Chiroscience is prevalent in academic research laboratories, as well as in many industries, but most issues of chirality are either inadequately described or not coherently integrated into undergraduate curricula. In response, this project is reformulating the undergraduate organic laboratory curriculum around the topic of chirality. The new curriculum is designed to: make the connection between synthesis, separation, and identification; introduce synthetic methodology and reagents for stereoselective synthesis; introduce new technology and instrumentation for chiroptical measurements; and provide an equipment base for enantiomer separations and analysis. Experiments from the previous curriculum are being revised and new experiments are being developed to incorporate aspects of chirality and biotechnology. This project is making it possi`le for instructors to teach a traditional undergraduate laboratory curriculum, with the inclusion of new synthetic reagents and methodology. This approach is directed toward teaching asymmetric induction, providing techniques for the separation of enantiomers and quantification by chiral chromatography, introducing chiroptical measurements, and using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with chiral shift reagents for analysis. The project is also extending the scope of the laboratory to better overlap with industrial science and biological chemistry while maintaining writing in the curriculum. Finally, several group projects are being provided to promote collaborative learning.
