The content of organic chemistry is closely related to our everyday life, to nature, and to the human body. Illustrations play a big role in the acquisition of the course material, especially if those help to make the interpretation of the textual content easier. Hybrid illustrations are made up of combinations of realistic images (photographs,…

Acid-base chemistry is a foundational concept for organic chemistry, and the complexities in teaching and learning acid-base chemistry are well documented. This study aimed to investigate post-secondary instructors' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching acid-base chemistry in an organic chemistry context. Two groups of three graduate…

This paper addresses the important question of the nature of the subject matter (content knowledge) that should be a base for a science teacher education curriculum. We present our argument in two parts. Firstly, we report an argument conceptualising the nature of content knowledge for science teaching that we called TerSCK. This is followed by a…

The chlorination reaction of aromatic compounds is highly important for the synthesis of pharmaceutical products. As the most common chlorination reagent, chlorine is restricted from undergraduate laboratory experiment training due to its toxicity. In this work, we reported the chlorination of aromatic compounds with chlorine generated from the…

The inductive effect is one of the very important concepts of electronic effects in organic chemistry. In traditional teaching methods, only the origin, transmission mode, and decay of the inductive effect are introduced briefly, which is not conducive to students' complete understanding of the inductive effect. This work developed a new method to…

This communication describes an updated experiment of peptide synthesis, involving determination of the loading capacity of a Fmoc-protected amino functionalized resin using UV-vis spectroscopy and a subsequent synthesis of a dipeptide in order to exemplify the experimental solid-phase synthesis procedure as an alternative technique in organic…

Cycloadditions in combination with multicomponent reactions are among the most valuable synthetic tools used by organic chemists to construct cyclic and heterocyclic compounds in a straightforward way. Although cycloadditions, such as the Diels--Alder reaction, are mainly covered in basic and advanced organic courses for undergraduate students,…

Substitution reactions of alcohols are some of the simplest experiments performed in undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory settings. However, the use of gas chromatography (GC) as an analytical tool for these reactions can be at times laborious and time-consuming. In this work, 1-pentanol, 2-pentanol, 3-pentanol, and 2-methyl-2-butanol were…

We have developed a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) that can be carried out in the context of an existing second-semester or upper-level organic laboratory course. In this three-week laboratory module, students synthesize a small library of molecules, test them in a robust biological assay, and design a new compound library…

An operationally simple, reliable synthesis of ethynylated acenes suitable for an upper-division undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory course has been developed. This experiment requires students to synthesize two acene derivatives and can be completed in 6-8 laboratory sessions (3 h each); a shorter experiment could be realized in the…

Multicomponent reactions (MCRs) represent very interesting tools to reach eco-friendly and sustainable transformations in organic chemistry. In particular, the Biginelli reaction furnishes a very easy approach to the synthesis of a library of biological active compounds in an academic course. Here we describe the realization of several experiments…

Friedel-Crafts alkylation reactions using a curated set of alcohols provide students with the opportunity to combine the study of electrophilic aromatic substitution with carbocation rearrangements. In this experiment students may be presented with up to nine alcohols that yield six products, all synthesized under identical reaction conditions.…

In this approach, formulae-based mnemonics by using the classification of negative charge (localized or delocalized) have been highlighted by innovative and time economic way to enhance interest of students' who belong to paranoia zone of chemistry for the prediction of hybridization state of carbon atom containing negative charge (one or more)…

Resonance is a fundamental chemistry concept first introduced to students in General Chemistry I (GCI), reintroduced in Organic Chemistry I (OCI), and then utilized throughout other higher-level chemistry courses. Student difficulties with resonance are well documented. Instruction is one potential source of student difficulties. What instructors…

A structured series of activities has been designed and implemented to promote analysis and data reporting skills for second-year organic chemistry students. Student report sheets were developed to assist students in reporting necessary data for their compounds. A series of rubrics have been utilized by students to promote metacognition and by…