In October of 1981 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences issued a press release with the following statement. “A characteristic feature of Fukui's and Hoffmann's method of attacking difficult and complicated problems is that they succeeded in making generalizations through simplifications.” This approach to theory and to most scientific problems is perhaps even truer today. One cannot expect to solve complicated problems without knowing and applying the basics. One needs to know the simple as a prelude to the complex. At Stony Brook I am a member of the instructional team for over twelve hundred organic chemistry students. It is our task to help our students prepare themselves to solve problems in their future careers. To do this we help them to acquire the skills they will need to learn the basics, while also giving them a glimpse at the complex yet to come. This is a daunting task, but we have the advantage of technology that allows us to interact with our students in ways that were not possible in the past. Our web based course management system specifically designed for organic chemistry students allows us to offer our students a variety of exercises ranging from introductory material to sophisticated mechanistic and synthetic challenges. This allows us to work with students with varying level of expertise and ability. Team work and peer-to-peer instruction are enabled and encouraged.

Organic chemistry at Stony Brook: Learning the basics with a glimpse at the complex yet to come

254th National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.