki; Uner, Sinem; Turan-Oluk, Nurcan

2017-01-01

This study examines the challenges faced by pre-service chemistry teachers teaching in a laboratory and their proposed solutions to these challenges. The study was conducted in a 13-week-long methodology course. Written statements from participants and observations from researchers were used as data sources. From these data, it was found that the…

An Evaluation of the Chemical Origin of Life as a Context for Teaching Undergraduate Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Venkataraman, Bhawani

2011-01-01

The chemical origin of life on earth has been used as a conceptual framework in an introductory, undergraduate chemistry course. The course explores the sequence of events through which life is believed to have emerged, from atoms to molecules to macromolecular systems, and uses this framework to teach basic chemical concepts. The results of this…

Physical Organic Chemistry of Supramolecular Polymers

PubMed Central

Serpe, Michael J.; Craig, Stephen L.

2008-01-01

Unlike the case of traditional covalent polymers, the entanglements that determine properties of supramolecular polymers are defined by very specific, intermolecular interactions. Recent work using modular molecular platforms to probe the mechanisms underlying mechanical response of supramolecular polymers is reviewed. The contributions of supramolecular kinetics, thermodynamics, and conformational flexibility to supramolecular polymer properties in solutions of discrete polymers, in networks, and at interfaces, are described. Molecule-to-material relationships are established through methods reminiscent of classic physical organic chemistry. PMID:17279638

Impact of STS (Context-Based Type of Teaching) in Comparison with a Textbook Approach on Attitudes and Achievement in Community College Chemistry Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perkins, Gita

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of a context-based teaching approach (STS) versus a more traditional textbook approach on the attitudes and achievement of community college chemistry students. In studying attitudes toward chemistry within this study, I used a 30-item Likert scale in order to study the importance of chemistry in…

Novel Aryne Chemistry in Organic Synthesis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, Zhijian

2006-12-12

Arynes are among the most intensively studied systems in chemistry. However, many aspects of the chemistry of these reactive intermediates are not well understood yet and their use as reagents in synthetic organic chemistry has been somewhat limited, due to the harsh conditions needed to generate arynes and the often uncontrolled reactivity exhibited by these species. Recently, o-silylaryl triflates, which can generate the corresponding arynes under very mild reaction conditions, have been found very useful in organic synthesis. This thesis describes several novel and useful methodologies by employing arynes, which generate from o-silylaryl triflates, in organic synthesis. An efficient, reliablemore » method for the N-arylation of amines, sulfonamides and carbamates, and the O-arylation of phenols and carboxylic acids is described in Chapter 1. Amines, sulfonamides, phenols, and carboxylic acids are good nucleophiles, which can react with arynes generated from a-silylaryl triflates to afford the corresponding N- and O-arylated products in very high yields. The regioselectivity of unsymmetrical arynes has also been studied. A lot of useful, functional groups can tolerate our reaction conditions. Carbazoles and dibenzofurans are important heteroaromatic compounds, which have a variety of biological activities. A variety of substituted carbazoles and dibenzofwans are readily prepared in good to excellent yields starting with the corresponding o-iodoanilines or o-iodophenols and o-silylaryl triflates by a treatment with CsF, followed by a Pd-catalyzed cyclization, which overall provides a one-pot, two-step process. By using this methodology, the carbazole alkaloid mukonine has been concisely synthesized in a very good yield. Insertion of an aryne into a σ-bond between a nucleophile and an electrophile (Nu-E) should potentially be a very beneficial process from the standpoint of organic synthesis. A variety of substituted ketones and sulfoxides have been synthesized

Relating Chemistry to Healthcare and MORE: Implementation of MORE in a Survey Organic and Biochemistry Course for Prehealth Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schroeder, Lianne; Bierdz, Joshua; Wink, Donald J.; King, Maripat; Daubenmire, Patrick L.; Clark, Ginevra A.

2018-01-01

We implemented a laboratory curriculum reform to teach foundational concepts in chemistry, particularly those concepts related to healthcare, in a chemistry course for prenursing students. Here, we discuss the reform, exploring how students built upon understandings gained in lab and correlating lab learning to course outcomes. We further discuss…

A Forty Year Odyssey in Metallo-Organic Chemistry.

PubMed

Nicholas, Kenneth M

2015-07-17

In this invited Perspective, I provide a personal account highlighting several of my group's research contributions in metallo-organic chemistry over the past 40 years. Our early work focused primarily in stoichiometric structure/reactivity of transition metal-organic compounds and their use in organic synthesis. More recent efforts have centered on the discovery and development of new metal-catalyzed organic reactions via reactive metal-organic intermediates. The major research findings that are described here include (1) propargyl-cobalt complexes as electrophilic agents for C-C and C-Nu coupling; (2) the activation of carbon dioxide by metal complexes; (3) metal-promoted C-H nitrogenation reactions; (4) oxo-metal catalyzed deoxygenation reactions; and (5) catalyst discovery via dynamic templating with substrate- and transition-state analogues.

Development and Application of a Scoring Rubric for Evaluating Students' Experimental Skills in Organic Chemistry: An Instructional Guide for Teaching Assistants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Hui-Jung; She, Jui-Lin; Chou, Chin-Cheng; Tsai, Yeun-Min; Chiu, Mei-Hung

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a scoring rubric to assess students' manipulation skills and identify students' learning difficulties in conducting organic chemistry experiments. In constructing the scoring rubric, we first analyzed the skills needed in the experiment, then divided the skills into subskills, and finally…

Green Chemistry and Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hjeresen, Dennis L.; Schutt, David L.; Boese, Janet M.

2000-01-01

Many students today are profoundly interested in the sustainability of their world. Introduces Green Chemistry and its principles with teaching materials. Green Chemistry is the use of chemistry for pollution prevention and the design of chemical products and processes that are environmentally benign. (ASK)

Investigating the Relevance of Some Suggested Textbooks for the Teaching of the New Chemistry Syllabus in Kenyan Secondary Schools. African Studies in Curriculum Development & Evaluation No. 88.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ochola, Joel Aduma

This study was designed to find out how far suggested textbooks have been adopted in teaching a new chemistry syllabus in Kenya and if the chemistry books now being used in schools to teach the new syllabus involve activity and encourage the process of scientific inquiry. The new syllabus is a merger between the traditional separate chemistry…

What Does the Acid Ionization Constant Tell You? An Organic Chemistry Student Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rossi, Robert D.

2013-01-01

Many students find the transition from first-year general chemistry to second-year organic chemistry a daunting task. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is their lack of a solid understanding and appreciation of the importance of some basic concepts and principles from general chemistry that play an extremely critical role in…

Problem Types in Synthetic Organic Chemistry Research: Implications for the Development of Curricular Problems for Second-Year Level Organic Chemistry Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raker, Jeffrey R.; Towns, Marcy H.

2012-01-01

Understanding of the nature of science is key to the development of new curricular materials that mirror the practice of science. Three problem types (project level, synthetic planning, and day-to-day) in synthetic organic chemistry emerged during a thematic content analysis of the research experiences of eight practising synthetic organic…

Integrating Chemical Information Instruction into the Chemistry Curriculum on Borrowed Time: A Multiyear Case Study of a Capstone Research Report for Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Danielle L.; Dalal, Heather A.; Dawson, Patricia H.

2016-01-01

To develop information literacy skills in chemistry and biochemistry majors at a primarily undergraduate institution, a multiyear collaboration between chemistry faculty and librarians has resulted in the establishment of a semester-long capstone project for Organic Chemistry II. Information literacy skills were instilled via a progressive…

Student Perceptions of Online Homework Use for Formative Assessment of Learning in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards-Babb, Michelle; Curtis, Reagan; Georgieva, Zornitsa; Penn, John H.

2015-01-01

Use of online homework as a formative assessment tool for organic chemistry coursework was examined. Student perceptions of online homework in terms of (i) its ranking relative to other course aspects, (ii) their learning of organic chemistry, and (iii) whether it improved their study habits and how students used it as a learning tool were…

Challenges in Creating Online Exercises and Exams in Organic Chemistry.

PubMed

Jaun, Bernhard; Thilgen, Carlo

2018-02-01

e-Learning has become increasingly important in chemical education and online exams can be an attractive alternative to traditional exams written on paper, particularly in classes with a large number of students. Ten years ago, we began to set up an e-course complementing our lecture courses Organic Chemistry I and II within the open-source e-learning environment Moodle. In this article, we retrace a number of decisions we took over time, thereby illustrating the challenges one faces when creating online exercises and exams in (organic) chemistry. Special emphasis is put on the development of MOSFECCS (MOlecular Structural Formula Editor and Calculator of Canonical SMILES), our new editor for drawing structural formulae and converting them to alphanumeric SMILES codes that can be submitted as answers to e-problems. Convinced that the possibility for structure input is essential to set up sensible chemistry quizzes and exams, and realising that existing tools present major flaws in an educational context, we decided to embark on the implementation of MOSFECCS which takes into account a number of didactic aspects.

