Involving Students in the Greening of the Organic Laboratory Curriculum
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Summary
Additional Author: Kaitlyn Gerhart
When greening an organic chemistry laboratory, redesigning the course to educate students about green chemistry rather than simply greening the individual experiments is crucial. This chapter describes a process of redesigning the organic chemistry I laboratory from a microscale course into a green chemistry lab. An organic chemistry I laboratory course where the students learn key organic chemistry techniques, the principles of green chemistry, and to apply green chemistry concepts was developed. A feedback mechanism was designed to involve students in the development and greening of experiments. As a capstone experiment, a three step inquiry-based, green synthesis was devised. The capstone experiment requires the students to search the literature and find methods for performing a carbonyl reduction, alcohol dehydration, and alkene bromination. The student-researched methods are analyzed as a class exercise before the experiments are performed, and the class chooses the best method for each reaction.
Full citation: Bastin, L. D., & Gerhart, K. (2016). A Greener Organic Chemistry Course Involving Student Input and Design. In Green Chemistry Experiments in Undergraduate Laboratories (Ch 4, Vol. 1233, ACS Symposium Series, pp. 55–69). American Chemical Society. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/bk-2016-1233.ch004.
When greening an organic chemistry laboratory, redesigning the course to educate students about green chemistry rather than simply greening the individual experiments is crucial. This chapter describes a process of redesigning the organic chemistry I laboratory from a microscale course into a green chemistry lab. An organic chemistry I laboratory course where the students learn key organic chemistry techniques, the principles of green chemistry, and to apply green chemistry concepts was developed. A feedback mechanism was designed to involve students in the development and greening of experiments. As a capstone experiment, a three step inquiry-based, green synthesis was devised. The capstone experiment requires the students to search the literature and find methods for performing a carbonyl reduction, alcohol dehydration, and alkene bromination. The student-researched methods are analyzed as a class exercise before the experiments are performed, and the class chooses the best method for each reaction.
Full citation: Bastin, L. D., & Gerhart, K. (2016). A Greener Organic Chemistry Course Involving Student Input and Design. In Green Chemistry Experiments in Undergraduate Laboratories (Ch 4, Vol. 1233, ACS Symposium Series, pp. 55–69). American Chemical Society. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/bk-2016-1233.ch004.
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