Synthesis explorer: Organic chemistry tutorial system for multistep synthesis design and reaction mechanism prediction

CHED 1605

Jonathan H. Chen, chenjh@uci.edu and Pierre Baldi, pfbaldi@uci.edu. Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics, School of Information and Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697
Synthesis Explorer is an interactive tutorial system for organic chemistry which enables students to learn chemical reactions in ways previously unrealized. Accessible online through a user-friendly Web interface, Synthesis Explorer delivers a rich learning experience including: dynamic generation of customized multi-step synthesis design and mechanism prediction problems; context-specific feedback; and support for inquiry-based learning through experimentation and interactive dialogue with the system. The system is founded upon a reaction expert system currently comprising over 50 reagent models and over 600 manually-curated reaction patterns, representing the majority of an undergraduate organic chemistry curriculum. These reaction models confer inherent predictive power, which enable the system to generate a virtually limitless number of problems and to answer common questions of reactivity, including the inference of complete arrow-pushing mechanisms. Pedagogical experiments in undergraduate classes at UC Irvine indicate that the system can improve average student examination performance by ~10%. System is available at http://cdb.ics.uci.edu.
 

Using Technology to Enhance Learning in Organic Chemistry
1:00 PM-4:15 PM, Thursday, April 10, 2008 Hilton New Orleans Riverside -- HEC C, Oral

Sci-Mix
8:00 PM-10:00 PM, Monday, April 7, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Hall A, Sci-Mix

Division of Chemical Education

The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008