Disconnect between the lab and lecture has been a common complaint for first semester organic chemistry courses at Mercer University.  Upon further conversation with students, we discovered that this disconnect stemmed more from a lack of engaging, discovery-based material in the laboratory exercises than a misalignment with lecture topics.  In an effort to alleviate this disconnection, a four-week discovery-based laboratory was developed by combining single topic technique-based labs to provide students with the opportunity to synthesize information, and draw broader conclusions based upon their data.  The structural, stoichiometric, and temperature effects on equilibria of esterification reactions between acetic acid and pentanol isomers are the overarching problem this multi-week lab addresses.   Techniques incorporated into the laboratory experiment include reflux reaction conditions, fractional distillation, gas chromatography, data compilation, and data analysis.  Students complete the laboratory by submitting a report in the style of the Journal of Organic Chemistry where they are required to draw general conclusions on the effect of alcohol structure and temperature in an esterification equilibrium reaction.

Making connections in organic chemistry lab: Combining single-topic technique-based labs into a discovery-based lab

242nd National Meeting (2011)

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