This document contains notes from a presentation on organic chemistry. It includes an outline of topics typically covered in high school, undergraduate, and postgraduate organic chemistry courses. It also provides examples of questions asked to chemistry students after completing high school, responses to those questions, and links to online chemistry resources. The presenter suggests some alternative teaching methods like asking students to submit their own questions rather than routine homework, and providing questions for students to evaluate answers to promote critical thinking.

1. 1
Uday Maitra, Dept of Organic Chemistry
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
maitrau@gmail.com/080-2360-1968
My coordinates: 13.0165, 77.5686
NCCT-2014
HBCSE, Mumbai
13th
December 2014

2. “I used to experiment with
Chloroform as I wanted to get
into the subconscious mind. It
is a highly powerful state of
mind where you can memorise
quickly.”

4. Outline
• Chemistry in High school
* brief discussion on an ongoing survey
• Some examples from high school textbooks
• Asking questions
• Organic chemistry curricula in UG and PG levels
• Computers/internet – useful resources, a few examples
• Some interesting thoughts

5. Organic Chemistry in High School
End of Class 11
• Some basic principles and techniques of Organic Chemistry
• Hydrocarbons
2nd half of Class 12
• Haloalkanes and haloarenes
• Alcohol, phenol and ethers
• Aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids
• Amines
• Biomolecules
• Polymers
• Chemistry in everyday life

6. •Your name
• Your high school name and location:
• When did you first study Chemistry as a separate subject?
• Which topics/chapters in Chemistry did you like the most? Why?
• Which topics/chapters in Chemistry did not interest you at all? Why?
• Did you do any laboratory experiments?
• Which experiments did you do? Which one did you like the most?
• Did you do any chemistry experiment (e.g. a project) not connected with your
syllabus? If so, please give some details.
• Did any of your chemistry teachers use an innovative method to teach? If so,
could you briefly describe?
• Do you think Chemistry teaching in schools needs to be improved? If the answer
is yes, could you say in a few lines what differences would have made you more
interested in Chemistry?
Questions asked to students who finished high school in 2014

7. Which topics/chapters in Chemistry did you like the most?
• Organic Chemistry, since no memorization was required once you know the
concepts
• Organic chemistry as it is fun to know how reaction works and making new
compounds using reactions
• States of matter, Chemical bonding and Molecular Structure
• ‘Atomic structure', 'bonding' were and are the subjects which fascinate me
• The atomic structure, Chemical bonding, Electro-chemistry, Coordination
chemistry and Organic mechanisms
• Organic Chemistry part, because I find some logical things here, where I can
use my brain, to propose a mechanism, or to explain why something is happening
like that, & this organic part is much more organized.
• Periodic table properties. It was well organized.
• I like the chemistry in everyday life and the chemistry behind the things
which happen in our surrounding
Representative response to four important questions

8. Which topics/chapters in Chemistry did not interest you at all?
• Thermodynamics, Organic, s, p and d-block elements because I did not
understand the mechanism of organic molecules
• Solid state chemistry
• Thermodynamics, surface chemistry
• 'Electrolytic solutions' and all those normality molarity calculations were boring;
so were the Board’s syllabi on inorganic chemistry.
• Electrochemistry. The flow of electrons was not clearly explained
• Kinetic theory of gas, I don't know why
• The detailed study of the Periodic table
• Chemistry of p-block elements

9. Did any of your chemistry teachers use an innovative method to
teach?
• Used models to teach organic chemistry and structures
• Yes, he used ball and stick models while teaching stereochemistry
• Yes, one of them, but most of them were monotonous.
• NO. They have taught some remembering techniques like...VIBGYOR
• Yes. one of our teacher showed us many experiments when we were in
class VIII.

10. Do you think Chemistry teaching in schools needs to be improved?
• More practicals and more reaction mechanisms, may be.
• Yes. Labs are not well equipped. Not funded properly. Scarcity of compounds and
reactants like Nessler reagent
• Inorganic chemistry should be taught conceptually and the syllabus should be
accordingly changed.
• Reaction Mechanisms have to be introduced before one starts reading about
organic chemistry
• Yes, Teachers can use projectors and pictures. No one thinks that remembering
hard reactions are the main part of Chemistry.
• Use some e-technology to show the actual things which we r studying as theory.
using some model, doing experiments from very basic levels
• All the teachers teach organic reactions without reaction mechanism
• More practicals
• Various software, models and Internet should be taken to teach chemical and
crystal structures
• Chemistry needs to be taught in a more interactive manner, and should not solely
test the memory skills of a student. Demonstrations and visually stimulating
experiments related to the concepts being taught can motivate many students to
look at chemistry as a viable career option.

11. Electrochemical concepts
Give examples of each class
Mention uses in real life

12. • 9 volt battery
• 2 pencils
• Petridish on an overhead projector
• Water with vinegar
• pH indicator
•Water with common salt
•Starch iodide paper

14. The power of

15. “My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every
other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school:
So? Did you learn anything today? But not my mother. “Izzy,”
she would say, “did you ask a good question today?” That
difference — asking good questions — made me become a
scientist.”
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1944 was awarded
to Isidor Isaac Rabi "for his resonance
method for recording the magnetic properties
of atomic nuclei".

