Working with undergraduates in an organic synthesis research laboratory presents a unique set of challenges. As novices in the laboratory, undergraduate students lack formal scientific training, proficiency in required technical skills, and the chemical safety knowledge required to work independently in a high hazard environment. The lack of chemical knowledge and intuition poses considerable risk in the laboratory and mentors must develop and implement methods which can teach this cohort safely. An undergraduate research program must be designed that focuses on teaching students to “think like a chemist” while advancing the principal investigator’s scientific agenda. A well designed program will produce research assistants who recognize that good science is a system consisting of many connected areas of knowledge that must be co-developed. The challenge becomes how to incorporate the multiple necessary components needed into a single transferrable method that empowers the novice undergraduate research assistant to work safely, independently, competently, and efficiently in the laboratory. Endeavoring to teach science as a process and create a single method approach, the authors present ‘chemical storyboarding’. Chemical storyboarding allows a scientist to break down the necessary elements of a successful experiment – the scientific procedure, the chemical transformation, the tactile process, scientific theory, instrument use, hazard recognition, risk assessment and minimization, and emergency response - into a single executable process. The authors will present a storyboard conceptualized with a synthetic organic experiment.

From procedure to practice: An organic chemsitry storyboard for developing empowered undergraduate research assistants

255th National Meeting (2018)

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