Organic Chemistry: A Guided Inquiry

How? This workbook is designed for teams of 3 or 4 students to discover the key concepts of organic chemistry by analyzing data and answering questions that are presented in the form of short, logical puzzles. The professor and learning assistants move around the room answering questions and offering tips and coaching.

Why? The skills and ways of thinking required for organic chemistry closely mirror those used by successful healthcare professionals and scientists. In essence, organic chemistry is a perfect playing field for coaching students how to think, learn, and work together to solve challenging problems. Past students report that organic chemistry workshops helped them in their subsequent courses, in med school, dental school, etc., and in their careers.

Goals:

1) Prepare for exams and subsequent courses (biochem, MCAT, PCAT, DAT etc.)

2) Develop reasoning skills critical for success in healthcare and science

3) Replace stress about grades with the authentic motivation that comes from connecting to teammates and figuring out challenging concepts. This works because humans get powerful brain rewards from the "Aha! moment" of the reveal, especially when working and bonding as part of a team.

4) Learn to be an effective team builder and team leader. These days, from med school to Wall Street, everything is done in teams. Don't worry if that makes you nervous or you don't have a crew yet. One of the first lessons you will learn in this course is that, though joining anxiety can be intense, it is short lived. Working together on ochem, you will find that strangers quickly become trusted teammates.

Professor Straumanis teaches organic chemistry at the University of Texas in Austin. He holds a B.A. from Oberlin College, and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Stanford University, where he worked with Professor Jim Collman on synthetic mimics of the active sites of cytochrome c and cytochrome p450. He is a co-founder of The POGIL Project, and until 2019 served as Consulting Scientist and Executive Editor for that organization, which is dedicated to supporting faculty implementing research-based teaching methods. Prior to this, he was on the faculty and taught chemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle and the College of Charleston. He is the author of several textbooks on math and chemistry and has given more than 100 talks and workshops on active learning and the use of cooperative, guided discovery instruction in large, flipped classrooms.