A significant focus of Introductory Organic Chemistry is the teaching of chemical reactivity through the study of organic reaction mechanisms.  At the end of the course, students must be able to predict the outcome of specific chemical reactions using reaction mechanisms as a guide.  Students often struggle with reaction mechanisms, which has a detrimental effect on student performance in multiple areas of the course.  In order to aid student understanding of reaction mechanisms, we have changed our instructional strategy to focus more on conceptual understanding.  With these changes, we hope to demonstrate the utility and similarity of many reactions covered.  Changes included students labeling each elementary step of a mechanism based on type for each mechanism proposed, helping to demonstrate that chemical reactivity is predictable on the molecular level.  In addition, focus on assignments and tests has been in the area of having students describe in words the course of a reaction mechanism, pushing students to see the meaning of the arrows and structures.  Sample problems and preliminary results on the effect of these changes on student performance will be presented.

Examining strategies for the effective instruction of reaction mechanisms in introductory organic chemistry

247th National Meeting (2014)

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