Engaging Students in Organic Chemistry

Linking OChem to natural products, polymers, pharmaceuticals and more

Organic chemistry educators have a critical role in engaging and improving student outcomes at a foundational level. The material in the traditional one-year sequence is foundational for upper level science courses as well as many pre-professional programs, such as medicine. When students are engaged in learning the fundamental concepts in organic chemistry, they are better prepared to apply organic concepts to other applications across chemistry. In this work, authors share methods for engaging students in organic chemistry, including in an online environment. These methods range from creative activities for individual class topics to pedagogical models utilized over an academic year. Laboratory experiments, writing assignments, and innovative assignments are included.

Barbara Murray (PhD, University of Illinois - CU) has spent the last 35 years teaching organic chemistry at liberal arts universities. Most recently she was the John Stauffer Director of the Center for Science and Mathematics and Professor of chemistry at the University of Redlands for twenty seven
years. In 2020, she became an emeritus professor. Barbara has been a strong believer in the value of a liberal arts education, having graduate degrees in three different subjects. She became active in Project Kaleidoscope, now the center for undergraduate STEM education in the Association of
American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in the late 1990s when the book How People Learn by the National Research Council was published. PKAL was created to see if new approaches to transforming undergraduate learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) make a difference.
In 2010, she won the University of Redlands Faculty Award for Innovative Teaching.
In the early 2000s Barbara Murray created a symposium for the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE) titled "Engaging Students in Organic Chemistry" as an outlet for new ideas in teaching organic chemistry. It was the first symposium to concentrate on organic chemistry teaching and has
been a successful source of innovative ideas ever since. In 2016, Murray and Kreke began their collaboration at BCCE.

Patricia J. Kreke (PhD, University of Tennessee, Knoxville) has spent the past 26 years teaching organic chemistry at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, MD. In addition to teaching organic chemistry, she mentors undergraduate student research in the areas of surfactant chemistry and the
design of undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory experiments. Additionally, she serves as the Director of Health Professions Advising. Dr. Kreke has assisted in the development of several ACS organic chemistry exams for the ACS Exams Institute and was a co-author of the 2nd edition of the ACS
Official Guide for Preparing for Your ACS Examination in Organic Chemistry. In 2020, she received a Theodore Ashford Fellowship with the ACS Exams Institute. In 2018, she was the recipient of the John B. Richards Award for Excellence in Teaching at MSMU. She serves on regional and national Health
Professions Advising Committees and MSMU committees. Patricia has served as Department Chair for ten years and has held leadership roles in many committees and organizations. She has published and presented at conferences related to Health Professions Advising and Chemical Education. In 2016, she
became a co-organizer with Barbara Murray in the BCCE symposium titled "Engaging Students in Organic Chemistry" created by Murray in the early 2000s.

Preface
Preface

Chapter 1: Enhancing Students' Engagement and Understanding in Organic Chemistry by Participative Learning, Gomathi Shridhar, Savita Ladage, and Lakshmy Ravishankar
Chapter 2: Improving Student Learning by Oral Problem Sets in Organic Chemistry, Joseph A. Brannaka
Chapter 3: Organic Chemistry Core Competencies: Helping Students Engage Using Specifications, Lisa Ahlberg
Chapter 4: Engaging Organic Students in the Message and Limitation of Models, Deborah C. Bromfield Lee
Chapter 5: Role of Visualization in Learning Chemistry, Steven A. Fleming and Roy A. Keyer
Chapter 6: Career Oriented Performance Task to Enhance Engagement in Learning Organic Chemistry, Dalila G. Kovacs and William R. Winchester
Chapter 7: Virtual Strategies for Constructing Organic Chemical Knowledge, Susan M. Schelble
Chapter 8: Empowering Students with Multidisciplinary Research Experience, Anil B. Waghe and Aparna A. Waghe
Chapter 9: Research in the Teaching Lab: Student-Designed Synthesis Projects, Samuel S. Tartakoff
Chapter 10: Colorful Polymers of Polystyrene, Poly(methyl methacrylate), and Nylon 6,6, Christine K. F. Hermann and Camryn Burke
Chapter 11: Impress Your Supervisor and Outsmart Your Rival: Rhetorical Contexts in Post-Laboratory Writing Prompts, Langdon J. Martin

Editors' Biographies
Author Index
Subject Index