1. Home
  2. organic chemistry

organic chemistry

Recrystallization in the Organic Chemistry Laboratory.

Daniel Rivera | Mon, 11/17/2025 - 18:49

Implementing a Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) style recrystallization activity provides students with an opportunity to actively engage in the learning process while reinforcing key chemical concepts such as polarity, solubility, and purification techniques. Research has shown that a POGIL approach promotes improved conceptual understanding, critical thinking, and teamwork skills compared to traditional laboratory approaches1,2.

Creating an Organic Chemistry Reaction Pathways Flowchart as a Unit Summary

Lowell Thomson | Fri, 01/27/2017 - 22:43

For a recent unit on organic chemistry for my IB students, I tried something new. I gave them a handout with a list of organic compounds (by class/functional group) and a list of mechanisms and reaction types. Their task (in small groups), using either butcher paper or a large whiteboard, was to create a flow chart of reaction pathways.

Especially JCE: September 2016

Erica Jacobsen | Thu, 09/15/2016 - 09:43

“You sank my battleship!” Do you remember this line from a classic commercial featuring the board game Battleship? It sat in my family’s game closet when I was a kid, but it’s popping up again recently, with chemistry twists.

How do you teach resonance?

Dan Meyers | Mon, 06/06/2016 - 11:34

During our review since last week, resonance was labeled as one of the most tricky concepts (along with electron pushing in my opinion), despite lots of practice and instruction. My teaching sequence consists of defining and providing examples of conjugation (after learning about hybridization), delocalized electrons, and finally pushing electrons if conjugation exists. I remember from teaching at the college level that resonance was also a tricky topic for many undergraduates.