Over the past several years, we have begun to integrate active learning engagement strategies into our large lecture organic chemistry courses at UC Berkeley. We have been motivated by the evidence in the literature that learning is an active process that builds on prior knowledge and that lectures are most effective when students work with each other to grapple with the material. We have used two different strategies in organic lecture courses to facilitate students spending considerable lecture time actively engaging with the material, sharing ideas with each other, and drawing structures and mechanisms. In the majors course, which is approximately 200 students, one of the two lecture sessions each week is devoted to students working collaboratively to solve a set of challenging problems that are submitted on paper at the end of the class. In the larger non-majors course (&gt;500 students in two lecture sections), the combined use of a classroom response system (iClicker) with daily “lecture notes” worksheets integrates numerous problem-solving opportunities interspersed with mini-lectures. The iClicker multiple-choice format is complementary to the structure and mechanism drawing in the worksheets and is frequently used provide hints and/or partial answers directly related to the worksheet questions. Overall, students have responded very positively to these modifications of the lectures. They often credit the in-class problem solving time as most valuable for helping them to learn the material. The design of the active learning approaches and student response to these activities will be discussed.

Teaching organic chemistry with collaborative problem solving in the large lecture setting at UC Berkeley

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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