Organic chemistry is a class well known to be difficult and necessary for many careers in the sciences, and as a result, has garnered interest in researching ways to improve student learning and comprehension. One potential way involves using eye tracking techniques to understand how students visually examine questions. Organic chemistry involves…

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education. In these circumstances, technology aided learning by providing new ways of teaching and communicating with students. In this work, we report the online activities carried out in the Basic Organic Chemistry virtual course of the Chemistry Department at UNS (Argentina) for first-year students of the…

Despite decades of reform efforts, STEM education continues to face calls for improvement, especially regarding the teaching laboratory. Establishing an empirical understanding of the types of hands-on, psychomotor skills that students need to learn to succeed in downstream careers could help ensure laboratory courses are promoting authentic…

Powerful arguments have been made recently to advocate for the introduction of systems thinking in chemistry education to equip graduates to address sustainability challenges. This contribution describes systems thinking activities and an assessment tool that enables meaningful learning in first-year organic chemistry as students engage with the…

Written examinations for laboratory courses fall short in testing students' technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and execution of experimental design. This has led to practical examinations growing in popularity, but examples for senior-level students remain scarce. Senior organic chemistry students are gearing toward independence to…

Virtual reality (VR) lab experiences for organic chemistry were developed at NC State University as an accessibility tool for students who are unable to attend in-person laboratories due to disabilities, attendance challenges such as pregnancy or military deployment, or safety concerns. The resulting first-person VR experiences are immersive and…

Organic qualitative analysis is one of the challenging chemical concepts in students learning of chemistry. The West African Examinations Council chemistry chief examiners for years, have lamented on students' poor performance in organic qualitative analysis at the senior high school level. This study, therefore, investigated chemistry students'…

The recent popularity of benchtop (BT) NMR systems has prompted its applications in undergraduate laboratories around the world. Owing to their low maintenance cost, due to the lack of a superconducting magnetic core, and simple operation, these BT NMR systems can fulfill many of the learning objectives outlined in the undergraduate organic…

Polymer chemistry lab experiments present a unique opportunity to allow students to experience the consequences of reaction mechanisms on the properties of the resulting product. In this organic chemistry experiment, students prepared a polyamide by three different reaction mechanisms that represent step-growth and chain-growth methods of…

A low-cost and easy-to-use water recirculation system for a condenser apparatus was designed and installed in an organic chemistry teaching laboratory. Relying on gravity and a small pump for water circulation, it supplies four stations simultaneously. The water recirculation system works very well with condensers used for distillation and reflux…

An undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory experiment involving the breakage of amide C-N bonds is reported. Whereas amides are typically considered stable species due to well-established resonance effects, this experiment allows students to cleave the amide C-N bond in a nickel-catalyzed esterification process. Moreover, students perform the…

We herein report an efficient aerobic oxidative cleavage of meso-hydrobenzoin to benzaldehyde using a heterogeneous earth-abundant metal oxide catalyst. The reaction can be carried out at 70 °C in ethanol and uses a balloon filled with O2 as oxidant. Reagents are simple and have long shelf lives, and the whole laboratory exercise can be done in…

This study investigates the efficacy of incorporating neuropedagogical elements into virtual simulators for advanced chemistry education in universities. Utilizing a mixed-method approach, it uses questionnaires completed by 50 organic chemistry students. These questionnaires included both general and Likert scale questions, focusing on students'…

The gamification of learning has increased in popularity in recent years as a tool for enhancing student engagement and attainment. In undergraduate chemistry courses, hybridization is a fundamental concept that students need to master in order to understand introductory organic and inorganic topics. This study focused on the development of a card…

While synthesis projects are not uncommon in the undergraduate organic curriculum, the problems posed are usually not representative of what chemists actually do. The sudden dislocation to online learning precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic provided both a need and an opportunity to develop an organic synthesis project with greater relevance to…