Development and implementation of a case study assessment using biobased 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to teach redox reactions in undergraduate organic courses

Abstract

This paper addresses the development and evaluation of a case study designed to introduce both the core chemistry concepts of oxidation and reduction reactions as well as green chemistry within the undergraduate organic chemistry curriculum. The developed case study consisted of two parts that can be used in tandem or independently. Part 1 focused on calculating oxidation states and determining whether the provided bioderived reactions represented oxidation or reduction reactions, and Part 2 focused on evaluating the greenness of oxidation reactions. Students reported positive learning gains for both the core chemistry concepts of oxidation and reduction reactions and green chemistry and reported that they viewed the case study favorably. It is our hope that other educators use this case study module to incorporate green chemistry into their organic courses and use its development as inspiration to create further case studies that integrate green chemistry into the curriculum.