Many undergraduate labs require no critical thinking skills, they are laid out step-by-step for students like a cookbook. While this strategy works for teaching students simple techniques, it falls short in preparing the students for knowing when to use these techniques when they are doing their own research. To address this problem we developed an experiment that forces students to apply critical thinking skills and previously learned techniques to choose which chromatagraphic and separation techniques are appropriate for separating a mixture of three essential oils. This presentation will focus on the development of the experiment and the procedure students would follow.

Using essential oils to teach chromatography and separation techniques in undergraduate organic chemistry labs

251st National Meeting (2016)

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