Organic Chemistry: A Guided Inquiry
Ruder, Suzanne M. Lancaster, PA: The POGIL Project; Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt, 2021.
Print ISBN: 978-1-792-4907-12 EBook ISBN: 9781792490712
320 pages Print: $40 EBook: $32
About the Book
Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) is a method of instruction where each student takes an active role in the classroom. The activities contained in this collection are specially designed guided inquiry activities intended for the student to complete during class while working with a small group of peers. Each activity introduces essential organic chemistry content in a model that contains examples, experimental data, reactions, or other important information. Each activity is followed by a series of questions designed to lead the student through the thought processes that will result in the comprehension of critical organic chemistry concepts. At the end of each activity are additional questions, which will generally be completed outside of class time and are more similar to questions that might appear on exams. Before each class, students should ensure that they are familiar with the prior knowledge that is listed at the beginning of every activity.
These POGIL Organic Chemistry activities were written to cover most of the important concepts for a two-semester organic chemistry sequence. The activities are grouped into Organic 1 and Organic 2, although that might vary from class to class depending on what concepts are covered in each semester.
About the Author
Dr. Suzanne Ruder is a Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Ruder earned a B.A. in chemistry from the College of St. Benedict, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Washington State University, and completed a postdoctoral position at Brown University. Her research focuses on training teaching assistants, designing instructional materials and developing methods to assess process skills in the active learning classroom. Ruder teaches organic chemistry at VCU using active learning methods in large classes (up to 250 students). In addition to authoring this set of POGIL activities for organic chemistry, she has led seminars and workshops about active learning throughout the United States and Australia. She has been involved with The POGIL Project since 2003 in a variety of ways including facilitating workshops, training workshop facilitators, and serving on the Steering Committee.
