The Principle of Conservation of Structural Aspect: Facilitating Visual Communication and Learning in Organic Chemistry Instruction

An effective pedagogical method is presented for the visual communication of chemical reactions learned in organic chemistry undergraduate courses. The basis for the method is the preservation of the visual aspect of reactant and product structures so that the tracking of cleaved and formed chemical bonds is made self-evident. This consequently leads to improved clarity of presentation and a better understanding and grasp of proposed reaction mechanisms to explain product outcomes. The method is demonstrated for a variety of individual reaction types and synthesis plans. Various visual training exercises are also presented using ChemDraw Ultra 7.0 software and literature table of contents (TOC) graphics appearing in journal articles.