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Learn More (14 Questions Answered)
What Do Other People Do?
When
you teach Organic First, lots of changes follow in your curriculum.
Not every school that teaches Organic First makes the same choices.
Below are some questions that come up when you consider the switch
to Organic First as well as answers by three schools that operate
this way. The three schools are Bucknell University, University
of Michigan, and New College. - Is
there any prescreening of who can take the course? What happens
to students who do not make the cut?
-
Are Chemistry majors treated any differently than non-majors?
- What
book do you use?
- What
do you need to add/expand due to the fact that your class is composed
of first-year students who did not just take a general chemistry course?
- What
do you leave out due to the fact that your class is composed of
first-year
students who did not just take
a general chemistry course?
- Do
you add things not normally covered in sophomore organic courses?
-
What are your first-year
labs?
- What
happens sophomore year? What courses are offered? What labs are
used? Are majors treated any differently from non-majors?
- What
happens junior year? Is Physical Chemistry any different from
what it used to be?
- If
there were any holes in the organic coverage, when do they get
filled?
- How
do you handle transfers in and out?
- Do
any clients have any problems with this approach (geologists,
engineers, etc.)?
- Med/Grad
school acceptance rates (before/after)
- Are there any
objective measures of this program's success?
- Is
there any prescreening of who can take the course? What happens
to students who do not make the cut?
Bucknell:
No,
but high school chemistry is expected.
New
College: Yes,
but we have yet to find a good test that correlates well with
performance in the course. Work habits are more important than
preparation. We have a course second semester, "Chemistry
and Society," that uses the ACS text for general interest
students and students with no high school chemistry background.
University
of Michigan:
SHORT ANSWER: Incoming students get advice based on
the results of an examination. Those above a certain threshold
are advised to start in the organic base course, "Structures
and Reactivity", while those who fall below this are advised
to start in a one-term "Principles" course. S/R began
in 1989.
LONG
ANSWER: Our average first-year student has an 1100 combined
SAT score and a 28 ACT. About 2500 incoming first-year students
take a 40 question multiple-choice general chemistry test. Those
who score at the 70th percentile or above are advised
to begin in "Structures and Reactivity" (S/R). About
600 students do this. Around 1300 of the remaining students
take a one-term "General Principles" course; the rest
elect chemistry later. The 600 first-year students who begin
in S/R are joined by about 400—500 additional students–primarily
sophomores–who either waited to take chemistry or who came
through the "Principles" course. The placement advice
does not line up with the populations in the two possible first-term
courses. Most of the students (65%) in the "Principles"
course are engineering majors who need their terminal course;
they often do well on the placement exam, but their programs
ask them to take the "Principles" course anyway. The
S/R students are mainly science majors and pre-med/vet/dent
students. About 10% of the class is made up of grad students
from other disciplines and undergraduates who take S/R for a
science elective course.
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- Are
Chemistry majors treated any differently than non-majors?
Bucknell:
All chem, biochem, and BS bio majors are expected to take two
semesters of organic in the first year. BA bio majors are encouraged
to do the same but some defer organic until the second year.
Because of other curriculum constraints, the chem engineers
cannot take organic until the second year.
New
College: None
University
of Michigan:
SHORT ANSWER: No, although science-motivated students have
a 3 hr/wk supplemental instruction option if they want to explore
the subject at a deeper level.
LONG
ANSWER: No. There is a supplemental instruction program that
science-motivated students may elect, and in doing so earn Honors
credit. The Structured Study Group (SSG) program employs undergraduate
juniors and seniors who are interested in future faculty development
as facilitators for these sessions. In the second term of "Structure
and Reactivity" there is a separate section of the course
offered to about 100 self-selected, science-motivated students.
All of the students in this section are enrolled in SSGs.
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-
What book do you use?
Bucknell:
McMurry. We have found that the level is excellent for a first-year
course. Other texts that the faculty liked better were deemed
to be written at too high a level for a first-year course.
New
College: Ege
"Organic Chemistry" 4th ed. and also Scudder "Electron Flow
in Organic Chemistry" as a supplement
University
of Michigan: "Organic Chemistry" 4th
ed., by Seyhan N. Ege
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- What
do you need to add/expand due to the fact that your class is composed
of first-year
students who did not just take a general chem course?