Humanizing Chemistry Education: From Simple Contextualization to Multifaceted Problematization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sjöström, Jesper; Talanquer, Vicente

2014-01-01

Chemistry teaching has traditionally been weakly connected to everyday life, technology, society, and history and philosophy of science. This article highlights knowledge areas and perspectives needed by the humanistic (and critical-reflexive) chemistry teacher. Different humanistic approaches in chemistry teaching, from simple contextualization…

Student Perceptions of Group-Based Competitive Exercises in the Chemistry Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cannon, Kevin C.; Mody, Tina; Breen, Maureen P.

2008-01-01

A non-traditional teaching method that can operate as a vehicle for engaging students is group-based competitive exercises. These exercises combine cooperative learning with a competitive environment and may be employed to promote subject- and problem-based learning. Survey responses of college-level organic chemistry and biochemistry students…

Effectiveness of Analogy Instructional Strategy on Undergraduate Student's Acquisition of Organic Chemistry Concepts in Mutah University, Jordan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samara, Nawaf Ahmad Hasan

2016-01-01

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of analogy instructional strategy on undergraduate students' acquisition of organic chemistry concepts in Mutah University, Jordan. A quasi-experimental design was used in the study; Participants were 97 students who enrolled in organic chemistry course at the department of chemistry during the…

The State of Organic Teaching Laboratories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horowitz, Gail

2007-01-01

The changes that have taken place in the organic chemistry laboratory course since 1980s are reviewed with reference to the quantity and diversity of discovery-based experiments available to date. The data illustrates that significant progress is towards accomplishing dramatic changes such as the almost universal adoption of microscale, the use of…

Using Structure-Based Organic Chemistry Online Tutorials with Automated Correction for Student Practice and Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Sullivan, Timothy P.; Hargaden, Gra´inne C.

2014-01-01

This article describes the development and implementation of an open-access organic chemistry question bank for online tutorials and assessments at University College Cork and Dublin Institute of Technology. SOCOT (structure-based organic chemistry online tutorials) may be used to supplement traditional small-group tutorials, thereby allowing…

Nickel-Catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-Coupling in a Green Alcohol Solvent for an Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory.

PubMed

Hie, Liana; Chang, Jonah J; Garg, Neil K

2015-03-10

A modern undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory experiment involving the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling is reported. Although Suzuki-Miyaura couplings typically employ palladium catalysts in environmentally harmful solvents, this experiment features the use of inexpensive nickel catalysis, in addition to a "green" alcohol solvent. The experiment employs heterocyclic substrates, which are important pharmaceutical building blocks. Thus, this laboratory procedure exposes students to a variety of contemporary topics in organic chemistry, including transition metal-catalyzed cross-couplings, green chemistry, and the importance of heterocycles in drug discovery, none of which are well represented in typical undergraduate organic chemistry curricula. The experimental protocol uses commercially available reagents and is useful in both organic and inorganic instructional laboratories.

Promoting Chemistry Learning through Undergraduate Work Experience in the Chemistry Lab: A Practical Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yu, Hong-Bin

2015-01-01

Hiring undergraduate lab assistants in chemistry departments is common in college. However, few studies have focused on promoting undergraduate chemistry learning and thinking skills through this work experience in chemistry teaching laboratories. This article discusses the strategy we implemented in the lab assistant program. The…

Characterizing the Landscape: Collegiate Organizations' Chemistry Outreach Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pratt, Justin M.; Yezierski, Ellen J.

2018-01-01

Little scholarly investigation of chemistry outreach carried out by undergraduate students in schools and communities has occurred despite widespread practice and monetary investment by large national and international organizations. This study provides the first investigation of these fairly uncharted waters by characterizing expected outcomes of…

An Asymptotic Approach to the Development of a Green Organic Chemistry Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodwin, Thomas E.

2004-01-01

Green chemistry is the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical products. Some of the philosophical questions and practical decisions that have guided the greening of the organic chemistry laboratory at Hendrix College in…

Beyond Rote Learning in Organic Chemistry: The Infusion and Impact of Argumentation in Tertiary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pabuccu, Aybuke; Erduran, Sibel

2017-01-01

There exists bias among students that learning organic chemistry topics requires rote learning. In this paper, we address such bias through an organic chemistry activity designed to promote argumentation. We investigated how pre-service science teachers engage in an argumentation about conformational analysis. Analysis of the outcomes concentrated…

Student Response to a Partial Inversion of an Organic Chemistry Course for Non-Chemistry Majors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rein, Kathleen S.; Brookes, David T.

2015-01-01

We report the student response to a two-year transformation of a one-semester organic chemistry course for nonchemistry majors. The transformed course adopted a peer led team learning approach and incorporated case studies. Student attitudes toward the course transformation were assessed throughout the semester, and adjustments to the methods were…

Water Mediated Wittig Reactions of Aldehydes in the Teaching Laboratory: Using Sodium Bicarbonate for the in Situ Formation of Stabilized Ylides

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Michael J. B.; Fallot, Lucas B.; Gustafson, Jeffrey L.; Bergdahl, B. Mikael

2016-01-01

The synthesis of alkenes using the Wittig reaction is a traditional part of many undergraduate organic chemistry teaching laboratory curricula. The aqueous medium version of the Wittig reaction presented is a reliable adaptation of this alkene formation reaction as a very safe alternative in the introductory organic chemistry laboratory. The…

Aligning the Undergraduate Organic Laboratory Experience with Professional Work: The Centrality of Reliable and Meaningful Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alaimo, Peter J.; Langenhan, Joseph M.; Suydam, Ian T.

2014-01-01

Many traditional organic chemistry lab courses do not adequately help students to develop the professional skills required for creative, independent work. The overarching goal of the new organic chemistry lab series at Seattle University is to teach undergraduates to think, perform, and behave more like professional scientists. The conversion of…

Teaching social responsibility in analytical chemistry.

PubMed

Valcárcel, M; Christian, G D; Lucena, R

2013-07-02

Analytical chemistry is key to the functioning of a modern society. From early days, ethics in measurements have been a concern and that remains today, especially as we have come to rely more on the application of analytical science in many aspects of our lives. The main aim of this Feature is to suggest ways of introducing the topic of social responsibility and its relation to analytical chemistry in undergraduate or graduate chemistry courses.

NASA's planetary protection program as an astrobiology teaching module

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolb, Vera M.

2005-09-01

We are currently developing a teaching module on the NASA's Planetary Protection Program for UW-Parkside SENCER courses. SENCER stands for Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibility. It is a national initiative of the National Science Foundation (NSF), now in its fifth year, to improve science education by teaching basic sciences through the complex public issues of the 21st century. The Planetary Protection Program is one such complex public issue. Teaching astrobiology and the NASA's goals via the Planetary Protection module within the SENCER courses seems to be a good formula to reach large number of students in an interesting and innovative way. We shall describe the module that we are developing. It will be launched on our web site titled "Astrobiology at Parkside" (http://oldweb.uwp.edu/academic/chemistry/kolb/organic_chemistry/, or go to Google and then to Vera Kolb Home Page), and thus will be available for teaching to all interested parties.

Crystallizing Classroom Chemists: From Isolated Disorder to Organized Interaction in the Teaching of Chemistry. A History of the Effort To Create a National Chemical Education Organization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bohning, James J.

2003-06-01

Chemistry was an integral part of the culture of the earliest settlements in America, but for almost two centuries it languished as a nascent profession, plagued in part by a lack of suitable textbooks and a "dearth of competent teachers". A few individuals, such as Benjamin Silliman and Amos Eaton, acted as seed crystals in attracting and preparing some chemistry teachers, yet as late as the beginning of World War I, "the average isolated teacher had to work out his own salvation as best he could with the aid of an occasional book agent". Small regional organizations of teachers did exist at this time, but achieved little in connecting teachers on a national level. It was out of this amorphous mixture that the American Chemical Society‘s Division of Chemical Education (DIVCHED) solidified, uniting at last a dedicated group of teachers with common problems and a passionate dedication to their discipline and their students.

CHEMISTRY OF DISSOLVED ORGANIC CARBON AND ORGANIC ACIDS IN TWO STREAMS DRAINING FORESTED WATERSHEDS

EPA Science Inventory

The concentration, major fractions, and contribution of dissolved organic carbon (DOG) to stream chemistry were examined in two paired streams draining upland catchments in eastern Maine. oncentrations of DOC in East and West Bear Brooks were 183 +/- 73 and 169 +/- 70 umol CL-1 (...

