Teaching InquiryDriven Organic Chemistry Labs Jerry Mohrig Carleton

Teaching Inquiry-Driven Organic Chemistry Labs Jerry Mohrig Carleton College Northfield, MN Introduction and Workshop Objectives Summer 2006

• Provide the participants hands-on experience with question-driven, guided-inquiry organic chemistry projects and experiments. • Allow the participants to evaluate what works well for guidedinquiry and design-based experiments and what are the practical constraints. • Help the participants learn how to invigorate their laboratory courses by using inquiry-driven experiments and projects. • Provide the participant experience with recasting a traditional experiment or project into a question-driven or design-based one. • Encourage sharing of positive and negative experiences by participants regarding their teaching of organic chemistry labs. • Explore whether graduate-student teaching assistants can provide competent supervision in the use of inquiry-driven organic chemistry labs and what training will be necessary to do this successfully.

Two Important Questions Why Do We Teach Labs? What Are Our Goals In Teaching Organic Chemistry Labs?

Traditional Lab Teaching Goals • Teach students how to follow experimental directions • Allow students to verify what the lab manual says Higher-Order Traditional Lab Goals • Help students experience the material taught in our lectures and deepen their understanding of it • Teach modern laboratory techniques to students • Teach students to synthesize organic compounds

The Important “Non-Traditional Goals” of Laboratory Teaching • To teach students how to interpret experimental results and draw reasonable conclusions • To teach students how to design their experimental procedures • To encourage students to ask questions and find answers • To allow students to explore the process of science

Styles of Lab Teaching Traditional Verification Experiments Provide confirmation of knowledge that students have been asked to learn Make a white powder, prove it’s what you expect, and donate it to chemical waste, again and again – giving the word “cookbook” a bad name Inquiry Driven Guided-Inquiry or Discovery Experiments/Projects Question driven Outcome not known but the chemistry builds on what the students have studied - experimental results must be evaluated and conclusions drawn A procedure is often given Design-Based Experiments/Projects Adapting generic procedures to synthesize target compounds Students make decisions on the design of experimental procedures and learn the consequences of their choices Open-ended Inquiry Experiments/Projects Students generate their own procedures and investigate the outcomes

Traditional Grignard Synthesis Project

Design-Based Grignard Project Purpose: To design and carry out the Grignard synthesis of a secondary or tertiary alcohol from a simpler primary alcohol

Traditional Acetylation of Ferrocene

Guided-Inquiry Diacetylation of Ferrocene Question: Which diacetylferrocene isomers form?

The Advantages of Multi-Week Projects • Promote student engagement and ownership • Break out of the straightjacket by allowing flexible use of lab time • Can utilize any pedagogy and are effective at all educational levels • Promote guided-inquiry instruction • Can use organic synthesis in the context of asking questions • Provide good teamwork opportunities • Allow lower lab costs

Keys to Success in Using Inquiry-Driven Labs Teaching the Art of Data Interpretation and Experimental Design • Communication of the lab goals and methods to all concerned • Faculty participation • Providing time for pre- and post-lab discussions • A range of inquiry-driven experiments and projects, from the straightforward to the sophisticated • Availability of some modern instrumentation • Availability of suitable written background materials

Suitable Written Background Materials A clear well-defined question or purpose, stated up front Background material so that students can successfully interpret their experimental data Clear, student-friendly experimental directions or models for developing them A well-written techniques book, which contains modern spectroscopy as well as traditional lab techniques

Summary Inquiry-driven experiments and projects are effective: • For allowing students to make hypotheses based on what they have learned in the classroom • For teaching students how to evaluate their experimental data and draw conclusions from them • For helping students to learn how to design and carry out experimental procedures • For allowing students to experience first-hand the science of organic chemistry