Developing Problem-Solving Skills through Retrosynthetic Analysis and Clickers in Organic Chemistry

A unique approach to teaching and learning problem-solving and critical-thinking skills in the context of retrosynthetic analysis is described. In this approach, introductory organic chemistry students, who typically see only simple organic structures, undertook partial retrosynthetic analyses of real and complex synthetic targets. Multiple reasonable answers were possible for the questions, which provided a basis for the development of critical-thinking skills. A numbering system, described herein, was developed that enabled students to submit numeric clicker answers to a single or to multiple questions and thereby revealed the many ways that they had devised to disconnect these complex synthetic targets. The predominant student answers were readily gauged using the histogram function of the clicker program, which provided a basis for multiple relevant retrosynthetic analyses and enabled prompt, regular, and relevant feedback to be provided to students, even in moderate to very large classes.