The Effect of Concept Mapping-Guided Discovery Integrated Teaching Approach on Chemistry Students' Achievement and Retention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fatokun, K. V. F.; Eniayeju, P. A.

2014-01-01

This study investigates the effects of Concept Mapping-Guided Discovery Integrated Teaching Approach on the achievement and retention of chemistry students. The sample comprised 162 Senior Secondary two (SS 2) students drawn from two Science Schools in Nasarawa State, Central Nigeria with equivalent mean scores of 9.68 and 9.49 in their pre-test.…

Climate Change Concepts and POGIL: Using climate change to teach general chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

King, D. B.; Lewis, J. E.; Anderson, K.; Latch, D.; Sutheimer, S.; Webster, G.; Middlecamp, C.; Moog, R.

2013-12-01

Climate change is a topic that can be used to engage students in a variety of courses and disciplines. Through an NSF-funded project, we have written a set of in-class POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) activities that use climate change topics to teach general chemistry concepts. POGIL is a pedagogical approach that uses group activities to teach content and process skills. In these group activities an initial model and a series of critical thinking questions are used to guide students through the introduction to or application of course content. Students complete the activities on their own, with the faculty member as a facilitator of learning, rather than a provider of information. Through assigned group roles and intentionally designed activity structure, process skills, such as teamwork, communication, and information processing, are developed during completion of the activity. While POGIL activities were initially developed for chemistry courses, this approach has now been used to create materials for use in other fields, such as biology, math, engineering and computer science. An additional component of this project is the incorporation of questions that relate to socio-scientific issues, e.g., the economic and social effects of climate change policies. The goal is for students to use evidence-based arguments in situations where opinion-based arguments are common. Key components (i.e., models and the corresponding critical thinking questions) of one activity will be presented. We will also report preliminary feedback based on initial classroom testing of several of the activities.

Radical Recombination Kinetics: An Experiment in Physical Organic Chemistry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pickering, Miles

1980-01-01

Describes a student kinetic experiment involving second order kinetics as well as displaying photochromism using a wide variety of techniques from both physical and organic chemistry. Describes measurement of (1) the rate of the recombination reaction; (2) the extinction coefficient; and (3) the ESR spectrometer signal. (Author/JN)

Azeotropic Preparation of a "C"-Phenyl "N"-Aryl Imine: An Introductory Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silverberg, Lee J.; Coyle, David J.; Cannon, Kevin C.; Mathers, Robert T.; Richards, Jeffrey A.; Tierney, John

2016-01-01

Imines are important in biological chemistry and as intermediates in organic synthesis. An experiment for introductory undergraduate organic chemistry is presented in which benzaldehyde was condensed with "p"-methoxyaniline in toluene to give 4-methoxy-"N"-(phenylmethylene)benzenamine. Water was removed by azeotropic…

Using the Lens of Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching the Nature of Science to Portray Novice Chemistry Teachers' Transforming NOS in Early Years of Teaching Profession

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Supprakob, Surayot; Faikhamta, Chatree; Suwanruji, Potjanart

2016-01-01

Pedagogical content knowledge for teaching the nature of science (PCK for NOS) has attracted interest in recent decades. This study investigated the PCK for NOS of six novice chemistry teachers with various educational backgrounds. An interpretive case study was performed. Multiple data sources including classroom observations, field notes,…

The Journal of Kitchen Chemistry: A Tool for Instructing the Preparation of a Chemistry Journal Article

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyers, Jonathan K.; LeBaron, Tyler W.; Collins, David C.

2014-01-01

Writing assignments are typically incorporated into chemistry courses in an attempt to enhance the learning of chemistry or to teach technical writing to chemistry majors. This work addresses the development of chemistry-major writing skills by focusing on the rigorous guidelines and conventions associated with the preparation of a journal…

A comparative study teaching chemistry using the 5E learning cycle and traditional teaching with a large English language population in a middle-school setting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McWright, Cynthia Nicole

For decades science educators and educational institutions have been concerned with the status of science content being taught in K-12 schools and the delivery of the content. Thus, educational reformers in the United States continue to strive to solve the problem on how to best teach science for optimal success in learning. The constructivist movement has been at the forefront of this effort. With mandatory testing nationwide and an increase in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs with little workforce to fulfill these needs, the question of what to teach and how to teach science remains a concern among educators and all stakeholders. The purpose of this research was to determine if students' chemistry knowledge and interest can be increased by using the 5E learning cycle in a middle school with a high population of English language learners. The participants were eighth-grade middle school students in a large metropolitan area. Students participated in a month-long chemistry unit. The study was a quantitative, quasi-experimental design with a control group using a traditional lecture-style teaching strategy and an experimental group using the 5E learning cycle. Students completed a pre-and post-student attitude in science surveys, a pretest/posttest for each mini-unit taught and completed daily exit tickets using the Expert Science Teaching Educational Evaluation Model (ESTEEM) instrument to measure daily student outcomes in main idea, student inquiry, and relevancy. Analysis of the data showed that there was no statistical difference between the two groups overall, and all students experienced a gain in content knowledge overall. All students demonstrated a statistically significant difference in their interest in science class, activities in science class, and outside of school. Data also showed that scores in writing the main idea and writing inquiry questions about the content increased over time.

Green Chemistry Pedagogy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolopajlo, Larry

2017-02-01

This chapter attempts to show how the practice of chemistry teaching and learning is enriched by the incorporation of green chemistry (GC) into lectures and labs. To support this viewpoint, evidence from a wide range of published papers serve as a cogent argument that GC attracts and engages both science and nonscience students, enhances chemistry content knowledge, and improves the image of the field, while preparing the world for a sustainable future. Published pedagogy associated with green and sustainable chemistry is critically reviewed and discussed.

Delayed Reaction: The Tardy Embrace of Physical Organic Chemistry by the German Chemical Community.

PubMed

Weininger, Stephen J

2018-02-01

The emergence of physical organic chemistry, which focuses on the mechanisms and structures of organic reactions and molecules using the tools of physical chemistry, was a major development in twentieth-century chemistry. It first flourished in the interwar period, in the UK and then in the US. Germany, by contrast, did not embrace the field until almost a half century later. The great success of classical organic chemistry, especially in synthesis, encouraged indifference to the new field among German chemists, as did their inductivist research philosophy, as enunciated by Walter Hückel's ground-breaking textbook (1931). This author also resisted new concepts and representations, especially those of the American theoretician, Linus Pauling. The arrival of the Nazi regime reinforced such resistance. Postwar conditions initiated a reaction against this conservative, nationalistic attitude, especially in the American Occupation Zone. Exposure to American textbooks and visiting lecturers influenced attitudes of younger chemists. The accompanying shift towards a more explanatory, less hierarchical mode of pedagogy was consonant with larger social and political developments.

Integrating Symmetry in Stereochemical Analysis in Introductory Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taagepera, Mare; Arasasingham, Ramesh D.; King, Susan; Potter, Frank; Martorell, Ingrid; Ford, David; Wu, Jason; Kearney, Aaron M.

2011-01-01

We report a comparative study using "knowledge space theory" (KAT) to assess the impact of a hands-on laboratory exercise that used molecular model kits to emphasize the connections between a plane of symmetry, Charity, and isomerism in an introductory organic chemistry course. The experimental design compared three groups of…

Intuitive Judgments Govern Students' Answering Patterns in Multiple-Choice Exercises in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graulich, Nicole

2015-01-01

Research in chemistry education has revealed that students going through their undergraduate and graduate studies in organic chemistry have a fragmented conceptual knowledge of the subject. Rote memorization, rule-based reasoning, and heuristic strategies seem to strongly influence students' performances. There appears to be a gap between what we…

Longitudinal Study of Middle Grades Chemistry Professional Development: Enhancement of Personal Science Teaching Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khourey-Bowers, Claudia; Simonis, Doris G.

2004-01-01

The purpose of this research was to enhance self-efficacy beliefs, chemistry content, and pedagogical content knowledge of middle grades teachers by incorporating specific design elements into professional development. This study analyzed the influence of program design on achieving gains in personal science teaching self-efficacy, outcome…

Student Perceptions of Online Homework Use for Formative Assessment of Learning in Organic Chemistry.

