Revamp of Organic Syllabus in NUS Chemistry

Ha, looks like NUS Chemistry is kinda serious this time round in revamping the organic syllabus in NUS. It seems that none of the current batch of honours students bother to reply Dr. Zeng (the prof in charge of the revamp). Upon my junior, Suling's help, I drafted an email to Dr. Zeng:

...CM1121 was taught by Prof. Lai, my former Honours supervisor. He was by far the best teacher in organic chemistry that I have encountered and I am sure few will disagree with me in this. He managed to covered all the essential basic grounding in organic chemistry for us, with an emphasis on (SN1, SN2, E1, E2), nucleophilic acyl substitution etc. I believed whatever he has taught us gave my batch a solid foundation to tackle CM2121 and above. I have a bold suggestion for CM1121 though: it will be good if we can have something like CM1121S, which is worth 5MC. This is meant for those who are extremely passionate about organic chemistry and will like to learn more. The Math department has similar modules with a "S" code in their freshmen and sophomore courses (http://ww1.math.nus.edu.sg/undergrad.aspx?file=stu-modules#MODULES_OFFERED)

For CM2121, like I mentioned below, it will be good to maintain the teaching of retrosynthesis. I recalled the days when Zhijie and I had loads of fun discussing and debating about making a molecule. We even came out with weird looking molecules on our own to make; now of course we know that our routes were not ideal but it is the learning process that matters. The spirit of learning and exploring should be emphasize here. However, one thing we found lacking was that in most cases, only the conventional 1,2 1,3 ... 1,6 disconnections were emphasized in great details. This might lead students to think that retro is all about carbonyl disconnection, which is incorrect. Therefore, it might be good to "go beyond carbonyl disconnection" to introduce more strategies to the students. Of course at least level, we should maintain a "non-asymmetric" approach. Also, simple examples of total synthesis from the literature can be introduced to allow students to appreciate this subject better. I do read of some total synthesis who are relatively straightforward. I also believed that CM2121 has undergone some revision when it was taught by Dr. Lear (he did include additional stuff beyond the usual carbony disconnections) and I applaud him for that.

For CM3221, I really think that it was totally trashy (sorry for being harsh). During my time (and I believed it is still like this now, in fact worse), it was basically a repeat of what we learnt in CM1121 and CM2121, except for some additional topics in reduction and oxidation, which can be easily covered in 4 lectures. My personal belief for a level III organic module is that it should, at the very minimum, include the following:

1. Simple asymmetric synthesis concepts - stereochemistry, substrate control, asym aldol, chiral auxillary etc.
2. [O], [R], possibly asymmetric version
3. Advanced spectroscopic techniques like 2D NMR, CD etc.
4. Pericyclic reactions (Frontier orbitals vs. correlation diagrams vs. transition state aromaticity model and their interconnections)

CM3222 is more of "touched and go" in my opinion. I feel that we should focus more on in-depth understanding and introduce the students to stereoelectronic effects, MOT, principles of stereoselectivities and some other fundamental concepts in physical organic chemistry.

For CM3225, we can consider adding some topics in bioorganic chemistry; this is more so since the current year 1 have already learnt biochemistry in their freshmen year.

For CM3291, the whole lab manual should change to include a greater variety of experiments. At least, in my current institution (HKUST), their synthetic lab experiments are really good and thorough. I'll be happy to share if required.

CM4222: I don't have the opportunity to take it when I was in NUS :( But as conpensation, I took CM5121, CM5221 and CM5222.

CM4223: Asymmetric Syntheses' content is generally okay. I am currently helping Dr. Tan to revise his notes and the new set of notes will include some of my ideals. It will have more topics in organocatalysis, strategies in total synthesis, contemporary topics such as Memory of Chirality and Non-linear Effect etc. Maybe can introduce Green Chemistry as well.

Oh yah, I realized that the curriculum time for level IV courses are reduced by half (cf. level I, II and III; in short 1 lecture per week compared to 2 lectures per week) I think this is not good as students get shortchanged. In NUS Physics department, Honours year students get 2 lectures per week as well, similar to their first 3 years. Therefore I don't see why students in Chemistry should get less.

Finally, I think it will be a good idea if the department can gather the strength of its staff (and students as well) to come out with a set of teaching materials for organic chemistry (and possibly publish a book on that). It will be good if it comes in small A4 handy booklets for each of the 8 modules and it gets constant revision throughout the years. I feel that when it is accomplished, then all further improvement can be easily made from there. Everything starts with a dream and I hope the department will consider this proposal....

Hope that this time round, they will seriouly do something about it. I must applaud NUS chemistry for taking this initiative. It was one of Zhijie and my dream back then to change the syllabus.