The mix of guided-inquiry and design based experiments is feasible to do in introductory organic chemistry lab courses. It can provide students with experience in two parts of experimental chemistry such as the significance and careful analysis of experimental data and the design of experiments.

Guided-inquiry experiments offer the same opportunities to participate in the process of science as classical organic qualitative analysis used to do. This three-week guided-inquiry project involves an aldol-dehydration synthesis of a chalcone chosen from a set of nine, followed by a catalytic transfer hydrogenation reaction using ammonium formate…

The problem with organic chemistry labs is that the educational objectives of lab instructions are often vague and seldom stated. The great majority of organic chemistry labs in American colleges and universities are based on verification experiments.

Discusses the rationale for and development of an experiment on the oxidation of secondary alcohols with common hypochlorite bleach. The experiment provides a safe, environmentally sound, and inexpensive modern synthetic method. In addition, it utilizes a variety of laboratory techniques and some fundamental oxidation-reduction chemistry. (JN)

Describes an undergraduate organic chemistry experiment in which papain is used as a catalyst for the stereospecific formation of an insoluble anilide from a racemic benzoylamino acid. (MLH)