PubMed

Richards-Babb, Michelle; Curtis, Reagan; Georgieva, Zomitsa; Penn, John H

2015-11-10

Use of online homework as a formative assessment tool for organic chemistry coursework was examined. Student perceptions of online homework in terms of (i) its ranking relative to other course aspects, (ii) their learning of organic chemistry, and (iii) whether it improved their study habits and how students used it as a learning tool were investigated. Our students perceived the online homework as one of the more useful course aspects for learning organic chemistry content. We found a moderate and statistically significant correlation between online homework performance and final grade. Gender as a variable was ruled out since significant gender differences in overall attitude toward online homework use and course success rates were not found. Our students expressed relatively positive attitudes toward use of online homework with a majority indicating improved study habits (e.g., study in a more consistent manner). Our students used a variety of resources to remediate incorrect responses (e.g., class materials, general online materials, and help from others). However, 39% of our students admitted to guessing at times, instead of working to remediate incorrect responses. In large enrollment organic chemistry courses, online homework may act to bridge the student-instructor gap by providing students with a supportive mechanism for regulated learning of content.

Chemistry for Whom? Gender Awareness in Teaching and Learning Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andersson, Kristina

2017-01-01

Marie Ståhl and Anita Hussénius have defined what discourses dominate national tests in chemistry for Grade 9 in Sweden by using feminist, critical didactic perspectives. This response seeks to expand the results in Ståhl and Hussénius's article "Chemistry inside an epistemological community box!--Discursive exclusions and inclusions in the…

Synthesis and Chemistry of Organic Geminal Di- and Triazides.

PubMed

Häring, Andreas P; Kirsch, Stefan F

2015-11-06

This review recapitulates all available literature dealing with the synthesis and reactivity of geminal organic di- and triazides. These compound classes are, to a large extent, unexplored despite their promising chemical properties and their simple preparation. In addition, the chemistry of carbonyl diazide (2) and tetraazidomethane (105) is described in separate sections.

Does Mechanistic Thinking Improve Student Success in Organic Chemistry?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grove, Nathaniel P.; Cooper, Melanie M.; Cox, Elizabeth L.

2012-01-01

The use of the curved-arrow notation to depict electron flow during mechanistic processes is one of the most important representational conventions in the organic chemistry curriculum. Our previous research documented a disturbing trend: when asked to predict the products of a series of reactions, many students do not spontaneously engage in…

A Simple Mnemonic for Tautomerization Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephens, Chad E.

2010-01-01

The familiar word OREO (as in the cookie) is presented as a simple mnemonic for remembering the basic steps of the classical tautomerization mechanisms in organic chemistry. For acid-catalyzed tautomerizations, OREO stands for proton on, resonance, proton off. For base-catalyzed tautomerizations, OREO stands for proton off, resonance, proton on.…

Chemistry 20-30: Background, Exemplars and Resources.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hackman, Desiree; And Others

This document is designed to provide practical information for teaching the Chemistry 20-30 Program of Studies. The first section provides an overview of Chemistry 20, explaining the program philosophy and the relationships among science, technology, and society. The use of concept connections and teaching a course around major science themes is…

Detection of Organics at Mars: How Wet Chemistry Onboard SAM Helps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buch, A.; Freissinet, Caroline; Szopa, C.; Glavin, D.; Coll, P.; Cabane, M.; Eigenbrode, J.; Navarro-Gonzalez, R.; Coscia, D.; Teinturier, S.;

Redox chemistry and natural organic matter (NOM): Geochemists' dream, analytical chemists' nightmare

USGS Publications Warehouse

Macalady, Donald L.; Walton-Day, Katherine

2011-01-01

Natural organic matter (NOM) is an inherently complex mixture of polyfunctional organic molecules. Because of their universality and chemical reversibility, oxidation/reductions (redox) reactions of NOM have an especially interesting and important role in geochemistry. Variabilities in NOM composition and chemistry make studies of its redox chemistry particularly challenging, and details of NOM-mediated redox reactions are only partially understood. This is in large part due to the analytical difficulties associated with NOM characterization and the wide range of reagents and experimental systems used to study NOM redox reactions. This chapter provides a summary of the ongoing efforts to provide a coherent comprehension of aqueous redox chemistry involving NOM and of techniques for chemical characterization of NOM. It also describes some attempts to confirm the roles of different structural moieties in redox reactions. In addition, we discuss some of the operational parameters used to describe NOM redox capacities and redox states, and describe nomenclature of NOM redox chemistry. Several relatively facile experimental methods applicable to predictions of the NOM redox activity and redox states of NOM samples are discussed, with special attention to the proposed use of fluorescence spectroscopy to predict relevant redox characteristics of NOM samples.

How the Principles of Green Chemistry Changed the Way Organic Chemistry Labs Are Taught at the University of Detroit Mercy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mio, Matthew J.

2017-02-01

Many logistic and instructional changes followed the incorporation of the 12 principles of green chemistry into organic chemistry laboratory courses at the University of Detroit Mercy. Over the last decade, institutional limitations have been turned into green chemical strengths in many areas, including integration of atom economy metrics into learning outcomes, replacing overly toxic equipment and reagents, and modifying matters of reaction scale and type.

Puzzling through General Chemistry: A Light-Hearted Approach to Engaging Students with Chemistry Content

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyd, Susan L.

2007-01-01

Several puzzles are designed to be used by chemistry students as learning tools and teach them basic chemical concepts. The topics of the puzzles are based on the chapters from Chemistry, The Central Science used in general chemistry course and the puzzles are in various forms like crosswords, word searches, number searches, puzzles based on…

Toward Consistent Terminology for Cyclohexane Conformers in Introductory Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Donna J.; Brammer, Christopher N.

2011-01-01

Recommended changes in use of cyclohexane conformers and their nomenclature will remedy inconsistencies in cyclohexane conformers and their nomenclature that exist across currently used organic chemistry textbooks. These inconsistencies prompted this logical analysis and the resulting recommendations. Recommended conformer names are "chair",…

Chemistry, Poetry, and Artistic Illustration: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching and Promoting Chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furlan, Ping Y.; Kitson, Herbert; Andes, Cynthia

2007-10-01

This article describes a successful interdisciplinary collaboration among chemistry, humanities and English faculty members, who utilized poetry and artistic illustration to help students learn, appreciate, and enjoy chemistry. Students taking general chemistry classes were introduced to poetry writing and museum-type poster preparation during one class period. They were then encouraged to use their imagination and creativity to brainstorm and write chemistry poems or humors on the concepts and principles covered in the chemistry classes and artistically illustrate their original work on posters. The project, 2 3 months in length, was perceived by students as effective at helping them learn chemistry and express their understanding in a fun, personal, and creative way. The instructors found students listened to the directives because many posters were witty, clever, and eye-catching. They showed fresh use of language and revealed a good understanding of chemistry. The top posters were created by a mix of A-, B-, and C-level students. The fine art work, coupled with poetry, helped chemistry come alive on campus, providing an aesthetic presentation of materials that engaged the general viewer.

The effectiveness of student team-achievement division (STAD) for teaching high school chemistry in the United Arab Emirates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balfakih, Nagib M. A.

2003-05-01

Education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) faces major problems which may hinder its future development. These include low achievement in science and a negative attitude toward science subjects, which have resulted in a high number of student dropouts from the science track in high school. It is believed among UAE educators that the main reason is the way science that has been taught in its schools. A solution to this problem depends on finding effective teaching methods, which maintain student achievement, improve students' attitude and provide opportunities to develop essential scientific skills. The effectiveness of Student Team-Achievement Division (STAD) for teaching science to high school classes in the UAE was investigated. The sample was selected randomly. A representative group of UAE high school students was chosen from the northern province, which includes urban areas, and from the eastern province, which includes rural areas. The study involved sixteen tenth grade classes. During the second semester of the academic year 1998/1999, three units in the chemistry curriculum were covered. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of STAD in teaching high school chemistry in the UAE and to find out which groups, gender, area, and ability benefitted most.

Content-related interactions and methods of reasoning within self-initiated organic chemistry study groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christian, Karen Jeanne

2011-12-01

Students often use study groups to prepare for class or exams; yet to date, we know very little about how these groups actually function. This study looked at the ways in which undergraduate organic chemistry students prepared for exams through self-initiated study groups. We sought to characterize the methods of social regulation, levels of content processing, and types of reasoning processes used by students within their groups. Our analysis showed that groups engaged in predominantly three types of interactions when discussing chemistry content: co-construction, teaching, and tutoring. Although each group engaged in each of these types of interactions at some point, their prevalence varied between groups and group members. Our analysis suggests that the types of interactions that were most common depended on the relative content knowledge of the group members as well as on the difficulty of the tasks in which they were engaged. Additionally, we were interested in characterizing the reasoning methods used by students within their study groups. We found that students used a combination of three content-relevant methods of reasoning: model-based reasoning, case-based reasoning, or rule-based reasoning, in conjunction with one chemically-irrelevant method of reasoning: symbol-based reasoning. The most common way for groups to reason was to use rules, whereas the least common way was for students to work from a model. In general, student reasoning correlated strongly to the subject matter to which students were paying attention, and was only weakly related to student interactions. Overall, results from this study may help instructors to construct appropriate tasks to guide what and how students study outside of the classroom. We found that students had a decidedly strategic approach in their study groups, relying heavily on material provided by their instructors, and using the reasoning strategies that resulted in the lowest levels of content processing. We suggest

Synthesis and Metalation of a Ligand: An Interdisciplinary Laboratory Experiment for Second-Year Organic and Introductory Inorganic Chemistry Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kasting, Benjamin J.; Bowser, Andrew K.; Anderson-Wile, Amelia M.; Wile, Bradley M.

