Personal response systems are quickly becoming indispensable formative assessment tools in many college-level chemistry courses. With the use of such devices, students are provided with invaluable insights into the skills perceived by the instructor as important, while concurrently, the instructor can gather feedback as to how well students have…

This paper presents a simplified approach for the application of material efficiency metrics to linear and convergent synthesis plans encountered in organic synthesis courses. Computations are facilitated and automated using intuitively designed Microsoft Excel spreadsheets without invoking abstract mathematical formulas. The merits of this…