Cart
Article
Database vs. Expert System Teaching Paradigms: Using Organic Reaction Mechanisms To Teach Chemical Intuition
Hi-Res PDFPurchase the full-text
- PDF/HTML,
figures/images,
references and tables,
(where available)
Abstract
A database and an expert system can serve as useful paradigms for the analysis of radically different teaching approaches. A content-driven lecture that relays facts and concepts to be memorized and regurgitated and treats each student as a database to be filled does not teach students how to think. To teach them to think like experienced chemists, one must focus on the problem solving process, similar to what is done in expert system design. This paper presents an expert-system-designed course that has worked well to teach students how to formulate reasonable hypotheses in organic chemistry. The course organizes reactants into generic electron sources and sinks, and treats reaction mechanisms as assemblies of a limited number of recognizable mechanistic steps. In class, the students are given a mechanistic puzzle; their search for an answer resembles a 'tree search' process. They learn and internalize a 'best-first search' – generate all possibilities, select the best one, then repeat for the next step. The 'control knowledge' used to select the best alternative includes: the DeltapKa rule, Coulomb's law, an electron flow check, a proton transfer Keq calculation, stability trends, reactivity trends, a pKa span check, a media pH check, a DeltaH of reaction calculation, the HSAB principle, checking for access and alignment, etc. Students are actively and frequently confronted in class and on exams with problems that require them to make decisions using this control knowledge. They develop a good chemical intuition and a reliable method for analyzing complex systems.
Keywords (Audience):
Second-Year UndergraduateKeywords (Domain):
Organic ChemistryKeywords (Pedagogy):
Problem Solving / Decision MakingKeywords (Subject):
Learning TheoriesCiting Articles
Citation data is made available by participants in CrossRef's Cited-by Linking service. For a more comprehensive list of citations to this article, users are encouraged to perform a search in SciFinder.
This article has been cited by 5 ACS Journal articles (5 most recent appear below).
Teaching a Modified Hendrickson, Cram, and Hammond Curriculum in Organic Chemistry
B. Gray Bowman , Joel M. Karty and Gene GoochJournal of Chemical Education2007 84 (7), 1209Teaching a Modified Hendrickson, Cram, and Hammond Curriculum in Organic Chemistry
B. Gray Bowman , Joel M. Karty and Gene GoochJournal of Chemical Education2007 84 (7), 1209Prior to the 2004–2005 academic year, a variety of indicators suggested a severe problem with the two-semester organic chemistry series at Elon University, a private, liberal arts institution with an enrollment averaging about 4500 undergraduate students. ...
The Substitution–Elimination Mechanistic Disc Method
Paul T. Buonora and Yu Jin LimJournal of Chemical Education2004 81 (3), 368The Substitution–Elimination Mechanistic Disc Method
Paul T. Buonora and Yu Jin LimJournal of Chemical Education2004 81 (3), 368Many students of organic chemistry find it difficult to determine the extent to which substitution and elimination reactions compete to produce distributions of products. Similarly the competition between monomolecular and bimolecular mechanisms can be ...
Cooperative Learning in Organic II. Increased Retention on a Commuter Campus
James P. HagenJournal of Chemical Education2000 77 (11), 1441Cooperative Learning in Organic II. Increased Retention on a Commuter Campus
James P. HagenJournal of Chemical Education2000 77 (11), 1441Modest use of cooperative learning techniques combined with extensive class notes produced a significant increase in retention for the second semester of organic chemistry on a commuter campus. The cooperative learning techniques included group testing, ...
Design and Development of Computer-Aided Chemical Systems: Representation and Balance of Inorganic Chemical Reactions
I. Luque Ruiz, C. Martínez-Pedrajas, and M. A. Gómez-NietoJournal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences2000 40 (3), 744-752Design and Development of Computer-Aided Chemical Systems: Representation and Balance of Inorganic Chemical Reactions
I. Luque Ruiz, C. Martínez-Pedrajas, and M. A. Gómez-NietoJournal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences2000 40 (3), 744-752A model for the tracking of inorganic chemical reactions is proposed. Designed to acquire, process, and solve a great number of inorganic reactions, this model will hopefully contribute to the development of powerful computer-aided chemistry teaching ...
Proposed Methodological Improvement in the Elucidation of Chemical Reaction Mechanisms Based on Chemist-Computer Interaction
Andrew V. Zeigarnik , Raúl E. Valdés-Pérez and Brian S. WhiteJournal of Chemical Education2000 77 (2), 214Proposed Methodological Improvement in the Elucidation of Chemical Reaction Mechanisms Based on Chemist-Computer Interaction
Andrew V. Zeigarnik , Raúl E. Valdés-Pérez and Brian S. WhiteJournal of Chemical Education2000 77 (2), 214A recent book by Roald Hoffmann explains for a general audience the methods of chemistry. It includes a chapter on the experimental study of chemical reaction mechanisms, which accurately describes the methodological status quo. As an expository vehicle, ...
Full Text HTMLTools
-
Add to Favorites
-
Download Citation
-
Email a Colleague -
Permalink
Order Reprints
Rights & Permissions
Citation Alerts
SciFinder Links
Explore by:
History
- Received: August 03, 2009
ACS
Network
Facebook
Tweet This
CiteULike
Newsvine
Digg This
Delicious