2015-01-01

An interdisciplinary laboratory experiment involving second-year undergraduate organic chemistry and introductory inorganic chemistry undergraduate students is described. Organic chemistry students prepare a series of amine-bis(phenols) via a Mannich reaction, and characterize their products using melting point; FTIR; and [superscript 1]H,…

An Approach towards Teaching Green Chemistry Fundamentals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Arnum, Susan D.

2005-01-01

A useful metrics system for the assessment of the environmental impact of chemical processes is utilized to illustrate several of the principles of green chemistry. The use of this metrics system in conjunction with laboratory experiments in green chemistry would provide for reinforcement in both the theory and practice of green chemistry.

Hear My Voice! Teaching Difficult Subjects with Graphic Organizers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barbieri, Kim E.

2011-01-01

Graphic organizers are immensely popular--and much utilized--in many classrooms, particularly at the elementary level. These creative and innovate teaching tools are a very effective addition to the teaching repertoire and may be designed to maximize precious class time. For the secondary social studies teacher, their instant appeal and universal…

Organic Chemistry and the Native Plants of the Sonoran Desert: Conversion of Jojoba Oil to Biodiesel

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daconta, Lisa V.; Minger, Timothy; Nedelkova, Valentina; Zikopoulos, John N.

2015-01-01

A new, general approach to the organic chemistry laboratory is introduced that is based on learning about organic chemistry techniques and research methods by exploring the natural products found in local native plants. As an example of this approach for the Sonoran desert region, the extraction of jojoba oil and its transesterification to…

A Process Model for the Comprehension of Organic Chemistry Notation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Havanki, Katherine L.

2012-01-01

This dissertation examines the cognitive processes individuals use when reading organic chemistry equations and factors that affect these processes, namely, visual complexity of chemical equations and participant characteristics (expertise, spatial ability, and working memory capacity). A six stage process model for the comprehension of organic…

Green analytical chemistry - the use of surfactants as a replacement of organic solvents in spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pharr, Daniel Y.

2017-07-01

This chapter gives an introduction to the many practical uses of surfactants in analytical chemistry in replacing organic solvents to achieve greener chemistry. Taking a holistic approach, it covers some background of surfactants as chemical solvents, their properties and as green chemicals, including their environmental effects. The achievements of green analytical chemistry with micellar systems are reviewed in all the major areas of analytical chemistry where these reagents have been found to be useful.

3D-printed devices for continuous-flow organic chemistry.

PubMed

Dragone, Vincenza; Sans, Victor; Rosnes, Mali H; Kitson, Philip J; Cronin, Leroy

2013-01-01

We present a study in which the versatility of 3D-printing is combined with the processing advantages of flow chemistry for the synthesis of organic compounds. Robust and inexpensive 3D-printed reactionware devices are easily connected using standard fittings resulting in complex, custom-made flow systems, including multiple reactors in a series with in-line, real-time analysis using an ATR-IR flow cell. As a proof of concept, we utilized two types of organic reactions, imine syntheses and imine reductions, to show how different reactor configurations and substrates give different products.

Dragonfly: In Situ Exploration of Titan's Organic Chemistry and Habitability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turtle, E. P.; Barnes, J. W.; Trainer, M. G.; Lorenz, R. D.

2017-12-01

Titan's abundant complex carbon-rich chemistry, interior ocean, and past presence of liquid water on the surface make it an ideal destination to study prebiotic chemical processes and document the habitability of an extraterrestrial environment. Titan exploration is a high science priority due to the level of organic synthesis that it supports. Moreover, opportunities for organics to have interacted with liquid water at the surface (e.g., in impact melt sheets) increase the potential for chemical processes to progress further, providing an unparalleled opportunity to investigate prebiotic chemistry, as well as to search for signatures of potential water-based or even hydrocarbon-based life. The diversity of Titan's surface materials and environments drives the scientific need to be able to sample a variety of locations, thus mobility is key for in situ measurements. Titan's atmosphere is 4 times denser than Earth's reducing the wing/rotor area required to generate a given amount of lift, and the low gravity reduces the required magnitude of lift, making heavier-than-air mobility highly efficient. Dragonfly is a rotorcraft lander mission proposed to NASA's New Frontiers Program to take advantage of Titan's unique natural laboratory to understand how far chemistry can progress in environments that provide key ingredients for life. Measuring the compositions of materials in different environments will reveal how far organic chemistry has progressed. Surface material can be sampled into a mass spectrometer to identify the chemical components available and processes at work to produce biologically relevant compounds. Bulk elemental surface composition can be determined by a neutron-activated gamma-ray spectrometer. Meteorology measurements can characterize Titan's atmosphere and diurnal and spatial variations therein. Geologic features can be characterized via remote-sensing observations, which also provide context for samples. Seismic sensing can probe subsurface

Atmospheric Prebiotic Chemistry and Organic Hazes.

PubMed

Trainer, Melissa G

2013-08-01

Earth's atmospheric composition at the time of the origin of life is not known, but it has often been suggested that chemical transformation of reactive species in the atmosphere was a significant source of prebiotic organic molecules. Experimental and theoretical studies over the past half century have shown that atmospheric synthesis can yield molecules such as amino acids and nucleobases, but these processes are very sensitive to gas composition and energy source. Abiotic synthesis of organic molecules is more productive in reduced atmospheres, yet the primitive Earth may not have been as reducing as earlier workers assumed, and recent research has reflected this shift in thinking. This work provides a survey of the range of chemical products that can be produced given a set of atmospheric conditions, with a particular focus on recent reports. Intertwined with the discussion of atmospheric synthesis is the consideration of an organic haze layer, which has been suggested as a possible ultraviolet shield on the anoxic early Earth. Since such a haze layer - if formed - would serve as a reservoir for organic molecules, the chemical composition of the aerosol should be closely examined. The results highlighted here show that a variety of products can be formed in mildly reducing or even neutral atmospheres, demonstrating that contributions of atmospheric synthesis to the organic inventory on early Earth should not be discounted. This review intends to bridge current knowledge of the range of possible atmospheric conditions in the prebiotic environment and pathways for synthesis under such conditions by examining the possible products of organic chemistry in the early atmosphere.

Atmospheric Prebiotic Chemistry and Organic Hazes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trainer, Melissa G.

2012-01-01

Earth's atmospheric composition at the time of the origin of life is not known, but it has often been suggested that chemical transformation of reactive species in the atmosphere was a significant source of pre biotic organic molecules. Experimental and theoretical studies over the past half century have shown that atmospheric synthesis can yield molecules such as amino acids and nucleobases, but these processes are very sensitive to gas composition and energy source. Abiotic synthesis of organic molecules is more productive in reduced atmospheres, yet the primitive Earth may not have been as reducing as earlier workers assumed, and recent research has reflected this shift in thinking. This work provides a survey of the range of chemical products that can be produced given a set of atmospheric conditions, with a particular focus on recent reports. Intertwined with the discussion of atmospheric synthesis is the consideration of an organic haze layer, which has been suggested as a possible ultraviolet shield on the anoxic early Earth. Since such a haze layer - if formed - would serve as a reservoir for organic molecules, the chemical composition of the aerosol should be closely examined. The results highlighted here show that a variety of products can be formed in mildly reducing or even neutral atmospheres, demonstrating that contributions of atmospheric synthesis to the organic inventory on early Earth should not be discounted. This review intends to bridge current knowledge of the range of possible atmospheric conditions in the prebiotic environment and pathways for synthesis under such conditions by examining the possible products of organic chemistry in the early atmosphere.

Using Metaphors to Teach Organization Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taber, Tom D.

2007-01-01

Metaphors were used to teach systems thinking and to clarify concepts of organizational theory in an introductory MBA management course. Gareth Morgan's metaphors of organization were read by students and applied as frames to analyze a business case. In addition, personal metaphors were written by individual students in order to describe the…

First-Year Chemistry in the Context of the Periodic Table.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodgate, Sheila D.

1995-01-01

Describes the methods that have been developed to blend descriptive chemistry and principles in a first-year chemistry course. The key is active teaching of the subject using the periodic table as a template. Inorganic chemistry is taught using a group approach: developing trends that help teaching and learning become obvious if all elements of…

Aqueous organic chemistry in the atmosphere: sources and chemical processing of organic aerosols.

