Design Your Own Workup: A Guided-Inquiry Experiment for Introductory Organic Laboratory Courses

A guided-inquiry experiment was designed and implemented in an introductory organic chemistry laboratory course. Students were given a mixture of compounds and had to isolate two of the components by designing a viable workup procedure using liquid–liquid separation methods. Students were given the opportunity to apply their knowledge of chemical and physical properties of organic molecules as well as develop their problem-solving skills by designing the workup themselves rather than following a pre-existing recipe. Students were able to show that this experiment improved their problem-solving skills and understanding of chemical concepts related to the workup process.