16. 1st
Semester
Structure, bonding, organic chemistry
basics
2nd Semester
Stereochemistry and Conformation
3rd Semester
Substitution at sp2
carbon (carbonyl
system)
Nucleophilic and Electrophilic aromatic
substitution
Radical substitution
Addition reaction
4th semester
Spectroscopy: NMR, IR, UV and MS
Addition to C=O, Carbonyl Reduction:
Elimination reaction: Acyclic and cyclic
system, Rearrangements
5th Semester
Organometallic Chemistry
Nitrogen compounds: amines
Transformations
Enolate chemistry; Synthetic Strategy
Asymmetric synthesis
Carbocycles and Heterocycles: synthesis
and reactions
Green Chemistry
6th Semester
Unit I:
Pericyclic Reactions
Advanced spectroscopy
Polymers and nanomaterials
Unit II: Biomolecules
Carbohydrates
Amino acids and peptides
Proteins and Nucleic acids
Undergraduate – organic chemistry courses
(Why lipids are excluded???)

17. 1st
Semester
Stereochemistry, Pericyclic reactions, spectroscopy
2nd
Semester
Synthetic methodology, heterocyclic chemistry, natural products
3rd Semester
Organic photochemistry and radical reactions
4th Semester
Organotransition metal chemistry, Asymmetric synthesis, synthesis
of complex organic molecules, natural products
Organic specialization
Heterocyclic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, stereochemistry of
polycylic compounds, bioorganic chemistry
Postgraduate – organic chemistry courses
Physical organic chemistry???

18. Links for Chemists
http://www.liv.ac.uk/chemistry/links/link.html
Organic Chemistry Division, ACS
http://www.organicdivision.org/
Organic Data tables
http://www.chem.wisc.edu/areas/organic/index-chem.htm
Learn Chemistry
http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/
Science is Fun
http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/
Indian Academy of Sciences (Bangalore)
http://www.ias.ac.in
Chemistry Education Links…

19. Periodic Table
http://www.meta-synthesis.com/webbook/35_pt/pt.html
Classic Chemistry
https://web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/
Classic Papers
https://web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/papers.html
List of Name reactions (about 145)
http://www.monomerchem.com/display4.html
Demystifying Synthetic Organic Experimental Techniques
http://chem.chem.rochester.edu/~nvd/
Molecule of the Month
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Chemistry/MOTM/motm.htm
…Chemistry Education Links

20. Demonstration Lab at Madison
http://www.chem.wisc.edu/deptfiles/genchem/demonstrations/Default.htm
Delights of Chemistry
http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/delights/
Demonstrations and Experiments
Lab experiments
http://www.oc-praktikum.de/nop/en-experiment-3021-overview

21. http://www.sciencegeek.net/Chemistry/chemware/chemware.shtml
http://www.claessen.net/chemistry/soft_en.html
http://www.internetchemistry.com/chemistry-index.html
http://ww2.chemistrycoach.com/
http://hbell.chem.vt.edu/simulation/hb2/TESTPAGE.htm
Free Chemistry Software Links

22. CH3-CH2-CH2-CH2Br
Primary bromide
CH3-CH2-CH-CH3
-
Br
Secondary bromide
(CH3)3C-Br
Tertiary bromide
Which one reacts fastest in an SN1 reaction?
R-Br + R’-OH = R-OR’
(CH3)3C-Br
Tertiary bromide
(CH3)3C-Cl
Tertiary chloride
Which one is a better leaving group, Cl or Br?
A simple demo on reactions
R-Br + R’-OH = R-OR’ + H-Br

23. Organic Chemistry (McMurry)
Maxwell distribution (vs. temperature, vs. mass)
Titration of a weak acid, Chromatogram simulation
J. Chemical Education Software
(http://www.jce.divched.org/jce-products)
Some more resources…

24. Journal of Chemical Education
Chemistry Comes Alive!

25. The ‘feather touch’ experiment
Optical rotation
Burning of magnesium in CO2
Water expands on freezing
The beating mercury heart

26. Visualizing normal modes
GC Instrument simulator
Samples from J. Chem. Educ.
Advanced Chemistry Software Collections CD

27. • No routine home asssignments
• Ask the students to submit a question and its probable answer
(must be backed up with an appropriate reference)
• Enjoyable: read books, research papers, and most importantly, think!
• Every student comes up with a different question
A few interesting thoughts...
(question and answer cannot be from any textbook, question
bank, or from any school/college or competitive examination)

28. Ask the students to come up with a question from a structure,
plot, or reaction sequence (relevant to the course)
MeBr
NH2
NH2
A few interesting thoughts...

29. Provide a question with answer(s), which may be correct,
partially correct, or completely wrong!
Ask the student to read the question, and evaluate the
answer.
A few interesting thoughts...

30. 6. Evaluate if the answerswritten initalicsare correctornot. Give
marks!Incase the answeris incorrect, givethe correctanswerin two
sentences.
(a) Solvolysisof compound 1 (t-Bu vs. t-Bu-d9) gives a steric isotopeeffect
(kH/kD )of 1.1. Whatwould you guessto be the KIEfor the solvolysis of
compound 2?Give abrief explanation. [2 +
2 = 4]
Theobserved KIE withcompound2 willbe less
than 1.11.
This is becausetheC-Hbond is longerthan theC-Dbondand thus less strain is
relievedin compound 2.
R
O
O
NO2
R
t-Bu
1: R = H
2: R = CH3
An example

31. • Stereochemistry and Conformation
• Revisiting Nucleophilic Substitutions
• Kinetics and Reaction Mechanism
• Primary Kinetic Isotope Effect
• Secondary Kinetic Isotope Effect
• Enzyme-inhibitors as Drugs
• Unusual Molecules
http://orgchem.iisc.ernet.in/faculty/um/teaching.html
A few lectures from my website (need to be updated)

32. maitrau@gmail.com

33. 33