The POGIL approach employs small group activities carefully designed explicitly to teach both content and the process skills necessary for success. Student 'explore' data with a few leading questions to propose explanations for perceived patterns in the data.  Analyses of organic reactions in my course focus on the highest energy electrons (HEE) in reacting systems.  By analyzing the HEE, students can quickly focus on the most important aspects of new reactions and work step-by-step to predict reasonable reaction mechanisms.  However, while conclusions may be correct, answers often give no hint as to the thought processes used to reach them.  It seems that students believe that if the answer makes sense to them, the logic must be clear to anyone.  This past year I have used the Toulmin Argumentation Model (TAM) to help students recognize elements of effective explanations.  The use of both HEE and TAM will be discussed.

Use of electron energies and the Toulmin Argumentation Model to help sophomore organic students develop understanding of concepts and effective explanations for their conclusions

240th National Meeting (2010)

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