PubMed

McNeill, V Faye

2015-02-03

Over the past decade, it has become clear that aqueous chemical processes occurring in cloud droplets and wet atmospheric particles are an important source of organic atmospheric particulate matter. Reactions of water-soluble volatile (or semivolatile) organic gases (VOCs or SVOCs) in these aqueous media lead to the formation of highly oxidized organic particulate matter (secondary organic aerosol; SOA) and key tracer species, such as organosulfates. These processes are often driven by a combination of anthropogenic and biogenic emissions, and therefore their accurate representation in models is important for effective air quality management. Despite considerable progress, mechanistic understanding of some key aqueous processes is still lacking, and these pathways are incompletely represented in 3D atmospheric chemistry and air quality models. In this article, the concepts, historical context, and current state of the science of aqueous pathways of SOA formation are discussed.

Using a Systematic Approach to Develop a Chemistry Course Introducing Students to Instrumental Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shen, Hao-Yu; Shen, Bo; Hardacre, Christopher

2013-01-01

A systematic approach to develop the teaching of instrumental analytical chemistry is discussed, as well as a conceptual framework for organizing and executing lectures and a laboratory course. Three main components are used in this course: theoretical knowledge developed in the classroom, simulations via a virtual laboratory, and practical…

Constitutional dynamic chemistry: bridge from supramolecular chemistry to adaptive chemistry.

PubMed

Lehn, Jean-Marie

2012-01-01

Supramolecular chemistry aims at implementing highly complex chemical systems from molecular components held together by non-covalent intermolecular forces and effecting molecular recognition, catalysis and transport processes. A further step consists in the investigation of chemical systems undergoing self-organization, i.e. systems capable of spontaneously generating well-defined functional supramolecular architectures by self-assembly from their components, thus behaving as programmed chemical systems. Supramolecular chemistry is intrinsically a dynamic chemistry in view of the lability of the interactions connecting the molecular components of a supramolecular entity and the resulting ability of supramolecular species to exchange their constituents. The same holds for molecular chemistry when the molecular entity contains covalent bonds that may form and break reversibility, so as to allow a continuous change in constitution by reorganization and exchange of building blocks. These features define a Constitutional Dynamic Chemistry (CDC) on both the molecular and supramolecular levels.CDC introduces a paradigm shift with respect to constitutionally static chemistry. The latter relies on design for the generation of a target entity, whereas CDC takes advantage of dynamic diversity to allow variation and selection. The implementation of selection in chemistry introduces a fundamental change in outlook. Whereas self-organization by design strives to achieve full control over the output molecular or supramolecular entity by explicit programming, self-organization with selection operates on dynamic constitutional diversity in response to either internal or external factors to achieve adaptation.The merging of the features: -information and programmability, -dynamics and reversibility, -constitution and structural diversity, points to the emergence of adaptive and evolutive chemistry, towards a chemistry of complex matter.

Critical Thinking in the Chemistry Classroom and Beyond

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacob, Claus

2004-01-01

The feasibility and practical use of teaching philosophy-based critical thinking to undergraduate chemistry students are investigated. The successful outcome of teaching basic logical concepts in chemistry, as measured by students' ability to assess the validity of chemical reasoning on one hand and student satisfaction on the other, is reported.

A Visually Attractive "Interconnected Network of Ideas" for Organizing the Teaching and Learning of Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodgers, Glen E.

2014-01-01

A visually attractive interconnected network of ideas that helps general and second-year inorganic chemistry students make sense of the descriptive inorganic chemistry of the main-group elements is presented. The eight network components include the periodic law, the uniqueness principle, the diagonal effect, the inert-pair effect, the…

Ionic Liquids as a Basis Context for Developing High school Chemistry Teaching Materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hernani; Mudzakir, A.; Sumarna, O.

2017-02-01

This research aims to produce a map of connectedness highschool chemical content with the context of the modern chemical materials applications based on ionic liquids. The research method is content analysis of journal articles related to the ionic liquid materials and the textbooks of high school chemistry and textbooks of general chemistry at the university. The instrument used is the development format of basic text that connect and combine content and context. The results showed the connectedness between: (1) the context lubricants ionic liquid with the content of ionic bonding, covalent bonding, metal bonding, interaction between the particles of matter, the elements of main group, the elements of transition group, and the classification of macromolecules; (2) the context of fuel cell electrolite with the content of ionic bonding, covalent bonding, metal bonding, interaction between the particles of matter, Volta cell, and electrolysis cell; (3) the contect of nanocellulose with the content of ionic bonding, covalent bonding, metal bonding, interaction between the particles of matter, colloid, carbon compound, and the classification of macromolecules; and (4) the context of artificial muscle system with the content of ionic bond, covalent bond, metal bonding, interaction between the particles of matter, hydrocarbons, electrolytes and non-electrolytes, and the classification of macromolecules. Based on the result of this content analysis, the context of ionic liquid is predicted can be utilized for the enrichment of high school chemistry and has the potential to become teaching material’s context of high school chemistry in the future.

An Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory: The Facile Hydrogenation of Methyl Trans-Cinnamate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Connor, Kenneth J.; Zuspan, Kimberly; Berry, Lonnie

2011-01-01

Hydrogenation of alkenes is an important reaction in the synthesis of organic molecules. In this experiment, students conduct a high-yield microscale hydrogenation reaction of methyl "trans"-cinnamate using a readily available, safe, and convenient hydrogen source. The conditions are similar to those seen in an organic chemistry textbook for an…

Chemistry To-day, A Guide for Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris (France).

This guide is composed of 18 papers prepared by school and university teachers for school teachers and other curriculum developers. The guide is not intended to be a textbook for the teaching of chemistry in schools; nor is it a detailed manual on how to teach specific subjects. It is, rather, a presentation of those areas of chemistry which, in…

Teaching chemistry concepts using differentiated instruction via tiered labs and activity menus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Collins, Betsy C.

Today's high school classrooms are composed of students with different levels of knowing and ways of understanding. Differentiating the type of work that they are asked to do to achieve the same objective is one way to meet each student's special circumstances on a somewhat equal playing field. By doing so, students are being challenged at their level rather than just blindly going through the same motions that they see others around them doing. Offering students choices to better understand a concept places the student in the driver seat of their educational journey. The purpose of this research project was to design and implement choice activities within the chemistry classroom to more appropriately teach and assess chemistry concepts and assess understanding of those concepts. These choice activities included tiered-laboratory investigations and activity menus. This project was implemented over the course of two trimesters in a high school chemistry classroom. Topics covered included calculating and interpreting density and applying significant figures, calculating and interpreting percent composition with the mole concept, and stoichiometry. The effectiveness of the tiered-labs and activity menus were evaluated using pre and post test comparisons, student surveys, and general in-class observations. Gains in conceptual understanding and student motivation were documented. These findings indicated that allowing choice and leveling of skills to achieve the same conceptual understanding promoted student learning and the overall enjoyment and motivation for learning.

Solvent-Free Wittig Reaction: A Green Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leung, Sam H.; Angel, Stephen A.

2004-01-01

Some Wittig reactions can be carried out by grinding the reactants in a mortar with a pestle for about 20 minutes, as per investigation. A laboratory experiment involving a solvent-free Wittig reaction that can be completed in a three-hour sophomore organic chemistry laboratory class period, are developed.

Chemistry of Art and Color Sudoku Puzzles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Welsh, Michael J.

2007-01-01

Sudoku puzzle format was used to teach light science and chemistry terms to students of Chemistry of Art and Color. The puzzles were used to motivate and encourage students to learn chemistry in an easier and in friendly fashion.

Chemistry, Poetry, and Artistic Illustration: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching and Promoting Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Furlan, Ping Y.; Kitson, Herbert; Andes, Cynthia

2007-01-01

This article describes a successful interdisciplinary collaboration among chemistry, humanities and English faculty members, who utilized poetry and artistic illustration to help students learn, appreciate, and enjoy chemistry. Students taking general chemistry classes were introduced to poetry writing and museum-type poster preparation during one…

MOM Teaches Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smierciak, Rich

2004-01-01

A wonderful way to engage science students is to make them think a demonstration is not turning out the way the instructor intended. Basically, throw a little humor into teaching, and they will be hooked. Described in this article is a demonstration that uses Milk of Magnesia (MOM) as a visual and humorous method to review equilibrium chemistry…

Creating and Teaching a Web-Based, University-Level Introductory Chemistry Course that Incorporates Laboratory Exercises and Active Learning Pedagogies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phipps, Linda R.

2013-01-01

An introductory, nonscience-majors chemistry course was converted to a Web-based course. The differences in student populations, teaching strategies, laboratory methods, and learning outcomes are described. Practical information is also given on the use of software and other online technology to implement course conversion. (Contains 2 tables.)

