INNOVATIVE TEACHING RESOURCES IN THE AREAS OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY

One of the major challenges posed by the process of European Convergence is the switch to a teaching model focusing on the students’ learning processes and their development of competences. This implies a change in methodology in which the students become more active and their participation is critical for the success of the learning process. In this “evolutionary” framework we have set up the Group of Teaching Innovation in Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry. Our aim is to adapt existing teaching-learning methodologies and come up with new ones that are better suited to the new system of Higher Education. Around this central axis we have worked in two lines:

• Generating didactic resources and materials that foment autonomous learning and incorporating and/or improving virtual teaching materials.

• Designing a series of activities that allow the development of generic or transversal competences. In particular we have selected the following generic competences: oral and written communication in the mother tongue, and critical capacity (including self-criticism).

Tutorials are the didactic tool of the present day and of the future. They are auxiliary tools that allow us to improve the teaching-learning of difficult topics and they act as points of reference for acquiring knowledge at a later date. Within the teaching framework of Chemical Sciences we have designed the following tutorials:

• Searching for genes in the GenBank database
• Using the BLAST tool
• WebCutter
• Using the ACD-ChemSketch program
• Using the IUPAC organic compounds nomenclature
• Using the SciFinder Scholar database

In the practical part of the subjects, students learn the usefulness of the theoretical learning, applying the techniques and developing new methods. We have noticed that students do not carry out their tasks fluently, and we believe that this may be caused they do not have a true understanding of the experiment to be carried out. The students will be provided with explanatory videos of the techniques to be applied on the WebCT virtual platform of each subject. These videos can be consulted as often as the students wish.

Our second aim centres on what we perceive as the students’ inability to express themselves clearly, to discuss reasoning and analyse it critically. We have therefore developed the use of scientific press articles as a tool for learning in chemistry, based on the analysis and discussion of news items. Our aim is to encourage students to develop their critical capacity, to debate, to form judgements/opinions and to analyse the ethical implications of scientific advances.

We have been pleasantly surprised by the skills, abilities and competences that the students have shown. We believe that having taken part in a multi-disciplinary task has been a positive experience and that we have been able to consolidate the activity as a learning tool. One negative aspect that should be mentioned is that these activities have proved to be rather time-consuming. Adapting the course curriculum is a key point in the convergence process.