Interlocking Toy Building Blocks as Teaching Modules for an Undergraduate Organic Chemistry-Based Course for Allied Health Majors

The use of interlocking toy building blocks (e.g., LEGO) as teaching modules with a focus on the topics in organic chemistry is presented. Interlocking building blocks were assembled on a baseplate to depict chemistry concepts of hydrogenation of alkenes, hydration of alkenes, Markovnikov’s rule, ci...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of chemical education Vol. 99; no. 7; pp. 2726 - 2732
Main Authors Dabke, Rajeev B, Shelton, Kerri L., Melaku, Samuel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Easton American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc 12.07.2022
American Chemical Society
Subjects
Alkenes
Chemistry
College students
Esterification
Hydrogen bonding
Hydrogen bonds
Locking
Modules
Optical isomers
Organic chemistry
Teaching methods
Topics
Toys
First-Year Undergraduate/General
Addition Reactions
Curriculum
Analogies/Transfer
General Public
Chirality/Optical Activity
Organic Chemistry
Alcohols
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Summary:The use of interlocking toy building blocks (e.g., LEGO) as teaching modules with a focus on the topics in organic chemistry is presented. Interlocking building blocks were assembled on a baseplate to depict chemistry concepts of hydrogenation of alkenes, hydration of alkenes, Markovnikov’s rule, cis and trans isomers, hydrogen bonding, optical isomers, esterification, and amidation. The modules were presented to illustrate these topics in an undergraduate chemistry course for allied health majors. Modules were presented on a document camera for in-person and online modes of delivery. A quiz was implemented to assess the efficacy of the modules. Preliminary evaluation results underlined the efficacy of the interlocking toy modules for delivering concepts in organic chemistry.
ISSN:0021-9584
1938-1328
DOI:10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c01245