#IHeartChemistryNCSU: Free Choice, Content, and Elements of Science Communication as the Framework for an Introductory Organic Chemistry Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frohock, Bram H.; Winterrowd, Samantha T.; Gallardo-Williams, Maria T.

2018-01-01

Students in a large introductory organic chemistry class were given the freedom to choose an organic compound of interest and were challenged to develop an educational object (physical or digital) designed to be shared with the broader public via social media. Analysis of the project results shows that most students appreciated the open nature of…

A Comparison of Secondary Chemistry Courses and Chemistry Teacher Preparation Programs in Iowa and Saint Petersburg, Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanger, Michael J.; Brincks, Erik L.; Phelps, Amy J.; Pak, Maria S.; Lyovkin, Antony N.

2001-09-01

This paper, which is a result of the collaboration between the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia in Saint Petersburg, compares the 7-12 chemistry courses in Iowa and Saint Petersburg and the chemistry teacher preparation programs at UNI and Herzen. Differences in the 7-12 chemistry courses include curriculum design (spiral versus layer cake), students' extracurricular activities, and access to technology in the classroom. Differences in the chemistry teacher preparation programs include the number of methods and chemistry content courses required, the number of chemistry teaching majors, the proportion of teaching majors enrolled in the different natural science programs, and the typical minors and endorsements received by these majors. Although we noted many differences in chemistry instruction between Iowa and Saint Petersburg, the secondary and college instructors still face many similar issues, which include overcoming student chemophobia, improving students' algorithmic and problem-solving skills, improving students' conceptual understanding at the particulate level, and dealing with shortages in qualified secondary science teachers.

Selected chapters from general chemistry in physics teaching with the help of e - learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feszterová, Melánia

2017-01-01

Education in the field of natural disciplines - Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Ecology and Biology takes part in general education at all schools on the territory of Slovakia. Its aim is to reach the state of balanced development of all personal characteristics of pupils, to teach them correctly identify and analyse problems, propose solutions and above all how to solve the problem itself. High quality education can be reached only through the pedagogues who have a good expertise knowledge, practical experience and high level of pedagogical abilities. The teacher as a disseminator of natural-scientific knowledge should be not only well-informed about modern tendencies in the field, but he/she also should actively participate in project tasks This is the reason why students of 1st year of study (bachelor degree) at the Department of Physics of Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra attend lectures in the frame of subject General Chemistry. In this paper we present and describe an e - learning course called General Chemistry that is freely accessible to students. One of the aims of this course is to attract attention towards the importance of cross-curricular approach which seems to be fundamental in contemporary natural-scientific education (e.g. between Physics and Chemistry). This is why it is so important to implement a set of new topics and tasks that support development of abilities to realise cross-curricular goals into the process of preparation of future teachers of Physics.

3D-printed devices for continuous-flow organic chemistry

PubMed Central

Dragone, Vincenza; Sans, Victor; Rosnes, Mali H; Kitson, Philip J

2013-01-01

Summary We present a study in which the versatility of 3D-printing is combined with the processing advantages of flow chemistry for the synthesis of organic compounds. Robust and inexpensive 3D-printed reactionware devices are easily connected using standard fittings resulting in complex, custom-made flow systems, including multiple reactors in a series with in-line, real-time analysis using an ATR-IR flow cell. As a proof of concept, we utilized two types of organic reactions, imine syntheses and imine reductions, to show how different reactor configurations and substrates give different products. PMID:23766811

Improvements to the treatment of organic nitrogen chemistry & deposition in CMAQ

EPA Science Inventory

Excess atmospheric nitrogen deposition can cause significant harmful effects to ecosystems. Organic nitrogen deposition can be an important contributor to the total nitrogen budget, contributing 10-30%, however there are large uncertainties in the chemistry and deposition of thes...

Using Ozone in Organic Chemistry Lab: The Ozonolysis of Eugenol

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Branan, Bruce M.; Butcher, Joshua T.; Olsen, Lawrence R.

2007-01-01

An ozonolysis experiment, suitable for undergraduate organic chemistry lab, is presented. Ozonolysis of eugenol (clove oil), followed by reductive workup furnishes an aldehyde that is easily identified by its NMR and IR spectra. Ozone (3-5% in oxygen) is produced using an easily built generator. (Contains 2 figures and 1 scheme.)

Atmospheric Prebiotic Chemistry and Organic Hazes

PubMed Central

Trainer, Melissa G.

2013-01-01

Earth’s atmospheric composition at the time of the origin of life is not known, but it has often been suggested that chemical transformation of reactive species in the atmosphere was a significant source of prebiotic organic molecules. Experimental and theoretical studies over the past half century have shown that atmospheric synthesis can yield molecules such as amino acids and nucleobases, but these processes are very sensitive to gas composition and energy source. Abiotic synthesis of organic molecules is more productive in reduced atmospheres, yet the primitive Earth may not have been as reducing as earlier workers assumed, and recent research has reflected this shift in thinking. This work provides a survey of the range of chemical products that can be produced given a set of atmospheric conditions, with a particular focus on recent reports. Intertwined with the discussion of atmospheric synthesis is the consideration of an organic haze layer, which has been suggested as a possible ultraviolet shield on the anoxic early Earth. Since such a haze layer – if formed – would serve as a reservoir for organic molecules, the chemical composition of the aerosol should be closely examined. The results highlighted here show that a variety of products can be formed in mildly reducing or even neutral atmospheres, demonstrating that contributions of atmospheric synthesis to the organic inventory on early Earth should not be discounted. This review intends to bridge current knowledge of the range of possible atmospheric conditions in the prebiotic environment and pathways for synthesis under such conditions by examining the possible products of organic chemistry in the early atmosphere. PMID:24143126

Introducing Proper Chemical Hygiene and Safety in the General Chemistry Curriculum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Gordon J.; Heideman, Stephen A.; Greenbowe, Thomas J.

2000-09-01

Chemical safety is an important component of science education for everyone, not just for chemistry majors. Developing a responsible and knowledgeable attitude towards chemical safety best starts at the early stages of a student's career. In many colleges and universities, safety education in undergraduate chemistry has been relegated primarily to a few regulatory documents at the beginning of a laboratory course, or an occasional warning in the description of a specific experiment in a prelaboratory lecture. Safety issues are seldom raised in general chemistry or organic chemistry lecture-based chemistry courses. At Iowa State University we have begun to implement a program, Chemical Hygiene and Safety in the Laboratory, into the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. This program is designed to increase the awareness and knowledge of proper chemical hygiene and laboratory safety issues among all students taking general chemistry and organic chemistry courses. Laboratory protocol, use of safety equipment, familiarity with MSD sheets, basics of first aid, some specific terminology surrounding chemical hygiene, EPA and OSHA requirements, and the use of the World Wide Web to search and locate chemical safety information are topics that are applied throughout the chemistry curriculum. The novelty of this approach is to incorporate MSD sheets and safety information that can be located on the World Wide Web in a series of safety problems and assignments, all related to the chemistry experiments students are about to perform. The fundamental idea of our approach is not only to teach students what is required for appropriate safety measures, but also to involve them in the enforcement of basic prudent practices.

Nomenclature101.com: A Free, Student-Driven Organic Chemistry Nomenclature Learning Tool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flynn, Alison B.; Caron, Jeanette; Laroche, Jamey; Daviau-Duguay, Melissa; Marcoux, Caroline; Richard, Gise`le

2014-01-01

Fundamental to a student's understanding of organic chemistry is the ability to interpret and use its language, including molecules' names and other key terms. A learning gap exists in that students often struggle with organic nomenclature. Although many resources describe the rules for naming molecules, there is a paucity of resources…

A One-Pot, Asymmetric Robinson Annulation in the Organic Chemistry Majors Laboratory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lazarski, Kiel E.; Rich, Alan A.; Mascarenhas, Cheryl M.

2008-01-01

The Robinson annulation is a topic of importance in the second-year organic curriculum. A one-pot, enantioselective Robinson annulation is described. The experiment is completed in two lab periods and is geared towards the second-year organic chemistry major. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a one-pot enantioselective Robinson…

Spicing Things up by Adding Color and Relieving Pain: The Use of "Napoleon's Buttons" in Organic Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bucholtz, Kevin M.

2011-01-01

For some students, organic chemistry can be a distant subject and unrelated to any courses they have seen in their college careers. To develop a more contextual learning experience in organic chemistry, an additional text, "Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules That Changed History," by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson, was incorporated as a…

Summer Course Promotes Polymer Chemistry for Small Colleges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stinson, Stephen

1989-01-01

Describes a three-week summer program teaching selected chemistry faculty how to incorporate polymer chemistry into chemistry courses. In addition to lectures, the program conducted many experiments and provided a trip to industry laboratories. (YP)

Assessment of Organic Chemistry Students' Knowledge of Resonance-Related Structures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Betancourt-Perez, Rosa; Olivera, Luis Javier; Rodriguez, Julio E.

