![]() ![]() ![]() This is certainly an activity I will repeat with future classes. But it would be easy enough to modify the list to meet the needs of your own curriculum. There are clearly many more branches to the reaction pathways that were not included. In terms of the compounds and mechanisms chosen, I restricted this list to meet the requirements of the IB syllabus for both SL and HL organic chemistry. I don't have quantitative data to support my claim here, but I'm convinced that the creation of the flow chart helped the students see connections between the different types of organic compounds and solidified their understanding of the reaction pathways being studied. Once everybody was done, we continued our work on synthetic routes by going through a few more practice problems. I also started asking questions like, "If I had only a primary alcohol available, what reaction path would it take to make an ester?" (Short answer: Oxidize some of the alcohol under reflux to make the carboxylic acid, then do esterification with the remaining alcohol to form the ester.)īelow is a picture of one of the whiteboards created by a group (used with their permission). ![]() While they were working, I wandered around the room and commented on any errors or missing pieces I observed. I didn't provide much more guidance, but I encouraged the students to discuss their ideas together and consult their notes. ![]() They had to find connections between as many different compounds as possible. Their task (in small groups), using either butcher paper or a large whiteboard, was to create a flow chart of reaction pathways. I gave them a handout with a list of organic compounds (by class/functional group) and a list of mechanisms and reaction types. Can I get students to see the proverbial "Big Picture"?įor a recent unit on organic chemistry for my IB students, I tried something new. One of these areas is helping students make connections between topics - especially at the end of a unit. As a teacher, there are certain things I think I do well, and other areas where I think I can improve. ![]()
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