Cultivating Student Research Interests in Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Lab Course through Class Activity

Abstract

Undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory courses act as a baseline for introductory scientific experimentation. These courses provide students with the knowledge and skills for their future careers. The traditional lab is conducted by providing a structured protocol of the experiment for the students to follow and reproduce the assigned task while collecting data and making observations when prompted. Though this confirmation-style approach is effective at imparting skills, it fails to demonstrate the true nature of scientific experimentation, which is discovery and problem-solving. To this end, we have redesigned the organic chemistry laboratory courses by using a “research-esque” discovery-style learning, in which certain experiments are treated as a research project. During the lab, reaction parameters within the experiment were varied by the students to compare their results with their peers, so as to create an opportunity to increase the understanding of the experiment at hand, pique the students’ interests in the subject, and create an environment that is similar to scientific research by redesigning the lab protocols. Some case studies are provided herein as samples of our pedagogical improvement.