Functional Group Fun: Piloting a Series of Minigames Help Students Learn Functional Groups

Functional groups are a foundational concept for Organic Chemistry students to master; however, they are a common stumbling block due to the structural similarities between related functional groups and the variety of functional groups that appear in the course. Prior work at other institutions have had success using a games-based approach to teach and reinforce functional group concepts. In this work, first semester Organic Chemistry and Intro to Organic Chemistry laboratory students participated in a virtual “Functional Group Field Day” consisting of a series of mini games primarily administered through the streaming platform, Twitch. Three main styles of mini games were utilized in the field day: a tile matching game, a “Heads Up” style game, and several fastest-finger multiple choice games. Pre- and post-surveys were used to assess student confidence and improvement in identifying and utilizing functional groups. From preliminary data analysis, an increase in student confidence and correct functional group identification from pre- to post-survey data have been observed.