Building Personal Connections to Organic Chemistry through Writing

Organic chemistry courses enroll students from many majors with diverse interests. Although instructors may strive to appeal to theseinterests by relating course content to real life, it is challenging to intrinsicallyappeal to students at the personal level, particularly in high enrollment courseslike organic chemistry. When students identify personal connections withcourse content, they may be more interested or motivated to continue learningcourse content. To help students identify connections, we designed andimplemented a writing assignment prompting students to select an organiccompound that personally relates to them and write about this personalconnection. Herein, we discuss the implementation and evaluation of theassignment. Student feedback survey responses and interviews indicate that theassignment allowed students to identify how organic chemistry is relevant totheir lives. We believe the assignment could be effectively implemented at other institutions and in other chemistry courses.

Automated summary

Organic chemistry courses attract students from diverse majors and interests, but it is challenging to personally appeal to students in high enrollment courses. By implementing a writing assignment that prompts students to choose an organic compound and write about a personal connection, students were able to identify the relevance of organic chemistry to their lives.