Transforming Organic Chemistry at UCLA: From Gatekeeper to Gateway

Organic chemistry, despite its profound relevance to everyday life, has long been perceived as a challenging and intimidating subject. For decades, it has been a notorious "weed-out" class, striking fear in the hearts of students and acting as a gatekeeper for those aspiring to careers in medicine and other health-related professions. This article explores the teaching philosophies and educational initiatives that have transformed organic chemistry at UCLA, turning it into one of the most popular classes on campus.

The Stigma of Organic Chemistry

Organic chemistry has a bad reputation, despite having a tremendous impact on our everyday lives. For decades, organic chemistry has been reputed as being a gatekeeper class. Without scoring an A grade in this class, it would supposedly be impossible to secure medical school admission. It has remained a notorious “weed-out” class for decades-striking fear in the hearts of students-and has long been viewed as a gatekeeper course for those interested in pursuing a career in medicine or other health-related professions.

A Transformative Teaching Philosophy

The transformation of organic chemistry at UCLA began with a shift in teaching philosophy. Rather than focusing on rote memorization, the emphasis was placed on critical thinking, problem-solving, and fostering a sense of connection among students.

Professor Yorke Rhodes III, for instance, conveyed the message that the class was all about critical thinking and that students should not try to memorize and regurgitate information. This perspective was a refreshing change from the traditional view of organic chemistry as a subject requiring brute-force memorization.

The Importance of Engaging Teaching Methods

One of the key elements in transforming organic chemistry at UCLA was the implementation of engaging teaching methods. This included the use of in-class demonstrations, visual aids, and technology to make the lectures more interactive and accessible.

Read also: Comprehensive Guide to UCF Email

In-Class Demonstrations

Performing in-class demonstrations provides a timeless means to liven up a science classroom. In the case of Chem 14D, perhaps the most well-appreciated demonstration is the classic “breathalyzer” test to check for alcohol consumption.

Visual Aids and Technology

Thanks to the modern age of technology, it is also straightforward to incorporate visual aids into lectures, such as images and videos. These tools help to complement traditional teaching methods and allow instructors to teach at a reasonable pace, giving students time to get confused, ask questions, and learn how to draw chemical structures as if doing so was second nature.

Response Polling Devices ("Clickers")

The use of response polling devices, or "clickers," is also a valuable tool for engaging students in the classroom.

Building Connections and Fostering a Supportive Learning Environment

Creating a positive and impactful experience for students involves helping them feel connected to the course. If students feel connected, they are more likely to attend and participate in class (and office hours), and even to study. A disengaged student is less likely to participate, study, or succeed. In the worst case, a disconnected student will fail or drop a course.

Faculty Approachability and Enthusiasm

It is important that students still see that faculty care and are approachable. Showing complete care and enthusiasm goes a long way to positively impact students. Likewise, it is important for teachers to take the time to prepare their lectures and put effort into their courses.

Providing a Superb Support System

If one is intent on offering a challenging course, it is also important to provide a superb support system. It is crucial to advertise and repeatedly remind students of one's office hours. In addition to offering regular office hours, instructors can respond to questions daily via an online office-hours type system.

Recognizing Student Achievement

It is critical to recognize students when they are improving, participating, or performing at a very high level. Such recognition can be achieved in many ways, such as offering handshakes, writing supportive notes on exams, or providing a "gift" of some variety.

Grading Transparency and a Focus on Learning

Grading with a “curve” is incredibly common in lower division classes. However, the “curve” created a fierce and undesirable sense of competition, which was counterproductive toward learning and collaboration. The goal should also be for students to learn, and it is best to provide grading transparency whenever possible. As such, instructors can switch to offering a set grading scale, where they set grading cut-offs.

Specific Course: Chem 14D: Organic Reactions and Pharmaceuticals

In 2010, there was an opening to teach “Chem 14D: Organic Reactions and Pharmaceuticals.” This is the last class in a fast-paced sequence designed for “life science” majors who need to fulfill general chemistry and organic chemistry requirements in order to pursue health-related professions (e.g. medicine, dentistry, physical therapy, optometry, etc.). The Chem 14D course typically has high enrollments, approaching 400 students in a given lecture period. It is also worth noting that most students view this class as a final lower-division requirement, rather than an exciting educational opportunity.

Establishing Value on the First Day

It is important to establish value on the first day of class and continue to do so throughout a course. In the case of organic chemistry, there are several key points to emphasize:1) Most importantly, the class is ultimately about problem-solving and critical thinking. No student can dispute the value of learning these life-long skills.2) Success in future coursework, such as biochemistry, will likely require a strong foundation in organic chemistry for a student to be successful.3) Some professions (and associated education), including medicine, will expect students to understand organic chemistry.4) Last, it can only help to have students appreciate the relevance of organic chemistry in everyday life.

Focusing on Fundamental Vocabulary

Instructors can spend the first 2 weeks of the 10-week course teaching and emphasizing the fundamental vocabulary. This includes the recognition of certain functional groups and the rules or patterns of chemical reactivity (i.e. nucleophiles, electrophiles, arrow-pushing mechanisms, etc.). Rather than focusing on the exceptions, it is important to focus on the generalities. By laying a strong foundation, students become well-equipped to learn new chemical reactions and the mechanisms by which they occur. Last, as students further progress, we introduce reactions they have never seen before and ask them to propose mechanisms. In addition, we show them molecules they have never seen before and ask them to propose a way to make those molecules in a very open-ended way.

The Nature of Organic Chemistry

Before discussing teaching practices, it is worth commenting on what organic chemistry is and what makes it a challenging course. Simply put, organic chemistry is the chemistry of molecules made of carbon. The applications of organic chemistry are vast, and span medicine, agrochemistry, cosmetics, food science, and cutting-edge technologies, just to name a few areas. Most molecules in our bodies that are responsible for genetics and various physiological events are organic compounds (proteins, DNA, RNA, etc.).

Regarding the difficulty associated with organic chemistry, a primary challenge is that most students simply do not learn about it until their first introductory organic chemistry course, typically in their second year of college study. However, a new student will quickly have to learn how to decipher shorthand chemical structures, recognize functional groups, visualize two-dimensional structures in three dimensions, and assign stereocenters. As they are just absorbing the basics of chemical structure, they begin to learn about chemical reactions, where students learn how to transform certain functional groups into others. For each reaction, there is a logic associated with how and why the reactions take place. Accordingly, students will learn “arrow-pushing” mechanisms. For each reaction, there is inevitably some memorization regarding reagents, solvents, reaction names, and various acronyms. Last, students will typically learn how to perform chemical synthesis using an intellectual tool called “retrosynthetic analysis.” Here, students are provided with the structure of an organic molecule and must propose a means to synthesize that molecule using much simpler compounds through a series of functional group conversions. To solve such problems requires a command of the course material, creativity, and impeccable critical thinking skills.

tags: #mail #chem #ucla #course #descriptions