9455526 Cooper Most traditional organic chemistry laboratories tend to be of the cookbook type. That is students learn laboratory techniques and then use them to synthesize a given compound in a prescribed manner with a recipe. There is growing unease within the chemical education community about the pedagogical value of such laboratories. The organic laboratory course proposed here will build on the strengths of our general chemistry laboratory courses. Students will work in groups on open ended projects instead of one lab period exercises. Instead of learning a technique as an end in itself, techniques will be learned as a means to an end. Over the course of the semester, students will apply their problem solving skills to projects approximating the research process as closely as possible. The students will also use both their written and oral communication skills to plan, critique, and evaluate their experiments. A number of resource materials will be developed including a multimedia program that incorporates video and text so that students can access information in the laboratory, and a laboratory manual that will contain a database of typical experimental conditions and work-up procedures in addition to descriptions of techniques. This new lab format will have a significant impact on how our students learn organic chemistry and will be particularly beneficial to women. The principal value of this project lies in its application to ALL organic students, in the expected improved performance and higher retention rates for women and in its adaptability to other situations.