Bucknell:
We spend more time on the introductory chapters and topics:
bonding, Lewis structures, electronegativity, resonance, Bronsted
acid-base, etc. But even though this material is hit hard, the
amount of time devoted is not excessive, perhaps three weeks.
New
College: More
bonding theory, I bring in a long spring to show standing waves.
VSEPR with balloons along with hybridization. Extensive acid/base
theory and pKa chart use. Basic thermodynamics and kinetics.
Unique to my course: hard soft acid base theory and some PMO
theory (since we are an honors college).
University
of Michigan: Nothing. In the first term we do
Ch. 1—9 and 12. In the second term we do Ch. 13—25.
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- What
do you leave out due to the fact that your class is composed of
first-year students who did not just take a general chem course?
Bucknell:
We have not covered mass spectroscopy nor UV/vis. We do very
little MO theory. We rarely get to spend time on the chapters
at the back of the book: amines and biomolecules. Also, some
topics are de-emphasized such as radical halogenations and aromaticity.
In addition, in the second semester, we do all of carbonyl chemistry
(McMurry, Ch. 19—23) before doing electrophilic aromatic
substitution (McMurry, Ch. 15—16). This results in less
time spent on EAS.
New
College: Some second semester special topics.
University
of Michigan: Nothing. Although if you study this
text, you will see that synthesis is not emphasized as an organizer.
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- Do
you add things not normally covered in sophomore organic courses?
Bucknell:
No.
University
of Michigan: Not compared with our own pre-1989
sophomore courses. The special science-oriented section of the
second term courses are a different story, though. There is
lots of student-generated work, and we include pericyclics,
physical organic, ethics, bio-organic chemistry, and a great
deal more spectroscopic identification.
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- What
are your first-year labs?
Bucknell:
All organic students take one four-hour lab per week. The lab
manual is written and produced in-house. We begin the first
semester with a series of "techniques" labs: melting point,
TLC, extractive techniques, recrystallization, identification
of unknowns. Then we do two isolation experiments: caffeine
from tea and essential oils from spices (steam distillation
and GC). We do two synthetic experiments (stilbene epoxide and
diphenylacetylene). The last experiment is a resolution of enantiomers
by fractional crystallization.
In
the second semester, we use IR, GC, and NMR techniques more.
Most of the experiments are synthetic, including a Grignard
reaction to make triphenylmethanol, preparation of 4-nitroaniline
by nitration of acetanilide and hydrolysis, synthesis of acetate
esters by Fisher esterification, oxidation of borneol and reduction
of camphor, etc.
New
College: Our
first-semester lab is more isolations and identifications, similar
to Michigan's labs. Second semester is a standard organic lab
doing microscale organic reactions.
University
of Michigan: The first lab course has a more
physical organic and analytical flavor to it, while the second-term
lab course is where students are introduced to synthesis and
characterization.
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- What
happens sophomore year? What courses are offered? What labs are
used? Are majors treated any differently from non-majors?
Bucknell:
Chem, biochem, and BS bio majors take "Inorganic I"
in the fall and "Analyt I" in the spring. Chem engineers
take "Inorganic I" in the spring of their first year
and "Analyt I" in the spring on their second year,
concurrently with the second semester of organic. Both "Inorganic
I" and "Analyt I" have a weekly lab.
New
College: Our
first semester course, "Chemistry Principles," covers the remainder
of the
General Chemistry course and starts the intro to Inorganic,
which follows second semester. Both have labs.
University
of Michigan: First-term sophomores, including
majors and pre-med/vet/dents, take an introductory P-chem course.
First-term sophomore chemistry, biochemistry, and cell-molecular
bio students take two other courses: "Analytical Lecture,"
"Analytical Lab." In the second term, the science
majors take a first term Inorganic chemistry course, while the
majors also take an advanced laboratory that combined organic
and inorganic chemistry.
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- What
happens junior year? Is Physical Chemistry any different from
what it used to be?
Bucknell:
Chem majors take two semesters of P-chem in the third year.
Biochem majors may chose one semester of either of the regular
P-chem courses or they may opt for a one-semester course, Bio
P-chem; most choose the latter.
New
College: No change.
