A New Model for Transitioning Students from the Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory to the Research Laboratory. The Evolution of an Intermediate Organic Synthesis Laboratory Course

Abstract

This article outlines the recent transformation of an intermediate undergraduate organic synthesis laboratory course at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This course has had a unique design for over 30 years, with structured experiments performed in the teaching laboratory only for the first half of the course. In the second half of the course, students are assigned to projects in graduate research laboratories. The classroom component of the course, however, did not provide students with many of the skills essential for success in the research laboratory. Over the academic years 2003–2005, we systematically changed the classroom and laboratory components of this course so that it now provides experience using modern chemistry experimental techniques and chemical information resources, instruction in scientific writing and the use of chemical drawing software, and awareness of basic scientific ethics. Here, we outline our rationale behind each course component change, describe how the changes were implemented, and discuss how the effects on student learning were assessed. Overall, these changes have been greeted with enthusiasm by our students, faculty, and staff, and we believe this course provides a curricular model exportable to other chemistry departments.