Cooperative Organic Laboratories

大多数传统的有机化学实验室倾向于烹饪书类型。也就是说，学生学习实验技术，然后用它们按照规定的方式和配方合成给定的化合物。化学教育界对这类实验室的教学价值越来越感到不安。本文所建议的有机实验课程将建立在我们的普通化学实验课程的优势之上。学生将以小组形式完成开放式项目，而不是一个实验练习。学习一项技术不是把它本身作为目的，而是把它作为达到目的的手段。在本学期的课程中，学生将把他们解决问题的技能尽可能地应用到接近研究过程的项目中。学生还将使用他们的书面和口头沟通技巧来计划，批评和评估他们的实验。将开发许多资源材料，包括包含视频和文本的多媒体程序，以便学生可以在实验室中访问信息，以及一份实验室手册，该手册将包含典型实验条件和工作程序的数据库，以及技术描述。这种新的实验形式将对我们的学生如何学习有机化学产生重大影响，尤其对女性有益。这个项目的主要价值在于它适用于所有有机学生，预期的表现改善和女性保留率提高，以及它对其他情况的适应性。

9455526 Cooper Most traditional organic chemistry laboratories tend to be of the cookbook type. That is students learn laboratory techniques and then use them to synthesize a given compound in a prescribed manner with a recipe. There is growing unease within the chemical education community about the pedagogical value of such laboratories. The organic laboratory course proposed here will build on the strengths of our general chemistry laboratory courses. Students will work in groups on open ended projects instead of one lab period exercises. Instead of learning a technique as an end in itself, techniques will be learned as a means to an end. Over the course of the semester, students will apply their problem solving skills to projects approximating the research process as closely as possible. The students will also use both their written and oral communication skills to plan, critique, and evaluate their experiments. A number of resource materials will be developed including a multimedia program that incorporates video and text so that students can access information in the laboratory, and a laboratory manual that will contain a database of typical experimental conditions and work-up procedures in addition to descriptions of techniques. This new lab format will have a significant impact on how our students learn organic chemistry and will be particularly beneficial to women. The principal value of this project lies in its application to ALL organic students, in the expected improved performance and higher retention rates for women and in its adaptability to other situations.