Abstract:

The area of Organic Chemistry of the UBU (University of Burgos) has been working for several years on a series of new initiatives at the teaching level aimed to improve the results in this discipline and, especially in the learning of stereoisomerism and stereochemistry in the first courses of the Chemistry degree. The domain of stereochemistry has been chosen by the difficulty for students to understand and also because of the importance of this part in the general context of organic chemistry and other fields.

Our concern for continuous improvement leads us to look for new methodologies, paying special attention to the choice of activities that are attractive to students, that stimulate their curiosity and keep them motivated for the study of the subject, but also taking care about mechanisms for their evaluation.

In this paper, we develop an activity oriented to be done by groups of students to learn stereoisomerism of organic compounds. We also present the way to evaluate this activity, which is a part of the practices corresponding to organic chemistry for the first year of the Degree in Science and Food Technology.

The group activity is the development of a poster. The central theme of each poster is the characterization-study of stereoisomerism and the uses in everyday life of an organic molecule. These molecules are chosen for their pharmacological interest or by their relationship with science and food technology.

To carry out this activity six steps are proposed. Each step involves one delivery that always includes an activity report. All tasks are reviewed by the teacher and returned back to the group coordinator with the relevant corrections and comments, with the corresponding grade. Each of the steps except the last one is proposed at the end of each of the five practices sessions with the professor, where the student has acquired the knowledge and skills needed for its implementation.

An aspect of this activity that needs to be underlined is the ongoing evaluation, with the follow-up of:
- Acquisition of knowledge
- Development of skills
- Student satisfaction

This assessment allows us to get a more objective rating and, at the same time, adjustments for its improvement.
In the final exhibition of the posters, all groups and teachers of the subject take part in the task of qualifying the result of each group. For qualifying, it has previously been provided a rubric.

The main achievement observed after some years implementing this learning methodology is the increase of the number of students who pass the subject of Organic Chemistry. Furthermore, this activity is positively evaluated by the students.

Keywords:

Organic chemistry, stereoisomerism, a group activity, continued assessment.