Language in chemistry is highly specialized, and for students, transitions in language complexity from high school to university can be extremely challenging. With an increasingly diverse cohort of students enrolled in UK chemistry degree programs, better understanding the linguistic challenges students face is becoming a greater pedagogical…

In chemistry, novices and experts use mental models to simulate and reason about sub-microscopic processes. Animations are thus important tools for learning in chemistry to convey reaction dynamics and molecular motion. While there are many animations available and studies showing the benefit of learning from animations, there are also limitations…

A Sonogashira experiment was transformed into a problem-based learning platform for third-year undergraduate students. Given a target that could be synthesized in a single step, students worked in groups to investigate which method was the best for large-scale production. Through this practical scenario, students learn to conduct a literature…

Metabolism involves numerous reactions and organic compounds that the student must master to understand adequately the processes involved. Part of biochemical learning should include some knowledge of the structure of biomolecules, although the acquisition of such knowledge can be time-consuming and may require significant effort from the student.…

The importance of well elaborated cognitive structures in a science knowledge domain has been noted in many studies. Therefore, the main aim of this particular study was to employ a new diagrammatic assessment approach, students' generated systemic synthesis questions (SSynQs), to evaluate and compare the quality of high school students' and…

The chemistry curriculum for undergraduate life science majors at Purdue University has been transformed to better meet the needs of this student population and prepare them for future success. The curriculum, called the 1-2-1 curriculum, includes four consecutive and integrated semesters of instruction in general chemistry, organic chemistry, and…

Recently there has been a renewed interest in the development and use of pedagogical games, as they provide an interesting approach to the appropriation of knowledge in the context of active learning. However, most didactic games fail to completely implement a cycle of reflection and action, thereby fostering mostly lower-order thinking skills and…

The purpose of this study was to elucidate and describe students' thinking when making connections between substitution and elimination reactions and their corresponding reaction coordinate diagrams. Thirty-six students enrolled in organic chemistry II participated in individual, semi-structured interviews. Three major themes were identified that…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the cognitive structures of chemistry teacher candidates about "stereochemistry." A case study research method, one of the qualitative research patterns, was used in the study and the sample of study involved 28 prospective chemistry teachers who had taken Organic Chemistry I and II courses at…

Instructional videos have been prepared using Adobe Captivate software to create animated tutorials to capture instrument and molecular modeling software simulations and to allow for increased independent hands-on instrument use by students and faster training for instructors and teaching assistants. The videos are available on YouTube and can be…

This study compared the effects of Individualised Instructional Strategy (IIS) and Cooperative Learning Instructional Strategy (CLIS) on male and female senior secondary school students' academic achievement in Organic Chemistry. The study was guided by 2 research questions and 3 null hypotheses. The design was quasi-experimental. The population…

Acquiring conceptual understanding seems to be one of the main challenges students face when studying organic chemistry. Traditionally, organic chemistry presents an extensive variety of chemical transformations, which often lead students to recall an organic transformation rather than apply conceptual knowledge. Strong surface level focus and…

An institutionalized program of peer-led study groups (PLSG) adds instructional power to our large-enrollment introductory organic chemistry courses. Concomitantly, there is a challenge to keep the instructional philosophy and subject matter coherent with the faculty expectations and goals across this diverse group of undergraduate instructors.…

Research in organic chemistry education has revealed that students often rely on rote memorization when learning mechanisms. Not much is known about student productive resources for causal reasoning. To investigate incipient stages of student causal reasoning about single mechanistic steps of organic reactions, we developed a theoretical framework…

In this experiment for an introductory undergraduate organic chemistry lab, students tetraalkylate tertbutylcalix[4]arene, a bowl-shaped macrocyclic oligophenol, and examine the supramolecular chemistry of the tetraether product by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Complexation with a sodium ion reduces the conformational…