Organic Chemistry I Cassino: A Card Game for Learning Functional Group Transformations for First-Semester Students

Several challenges face new students of organic chemistry in the more traditional, quantitatively oriented general chemistry curriculum. Students must learn to visualize chemical structures, understand how chemical reactions take place at the molecular level (i.e., mechanisms), name organic molecules, memorize functional group transformations, and design a logical synthetic sequence. In order to supplement the traditional lecture format presentation of these concepts as well as individual drilling with various pedagogical tools, a card game based on learning the basic functional group interconversions commonly encountered in the first-semester organic chemistry is presented. Games and puzzles provide an alternative adjunct method for an enjoyable group activity that engages students in learning organic transformations.