Advances in Teaching Organic Chemistry (ACS Symposium Series)

Unfortunately Organic Chemistry courses have often been seen as a gateway for weeding out students from various programs instead of a foundation course in constructing creative logic skills. Students approach these courses with a variety of attitudes that can affect their chances of learning. This text will incorporate studies on new teaching methods and their level of success as well what we know works to promote student learning and what does not. The text will also consider what variables control student achievement in an organic chemistry course and how well the concepts taught really correlate to the outside world. This symposium text will seek to illuminate the latest trends as well as some tried and true methods for teaching organic chemistry at both large and small institutions. This book is based on a symposium held at the 242nd National American Chemical Society Meeting in Denver, Colorado on August 20, 2011. There were 16 oral presentations given and many lively discussions were held. The symposium was very well received and there was a strong interest in how different instructors approach teaching this topic and how things will evolve in the classroom as we move forward.