2010-01-01

This study examines how well second-year nonmajor organic chemistry students are learning to draw, interpret, and understand resonance-related structures. Students were tested seven times throughout an academic year using a set of four tasks that reflected their understanding of what these structures represent and how they relate to each other.…

25th anniversary article: progress in chemistry and applications of functional indigos for organic electronics.

PubMed

Głowacki, Eric Daniel; Voss, Gundula; Sariciftci, Niyazi Serdar

2013-12-17

Indigo and its derivatives are dyes and pigments with a long and distinguished history in organic chemistry. Recently, applications of this 'old' structure as a functional organic building block for organic electronics applications have renewed interest in these molecules and their remarkable chemical and physical properties. Natural-origin indigos have been processed in fully bio-compatible field effect transistors, operating with ambipolar mobilities up to 0.5 cm(2) /Vs and air-stability. The synthetic derivative isoindigo has emerged as one of the most successful building-blocks for semiconducting polymers for plastic solar cells with efficiencies > 5%. Another isomer of indigo, epindolidione, has also been shown to be one of the best reported organic transistor materials in terms of mobility (∼2 cm(2) /Vs) and stability. This progress report aims to review very recent applications of indigoids in organic electronics, but especially to logically bridge together the hereto independent research directions on indigo, isoindigo, and other materials inspired by historical dye chemistry: a field which was the root of the development of modern chemistry in the first place. © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Biocatalysis in organic chemistry and biotechnology: past, present, and future.

PubMed

Reetz, Manfred T

2013-08-28

Enzymes as catalysts in synthetic organic chemistry gained importance in the latter half of the 20th century, but nevertheless suffered from two major limitations. First, many enzymes were not accessible in large enough quantities for practical applications. The advent of recombinant DNA technology changed this dramatically in the late 1970s. Second, many enzymes showed a narrow substrate scope, often poor stereo- and/or regioselectivity and/or insufficient stability under operating conditions. With the development of directed evolution beginning in the 1990s and continuing to the present day, all of these problems can be addressed and generally solved. The present Perspective focuses on these and other developments which have popularized enzymes as part of the toolkit of synthetic organic chemists and biotechnologists. Included is a discussion of the scope and limitation of cascade reactions using enzyme mixtures in vitro and of metabolic engineering of pathways in cells as factories for the production of simple compounds such as biofuels and complex natural products. Future trends and problems are also highlighted, as is the discussion concerning biocatalysis versus nonbiological catalysis in synthetic organic chemistry. This Perspective does not constitute a comprehensive review, and therefore the author apologizes to those researchers whose work is not specifically treated here.

Size distribution dynamics reveal particle-phase chemistry in organic aerosol formation

PubMed Central

Shiraiwa, Manabu; Yee, Lindsay D.; Schilling, Katherine A.; Loza, Christine L.; Craven, Jill S.; Zuend, Andreas; Ziemann, Paul J.; Seinfeld, John H.

2013-01-01

Organic aerosols are ubiquitous in the atmosphere and play a central role in climate, air quality, and public health. The aerosol size distribution is key in determining its optical properties and cloud condensation nucleus activity. The dominant portion of organic aerosol is formed through gas-phase oxidation of volatile organic compounds, so-called secondary organic aerosols (SOAs). Typical experimental measurements of SOA formation include total SOA mass and atomic oxygen-to-carbon ratio. These measurements, alone, are generally insufficient to reveal the extent to which condensed-phase reactions occur in conjunction with the multigeneration gas-phase photooxidation. Combining laboratory chamber experiments and kinetic gas-particle modeling for the dodecane SOA system, here we show that the presence of particle-phase chemistry is reflected in the evolution of the SOA size distribution as well as its mass concentration. Particle-phase reactions are predicted to occur mainly at the particle surface, and the reaction products contribute more than half of the SOA mass. Chamber photooxidation with a midexperiment aldehyde injection confirms that heterogeneous reaction of aldehydes with organic hydroperoxides forming peroxyhemiacetals can lead to a large increase in SOA mass. Although experiments need to be conducted with other SOA precursor hydrocarbons, current results demonstrate coupling between particle-phase chemistry and size distribution dynamics in the formation of SOAs, thereby opening up an avenue for analysis of the SOA formation process. PMID:23818634

Size distribution dynamics reveal particle-phase chemistry in organic aerosol formation.

PubMed

Shiraiwa, Manabu; Yee, Lindsay D; Schilling, Katherine A; Loza, Christine L; Craven, Jill S; Zuend, Andreas; Ziemann, Paul J; Seinfeld, John H

2013-07-16

Organic aerosols are ubiquitous in the atmosphere and play a central role in climate, air quality, and public health. The aerosol size distribution is key in determining its optical properties and cloud condensation nucleus activity. The dominant portion of organic aerosol is formed through gas-phase oxidation of volatile organic compounds, so-called secondary organic aerosols (SOAs). Typical experimental measurements of SOA formation include total SOA mass and atomic oxygen-to-carbon ratio. These measurements, alone, are generally insufficient to reveal the extent to which condensed-phase reactions occur in conjunction with the multigeneration gas-phase photooxidation. Combining laboratory chamber experiments and kinetic gas-particle modeling for the dodecane SOA system, here we show that the presence of particle-phase chemistry is reflected in the evolution of the SOA size distribution as well as its mass concentration. Particle-phase reactions are predicted to occur mainly at the particle surface, and the reaction products contribute more than half of the SOA mass. Chamber photooxidation with a midexperiment aldehyde injection confirms that heterogeneous reaction of aldehydes with organic hydroperoxides forming peroxyhemiacetals can lead to a large increase in SOA mass. Although experiments need to be conducted with other SOA precursor hydrocarbons, current results demonstrate coupling between particle-phase chemistry and size distribution dynamics in the formation of SOAs, thereby opening up an avenue for analysis of the SOA formation process.

Organic compounds in fluid inclusions of Archean quartz-Analogues of prebiotic chemistry on early Earth.

PubMed

Schreiber, Ulrich; Mayer, Christian; Schmitz, Oliver J; Rosendahl, Pia; Bronja, Amela; Greule, Markus; Keppler, Frank; Mulder, Ines; Sattler, Tobias; Schöler, Heinz F

2017-01-01

The origin of life is still an unsolved mystery in science. Hypothetically, prebiotic chemistry and the formation of protocells may have evolved in the hydrothermal environment of tectonic fault zones in the upper continental crust, an environment where sensitive molecules are protected against degradation induced e.g. by UV radiation. The composition of fluid inclusions in minerals such as quartz crystals which have grown in this environment during the Archean period might provide important information about the first organic molecules formed by hydrothermal synthesis. Here we present evidence for organic compounds which were preserved in fluid inclusions of Archean quartz minerals from Western Australia. We found a variety of organic compounds such as alkanes, halocarbons, alcohols and aldehydes which unambiguously show that simple and even more complex prebiotic organic molecules have been formed by hydrothermal processes. Stable-isotope analysis confirms that the methane found in the inclusions has most likely been formed from abiotic sources by hydrothermal chemistry. Obviously, the liquid phase in the continental Archean crust provided an interesting choice of functional organic molecules. We conclude that organic substances such as these could have made an important contribution to prebiotic chemistry which might eventually have led to the formation of living cells.

Construction of Context-Based Module: How OLED can be used as a Context in High School Chemistry Instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anugrah, I. R.; Mudzakir, A.; Sumarna, O.

2017-09-01

Teaching materials used in Indonesia generally just emphasize remembering skill so that the students’ science literacy is low. Innovation is needed to transform traditional teaching materials so that it can stimulate students’ science literacy, one of which is by context-based approach. This study focused on the construction of context-based module for high school using Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) topics. OLED was chosen because it is an up-to-date topic and relevant to real life. This study used Model of Educational Reconstruction (MER) to reconstruct science content structure about OLED through combining scientist’s perspectives with student’s preconceptions and national curriculum. Literature review of OLED includes its definition, components, characteristics and working principle. Student’s preconceptions about OLED are obtained through interviews. The result shows that student’s preconceptions have not been fully similar with the scientist’s perspective. One of the reasons is that some of the related Chemistry concepts are too complicated. Through curriculum analysis, Chemistry about OLED that are appropriate for high school are Bohr’s atomic theory, redox and organic chemistry including polymers and aromatics. The OLED context and its Chemistry concept were developed into context-based module by adapting science literacy-based learning. This module is expected to increase students’ science literacy performance.