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 13 th 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. 1 st Semester Structure, bonding, organic chemistry basics 2nd Semester Stereochemistry and Conformation 3rd Semester Substitution at sp 2 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. 1 st Semester Stereochemistry, Pericyclic reactions, spectroscopy 2 nd 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. CH 3 -CH 2 -CH 2 -CH 2 Br Primary bromide CH 3 -CH 2 -CH-CH 3 - Br Secondary bromide (CH 3 ) 3 C-Br Tertiary bromide Which one reacts fastest in an S N 1 reaction? R-Br + R’-OH = R-OR’ (CH 3 ) 3 C-Br Tertiary bromide (CH 3 ) 3 C-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)temperaturemass Titration of a weak acidTitration of a weak acid, Chromatogram simulationChromatogram 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 CO 2 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) 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. 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

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