Understanding substitution and elimination
reactions is a critically
important key to comprehending chemical reactions and their mechanisms.
Memorizing differences between these reactions is one of the most
commonly used strategies to learn this subject. A card game is a helpful
supplement to teaching substitution and elimination reactions. A new
organic chemistry card game, CHEMCompete, is presented
that helps students predict the products of substitution and elimination
reactions of alkyl halides and classify the types of these reactions.
This game encourages cooperative learning in an enjoyable setting.
Significant improvements were observed in both students’ self-rated
survey responses and quiz scores evaluating their understanding of
this topic. CHEMCompete is an effective study tool
for learning substitution and elimination reactions of alkyl halides.
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