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Students of CHEM 3053/3153, this article pertains to the teaching devices which we use in class.  It appeared in Chemical & Engineering News, 1998, April 13, p. 47.  Read some comments made by previous students about the Nu / E Guide and the EAS Tool.  Results of research determining the effect of the devices on student test performance is given below the article.

    We have developed three teaching devices for undergraduate organic chemistry, which are:  (1) the Nucleophile / Electrophile (Nu/E) Reaction Guide for the reaction of electrophiles with nucleophiles, available commercially, (2) the Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution (EAS) Tool for learning  products, reagent generation, substituent effects, and mechanisms in electrophilic aromatic substitution, and (3) Reaction Site Selection in Carbonyl Compounds device (Carbonyl Site Selector) with three techniques, and the rationales, for predicting the site of attack by a nucleophile or base.  Our research determining the effect of each of these three devices on student test performance showed that the Nu/E Guide improved the pertinent test question performance of students using the device outside of class by 20.1% over those students who did not use the device at all, by 9.1% over those students who used the device only in class and by 8.1% over those students who used the device both inside and outside of class.  We surveyed students further and gathered information which led to the conclusion that students using the device inside class were distracted from explanations and discussion being presented, which reduced learning.  The EAS Tool produced analogous improvements of 17.3%, 4.4%, and 3.8% respectively.  Results for the Carbonyl Site Selector are being calculated.  For more information and references, click HERE.