Teaching Strategies

Topic Strategy Title Description
Demonstrate Reactions

Use a lot of demonstrations - actually doing reactions at the front of the class. You can't actually see the electrons moving when you're doing the reaction, but still it helps to use demonstrations. Beware of possible misinterpretations that could arise when doing demonstrations. 

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Examples from First Principles

Do many examples, on the projector or board, from first principles. Start with partial charges and identification of the nucleophile and electrophile, then draw in arrows.

Establish Electronegativity First

Re-teach electronegativity quickly because you don't necessarily trust the person who's taught before you. Make sure that it's reiterated, and then follow through to bond polarity and partial charges. Include all of that information first before going on to do reaction mechanisms. So the first...

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Link Concepts Invoved in Mechanism

Explain partial charges, with problems, then link this to bond polarity. Explain the differences in arrows 'language'. Draw organic structures as line structures and no stereochemistry (until you discuss that). Make stoichiometry explicit and link the structures to names to build on the concepts...

The Curly Arrow Code

They're learning a new language as well as new concepts. There's a lot of vocabulary - terms like electrophile and nucleophile and many others. So it’s about learning the language, learning the curly arrow code that we use, and then starting to apply that in half a dozen different contexts.

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