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Less Cookbook And More Research! Synthetic Efforts Toward Jbir-94 And Jbir-125: A Student-Designed Research Project In A Sophomore Organic Chemistry Lab, Mike A. Christiansen, C. L. Crawford, C. D. Mangum

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

In light of the meaningful learning gains that can be obtained through a genuine research experience, chemistry educators have had a longstanding interest in making teaching labs less “cookbook-like” and more research-driven [1]. With this mindset, we recently restructured our two-semester sophomore organic chemistry lab course to include a synthesis project that was chosen, designed, and carried out by students. This led to progress toward the syntheses of JBIR-94 and JBIR-125, two antioxidative/anticancer natural products that have yet to be assembled through organic chemistry. The major drawback of our course redesign is that it requires close supervision by an instructor …