University
of Michigan: First term: "Quantum and Computational
Chemistry." Second term: "Thermo and Kinetics."
Some students take Instrumental at this point.
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- If
there were any holes in the organic coverage, when do they get
filled?
Bucknell:
No major holes. Two advanced courses are offered as electives:
"Mechanistic
Organic" (a physical organic course) and "Advanced
Organic" (a synthesis course).
New
College: In the third semester, with a Chem principles
course. We have basically combined Organic and General Chem
into a three-semester sequence, with organic first.
University
of Michigan: There is an elective "Intermediate
Organic" course that some sophomores have taken, but is
mostly taken by juniors.
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- How
do you handle transfers in and out?
Bucknell:
Some students end up taking things out of sequence or picking
something up at summer school. This has not been a problem.
New
College: Dealt with on individual cases.
University
of Michigan: Incoming students with Gen Chem start
with the "Structure and Reactivity" courses and can
complete a program of study in 3 years. Students with Gen Chem
and Organic need to pick up the Inorganic courses and the advanced
lab, but otherwise just start with P-Chem. Outgoing students do
not seem to stay science majors, so we do not have a general reply.
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-
Do any clients have any problems with this approach (geologists,
engineers, etc.)?
Bucknell:
We talk with the biology and engineering departments often and
have made accommodations, particularly with respect to the curriculum
schedule of the chem engineers.
University
of Michigan: If anything, the reply has been
only positive from many quarters. The biologists, especially,
like having a more molecular organic course earlier. It allows
biochemistry courses to fit into student schedules earlier and
more conveniently. The engineers started with more of their
students taking "Structure and Reactivity" but the
demands of this new subject matter and a laboratory were too
much, so they dropped to the "General Principles"
course.
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- Med/Grad
school acceptance rates (before/after)
Bucknell:
We have been offering organic first for over 30 years so an
analysis of these rates would be meaningless. We are in the
midst of a departmental review and have decided to stick with
the program with no major changes. Our students have done very
well in locating jobs and being accepted into medical and graduate
schools.
New
College: No noticeable change.
University
of Michigan: Hundreds of UM students are accepted
to medical, dental, and vet schools every year, and we have
always done really well in this regard. If there were a problem,
we suspect it would have shown up after 11 years. Similarly,
our record of chemistry and biochemistry students going on to
top 10 programs was excellent, and this continues.
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-
Any objective measures of program's success?
Bucknell:
Not really other than the continuing success of our graduates.
*FYI
As
part of our departmental review, we conducted a student survey
to see what they thought of organic first. There was a interesting
trend (not really a correlation) that younger students, 1st
and 2nd year,
remained skeptical but by the time students reached the fourth
year, they were converts to the idea. I think the opportunity
for expanded electives and research was the main factor in the
change of attitude.
And they found that, in comparison, organic wasn't really the
monster course they all thought it was. Just wait until P-Chem!
Some
in the dept worried about whether we might be losing students
who were math lovers by teaching such a non-quantitative course
first, that they might be turned away from chem into physics
or engineering.
I think the majority opinion, however, was that we attracted
students anxious to do something "new" in their first chem course,
rather than what they might perceive to be a re-hash of high
school
chem. Also, we think that mathphobic students have an easier
time with organic than they would with a typical gen chem course.
Finally, we concluded that students that we were losing from
organic first
would very likely be the same ones we would lose from gen chem
first.
New
College: Difficult to say since our transition
was gradual. Attrition in the course has dropped to 10—
20% from 40% before.
University
of Michigan: The
number of science students who declare science majors and end
up going to graduate school has increased. In chemistry, this
has been from about 20—25% of students going on for PhDs
to 33%. We are highly recruited by industry, and this has improved
a bit because of the emphasis on organic chemistry. One obvious
change has been a greater number of really outstanding students
who declare their major early and who begin undergraduate research
as first-year students. Qualitatively, we have received positive
feedback from most of our client departments, as well as the
honors program and the women in science and engineering program.
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If
you have questions regarding the content of these responses, here
is the contact information of the respondents:
University
of Michigan: Dr. Brian P. Coppola, bcoppola@umich.edu
New
College: Paul H. Scudder, scudder@virtu.sar.usf.edu
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