Students specializing in STEM subjects are often inspired to pursue these fields by the global challenges and fundamental questions science allows us to answer. However, introductory courses, focusing on fundamental concepts and problem-solving approaches, can feel disconnected from cutting-edge research from the perspective of students. Particularly for those students majoring in the biological sciences, organic chemistry can seem tangentially related to their subject. In order to demonstrate how organic chemistry enables the unraveling of biochemical puzzles, we have developed a series of workshops to accompany our introductory organic chemistry course. By centering each workshop on a biochemical research endeavor, the students readily recognize the relevance of organic chemistry to their course. Each workshop includes exercises similar to "typical" introductory course questions such as proposing mechanisms, while also challenging students to, while working together in small groups, answer the same questions approached by the researchers themselves such as proposing novel drug molecule structures and interpreting unexpected structural data. These workshops serve a dual purpose of consolidating material at key points throughout the year, while emphasizing the utility that first-year concepts have for contemporary research. Initially developed as classroom sessions, these workshops have been adapted to a remote online format over the course of the past year. This work will discuss the adaptations and online tools that we have used to preserve the key aspects of the original workshop design: (1) synchronous student collaboration; (2) research-centered questions; (3) student-led discussion (with the instructor in a facilitator role).

Bringing chemical biology into introductory Organic Chemistry: Onsite and online collaborative workshops

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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