Understanding substitution and elimination reactions is a critically important concept to comprehending chemical reactions. Memorizing the different factors that influence these reactions is among the most commonly used strategies to learn this subject. Card games have been used for teaching purposes and have yielded successful pedagogical results. There have been multiple card games developed for organic chemistry concepts, however, there are no published records of card games specifically designed to help students differentiate between substitution and elimination reactions of alcohols. Here, we present CHEMCompete-II, an organic chemistry card game which helps students predict the products of substitution and elimination reactions of alcohols, classify the type of these reactions, and draw reasonable mechanisms. The card game was played by 42 students who were enrolled in an introductory organic chemistry course; 16 students recruited from the Spring 2017 semester, and 26 from the Spring 2018 semester. Students received two lectures on substitution and elimination reactions of alcohols then attended one of three consecutive workshops to play the card game. The cards necessary to play the game along with the handouts that were provided to the students will be presented. The students completed pre and post surveys and quizzes for data analysis. Quiz scores on both the pre- and post-quizzes were analyzed in four different ways. First, the total scores for both the pre- and post-quizzes were compared. Then, separate pre- and post-scores were compared for the product prediction, reaction classification, and mechanism components. Data analysis identified statistically significant improvements both in students’ self-rated survey responses and quiz scores related to their understanding of substitution and elimination reactions of alcohols. We therefore believe that CHEMCompete-II is an effective study tool for learning substitution and elimination reactions of alcohols.

CHEMCompete-II: Chemistry card game for substitution and elimination reactions of alcohols

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

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