In the Classroom
A Method for Writing Open-Ended Curved Arrow Notation Questions for Multiple-Choice Exams and Electronic-Response Systems Suzanne M. Ruder* Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284; *
[email protected] Andrei R. Straumanis Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424
Organic chemistry has the reputation for being a course that requires large amounts of rote memorization (1). While memorization is a component of learning organic chemistry, it can be a small component if students focus on developing an overarching conceptual understanding (2). There is evidence that the use of curved arrow notation is a key component of developing such an understanding (3, 4). Green and Rollnick (4) report that students who have not mastered the principles of mechanisms using curved arrows tend to resort to memorization of reactions, which are quickly forgotten. As part of our active-learning instructional techniques (5), we use electronic-response systems to present in-class multiplechoice questions, also called ConcepTests (6). Using multiplechoice questions to test the use of curved arrows, we found that even students who were not proficient in the use of curved arrows on paper could still distinguish correct curved arrow use among the distracters. We first became aware of this issue when a curved arrow question on a multiple-choice first-semester organic final exam yielded stark results to this effect. Though the overall average on this exam was
