Guided inquiry activities on pericyclic reactions

CHED 879

Kelly E. Butler, butler@chc.edu, Chestnut Hill College, 9601 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19118
Typically, the part of a physical organic chemistry course that deals with pericyclic reactions is particularly difficult for students. Because visualizing con- and disrotation and supra- and antarafacial interactions is challenging, this topic lends itself well to a student-centered approach. I have written a set of guided inquiry activities on pericyclic reactions geared to advanced college or beginning graduate students. Twelve in all, the activities start with an introduction to qualitative molecular orbital theory and cover the stereochemistry of electrocyclic reactions, cycloadditions and cycloreversions, and sigmatropic rearrangements. The Woodward-Hoffman rules are explained using the frontier orbital approach, aromatic transition state theory, and correlation diagrams. This set concludes with two activities on the Cope rearrangement.
 

Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL)
1:30 PM-4:35 PM, Monday, March 26, 2007 McCormick Place North -- Room N231, Level 2, Oral

Division of Chemical Education

The 233rd ACS National Meeting, Chicago, IL, March 25-29, 2007