Teaching the Sophomore Organic Course without a Lecture. Are You Crazy?

An experimental approach to the sophomore organic course in which the lecture is almost completely replaced by small-group problem-solving sessions is described. The course was monitored by a control group in the traditional lecture course taught by one of us. The control group took exactly the same exams under exactly the same conditions as the 60-person experimental section. There was no significant difference in test scores--the experimental section did at least as well as the control. The students' evaluation of the experimental course was unusually positive. The small-group method appears to be a viable alternative to the traditional lecture-based course.