Teaching Strategies

Topic Strategy Title Description
Examples of Symmetry

Use examples to demonstrate symmetry. For example, show 1H and 13C NMR spectra of ethyl benzene.

Models to Explain Symmetry

Utilise model making to display principles of symmetry. Make the model, show the NMR spectrum and use them together to explain the symmetry.

Present Solutions to NMR Problems

Get the students to present the solutions to NMR problems, with a bit of assistance. Point to a signal on the spectrum and say ‘have you thought about what that means?’ Give them some hints. Encourage the students themselves to be asking the questions about what the signals are or why you...

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Group Work

Photocopy the problems rather than expecting students to download them from Blackboard, and take in only a few copies so that students have to share. They’re forced to work together. But that causes a problem at the end of the class if they all want their own copy, so you then have to go back...

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Smart Phone Mirror

Students’ ability to visualise the molecules in free space is limited sometimes. So a strategy is to ask the students to take out their smart phone and use it as a mirror by putting it opposite the molecule on the paper, so that they can see the reflection and easily visualise the molecule. This...

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