Advanced organic chemistry laboratory course

An Advanced Organic Chemistry Laboratory Course Incorporating Writing/Reviewing Scientific Manuscripts and Green Chemistry Metrics... 

In an introductory organic chemistry laboratory course, the student learns how to run organic reactions in cookbook fashion. The transition from this level of achievement to the competence required to carry out a synthesis from a vaguely defined procedure in a research journal or to develop a new synthesis is substantial. The general information given in Secs. 1.1 to 1.7 should help the student to bridge the gap between organic reactions at introductory and advanced levels. It is supplemented in Sec. 1.8 by a series of case studies in which the experimental approaches that were used to solve some special problems are examined. 

Burrows continued research on coordination chemistry and between 1928 and 1938 published 15 papers, mostly on metal-arsine complexes(4). His Liversidge Lecture to the Royal Society of New South Wales, titled "Organic arsenicals in peace and war"(6), was an excellent review of arsines and metal-arsine complexes. Burrows was to have a marked effect on subsequent research on coordination chemistry in Australia. Mellor has stated(7) "Burrows lectured on coordination compounds to advanced classes, instituted laboratory courses on the subject, and before long began to attract staff and students to his chosen field. I think that it is fair to say that to Burrows, more than any other man, we owe the formation, at the University of Sydney, of the first school of coordination chemistry in this country [Australia]." It was in s atmosphere that Mellor, Dwyer, and Nyholm began their research careers and it was one of die points from which metal-arsine chemistry emanated. 

Prior to the revisions that occurred in 2001 the requirements for an ACS-certified degree in chemistry at Creighton University were very standard, one year each of general chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and analytical chemistry (separated into quantitative and instrumental analysis), and one semester of advanced inorganic chemistry. Each of these courses had a laboratory specifically associated with it. In addition, we required an advanced... 

In the field of organic chemistry there are a number of elementary laboratory manuals, any one of which may be used to the student s advantage. When it comes to the choice of a guide for an advanced course, however, there is a vast amount of material available from which a selection in the form of a laboratory manual has never been made. Hence the student is often permitted to follow some line in which he is interested, regardless of its practicability or its value from the standpoint of training, or else the planning of the experiments devolves entirely upon the instructor. 

Professor Newman s extraordinary zeal carried over to the area of steric effects, this intense Interest culminating in the publication of the landmark book Steric Effects in Organic Chemistry in 1956. His philosophy of how to teach an undergraduate laboratory course is clearly spelled out in a later text entitled An Advanced Organic Laboratory Course (1976). Mel was never irreverent, but did hold strong opinions on how certain activities should be carried out. For example, his writing style was notably terse and his lectures were characteristically to the point, except for the joke or two that he had inevitably to interject. 

ACS prior to 2008. Students are required to take at least one elective course. These electives consist both of advanced courses in core areas, and interdisciplinaiy courses such as materials science, polymers, lasers, nuclear, and environmental chemistry. The department has a tradition of integrating disciplines in specific courses, as exemplified by our required integrated organic/inorganic laboratory (10), several materials science courses (co-taught between the departments of chemistry and physics), and a biophysical course (co-taught by a biochemist and physicist). However, prior to this project, we had not made a concerted effort to weave a broad interdisciplinary topic throughout the curriculum. 

Chemical Toxicity. In chemistry courses students learn a lot about what a chemical can do for them, but they know woefully little about what a chemical can do to them This deficiency in their chemical education is a result of standard and currently recommended academic practices. (For example, almost all new laboratory manuals in general and organic chemistry have eliminated the use of benzene and dichromate because of their carcinogenic status.) For reasons of safety and economy teaching laboratories tend to make use of small amounts of reagents with minimum toxicity, and use low-risk procedures, such as microscale. Students have only a single or at most a few exposures to any one chemical, and learning about a chemical s toxicity is minimal. These procedures often continue into advanced courses, and even research projects. Spills and waste disposal are handled by the instructors. 

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