NYU organic chemistry professor terminated for tough grading
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Re: NYU organic chemistry professor terminated for tough grading
#2OChem tends to be the weed-out class for several majors, primarily Chemistry. You often take it as a college sophomore, and represents a fundamental shift in topics. Most high school and introductory chemistry is acid/base aqueous chemistry, which is relatively straightforward HAcid + BaseOH H20 + Salt. You may do an organic reaction here or there, but only the the most basic like esterification. Making the fake banana flavor is pretty common, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoamyl_acetate.
The article is paywalled, so I didn't read, but OChem is supposed to be very hard. Maybe he did grade too hard, or maybe whiners want a passing grade without doing the work and this is the first academic challenge they have truly faced.
Re: NYU organic chemistry professor terminated for tough grading
#3OChem tends to be the weed-out class for several majors, primarily Chemistry. You often take it as a college sophomore, and represents a fundamental shift in topics. Most high school and introductory chemistry is acid/base aqueous chemistry, which is relatively straightforward HAcid + BaseOH H20 + Salt. You may do an organic reaction here or there, but only the the most basic like esterification. Making the fake bana…
OC is hard because carbon is unlike any other known element: it has too many possible combinations. Anorganic chemics has a few hundred combinations, but carbon has more with hydrogen alone.
Re: NYU organic chemistry professor terminated for tough grading
#4A point made in the article's comments — an experienced doctor working in prenatal diagnosis says he struggled with organic chemistry, has not found it relevant to his career, and found biochemistry in med school more approachable. He concludes with:
> It makes no sense that a course so peripheral to successful, high quality medical careers is a gatekeeper > to medical school applications at undergraduate programs throughout the country. [1]
I find it unfortunate how NYU approached this situation, and the idea that students can protest their way out of a rigorous education is troubling. That said, I think this MDs point is excellent and worth consideration in light of a story that might otherwise be more ammo for a meritocracy in decline argument.
Re: NYU organic chemistry professor terminated for tough grading
#5What do you do when an entire cohort fails? Bump the grades? That is what has happened in every low scoring class I have been in, but that hardly addresses whatever the core problem is.
Should it be an expectation that 30% of students will always get an A and only 5% will fail, no matter what?
That being said, I am amazed they fired someone so high profile.
Re: NYU organic chemistry professor terminated for tough grading
#6OChem tends to be the weed-out class for several majors, primarily Chemistry. You often take it as a college sophomore, and represents a fundamental shift in topics. Most high school and introductory chemistry is acid/base aqueous chemistry, which is relatively straightforward HAcid + BaseOH H20 + Salt. You may do an organic reaction here or there, but only the the most basic like esterification. Making the fake bana…
OC is hard because carbon is unlike any other known element: it has too many possible combinations. Anorganic chemics has a few hundred combinations, but carbon has more with hydrogen alone.
Correct. OChem represents a shift from atom based thinking to electron arrangement based thinking. You kind of learn this before with orbitals and simple stuff like Cl's 7 electrons+ H's 1 electron = 8 electrons, a full shell! That is why halogens make great acids. But this is only the simplest form.
OChem is much more about how electrons move during reactions. Carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen are simple atoms, but their electrons can be arranged in so many ways. Concepts like electrophilic and nucleophilic are introduced to help model these interactions. You can memorize OChem reactions based on atoms, but its much easier to comprehend once you start looking the electrons in the bonds as the important bit and atoms are just a place to put them.
Re: NYU organic chemistry professor terminated for tough grading
#7A point made in the article's comments — an experienced doctor working in prenatal diagnosis says he struggled with organic chemistry, has not found it relevant to his career, and found biochemistry in med school more approachable. He concludes with: > It makes no sense that a course so peripheral to successful, high quality medical careers is a gatekeeper > to medical school applications at undergraduate programs th…
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Re: NYU organic chemistry professor terminated for tough grading
#8Archived: https://archive.ph/aVZOp
Re: NYU organic chemistry professor terminated for tough grading
#9This is how the united states fails - our education institutions fail to hold the bar and let the pillars of real education turn to sand.
Admittedly, initially in college I was a horrible student. But I got better, admittedly after re-taking a few classes. It cost me, but I learned from it. Not just maths but the lesson of having to grind and struggle to get better at something when it felt like I sucked and had zero intuition for weeks. The latter is what I still believe to be the true value and indicator of a college degree - willing to struggle at a hard thing you might knowingly suck at and keep going (fully knowing some people just master it in hours).
Re: NYU organic chemistry professor terminated for tough grading
#10[deleted]