Online Problems from
The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms
Over the last five years, UK Professor of Computer Science Raphael Finkel and I, in partnership with publisher Prentice–Hall, Inc., have created and developed an online organic chemistry homework program, ACE Organic, that requires students to draw structures and provides response-specific feedback that guides students to the answers without giving them away.
With the help of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the ACE Organic team has just recently added the capability to handle reaction mechanisms. That is, ACE can now ask students to draw a reasonable mechanism for a particular reaction. Students are expected to draw key intermediates and proper electron-flow arrows. ACE can analyze the response and provide appropriate feedback if the mechanism contains unreasonable steps.
I am very excited to announce that I have entered most of the end-of-chapter problems in The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms into ACE Organic. (Exception: The problems from chapters 6 and 7, transition-metal-mediated reactions and mixed mechanism questions, have not yet been entered. ACE cannot yet handle dative bonds and π complexes, although we hope this situation will change soon.) You can now try solving the AWRORM problems online!
What is the advantage of using ACE to solve problems from AWRORM? Simply this: Seeing how I solved a problem (by looking at the answer keys provided for free in a PDF file) is not the same as solving the problem yourself. With ACE, you get to find out whether your response is correct without seeing my version of the correct answer. If you made a mistake, ACE points out the mistake you made and allows you to correct it and resubmit as many times as you wish.
(I should also mention that if you experience problems with ACE (either technical difficulties or problems with content or feedback), I will address those problems as quickly as possible.)
This added value currently costs you about $40. Granted, that is a substantial fraction of the book's cost, but the value is huge.
If you would like to purchase access to the AWRORM problems online in ACE Organic, here's what you do:
- Purchase an ACE Organic access code from Prentice–Hall.
- On page 1, enter 40506 for the school zip code and United States for the school country.
- On page 2, choose University of Kentucky from the popup menu.
- Press the "Buy Now" button to send $10 to me.
- Register with ACE Organic. (For now, we will be using the University of Kentucky installation, but this situation may change in the future.)
- Enter the same username and password for ACE Organic as you did when you purchased your access code.
- Enter anything for your student ID number.
- Important: Choose University of Kentucky as your institution.
- Send me an email requesting access to the problems. Include your name, your ACE username, and your access code from Prentice–Hall in the email.
Note: The Prentice–Hall access code gives you access to the Prentice–Hall installation of ACE Organic, but I will have you use the University of Kentucky installation, at least initially, because I can monitor it more closely in case of problems.
Want to try it out before you pay for it? Login to ACE Organic as guestStudent, password awrorm, and work a problem or two. I recommend you work the tutorials so you can get used to the drawing tool and learn how you need to format your responses.
This page was last updated January 24, 2007.