Description
To the Instructor
Traditional organic chemistry courses receive bad pressfrom students for two reasons. First, they are “sold” as hard courses—I vividly recall being told that in the United States that the point of organic chemists was to keep unsuitable people out of medical schools, because (unlike practitioners and instructors in most other areas) “we still have real standards and we still fail people.” Second, organic chemistry courses are perceived by students as requiring a great deal of rote learning— this latter of course being totally untrue. Those new to organic chemistry need to learn the language—the nomenclature, the irregular verbs—but beyond that, a basic mechanistic understanding will allow even beginning students to approach the subject without fear and even with enjoyment!
Organic chemistry teaching is bedeviled by the problem that many students in any sophomore class would really prefer to be elsewhere—they see themselves as biologists, chemical engineers, or premeds, not as aspirant chemists. So as instructors we can either turn somersaults to try to make the students see relevance to their particular discipline— not always easy at an elementary level—or we can try to convert these students into seeing the inherent beauty of the subject and divert them into the infinitely satisfying practice of chemistry.
In this book, I hope to convince students that learning organic chemistry does not need to be a tedious repetition of “preps and props” of the various categories of compounds but can be a deep understanding of underlying principles that can then be applied to a wide range of as yet unknown problems and systems. As they go along, they will also learn a way of thinking and analysis that will serve them well across many academic disciplines.
I have made a conscious effort to include some of the more modern synthetic approaches—particularly those leading to enantioselective syntheses such as Sharpless dihydroxylation and epoxidation. Later chapters deal with the biological, environmental, industrial, and forensic aspects of the subject.Supplemental materials for instructors are available from the publisher. Please contact [email protected]. The PowerPoint slides are designed for a large lecture theater in which all the screen is visible everywhere. There are more slides than are likely to be used where there are multiple examples, most instructors will want to select. There is also a Word and a PowerPoint version of the solutions to the problems in the text, the latter being designed for use in section teaching. Early chapters have laboriously detailed solutions and explanations, but these reduce as the student feels more comfortable with the basic material.
Each chapter has extensive review problems to solve— any student who works through these thoroughly will become very competent. In many chapters, basic material is reviewed at the start of the problems, particularly nomenclature and spectroscopy. For most chapters, there is also a set of additional challenging problems mainly for chemistry majors, perhaps.
To the Student
Many students approach organic chemistry courses with trepidation. There is a lot of learning to do, isn’t there, and the instructors set very difficult problems. No subject can be mastered without effort this applies in all areas. You would not expect to become competent in speaking a language without learning the irregular verbs, in playing piano without practicing, or running a marathon without training. The most important training you can do in organic chemistry is to practice solving problems with which each chapter of this book is extensively provided. Generally, the first few are easy and for review rather like your warm up before running or scales before Chopin.
While some students will go on to further study of chemistry, for others this is a somewhat unloved requirement for their major. I’d like to think that even those will find topics to interest them here and will find that the problem solving approach to the subject serves them well in disciplines beyond chemistry.
Feel free to share things you have found difficult. Constructive feedback is welcome. If you have found something tough, maybe others have too, and some additional explanation can be given.
Good luck!