Organic chemistry can be a distant subject and unrelated to any courses that students have seen in their college careers. Many textbooks work to address this problem by incorporating sidebars and vignettes to supplement the textbook material.  However, these additions are usually surface level descriptions and rarely go into substantial detail to describe the impact and significance that the examples have in the students' everyday lives.  In an attempt to provide more substantial examples and to incorporate the foundations of a liberal arts education into the course, the book Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules That Changed History by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson was and continues to be incorporated into organic chemistry coursework at Mercer University to supplement the standard textbook. By examining 17 molecules or classes of molecules that have had significant impacts on history, society, and culture, this book provides students with substantial and tangible, �real-life� examples that supplement the corresponding chapter or topic in the organic chemistry textbook. Results from this approach along with specific examples will be discussed.

Integrating historical examples into the organic chemistry lecture

242nd National Meeting (2011)

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