Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy is a topic in the curriculum that is difficult for students to understand and comprehend.  Organic chemistry requires a high level of knowledge organization, and spectra seem to create a disconnect with previously learned material for students.  Spectroscopy requires copious amounts of material that can overwhelm students with information overload.  Supplemental Instruction (SI) with scaffolding has been found to help students better understand the difficult concepts of spectroscopy.  SI uses techniques such as chunking and reverse engineering that allow students to comprehend NMR more effectively.  These techniques focus on one of the intertwined concepts at a time.  The SI leader assists students in working together to learn NMR techniques followed by diminished scaffolds from the peer leader in later sessions. Data shows that students who attend these SI sessions have increased levels of understanding NMR.

Scaffolding the teaching of NMR spectroscopy

247th National Meeting (2014)

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