You’ve made the perfect lecture and selected the most relevant problems, but students are still not getting it. Maybe you’ve flipped your classroom or assigned online homework, but you’re still not sure what’s missing. Could it be practice? Organic chemistry is challenging because it requires students to not only understand concepts, but also to apply them. Even with clear strategies, it is highly difficult for students to apply what they learn to new molecules. In my classroom, I have developed sets of activities (47 for Organic I topics) to give students the practice they need to succeed in organic chemistry. Students learn the basics during class: through mini-lectures, example problems, and group work. Then, they extend this by working additional ungraded problems at home; checking answers, and asking questions as needed. By learning basic skills to the level of automaticity, they master the material and retain the information longer. Responsibility for learning moves to the students because work is ungraded. They buy-in because it impacts exam scores. Over the years, I have taught hundreds of students and have found this method to be highly adaptable among different types.<br/>In this presentation, I will give examples of the activities, day-to-day implementation, and show how I have adapted the method to different audiences. In addition, data from the SALG assessment will show how students have benefited from this teaching pedagogy.

Practice makes . . . great organic students: Giving the power of learning back to the students

2019 Spring National Meeting

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