Because organic chemistry course
material is consistently being retrieved,
manipulated, and re-encoded
during the semester, the final grade
in the Organic II course may not
wholly reflect long-term retention of
knowledge, because much of it has
been in constant use. Empirical evidence
suggests that when a period of
study is over, forgetting occurs at a
steep rate (Ebbinghaus 1913). Therefore,
we also compared the performance
in subsequent biochemistry
courses of students who completed
Organic Chemistry II using the PEIL
workshop model with students who
took a non-PEIL course. Although
biochemistry courses do not often
involve mechanistic interpretations
of reactions in the same way that organic
chemistry does, they do extend
many principles learned in Organic
Chemistry I and II to more complex
systems. In comparing PEIL and non-
PEIL students’ performance in this
course, we hypothesized that if PEIL
workshops result in students having
greater facility with the fundamental
principles of organic chemistry,
this should be reflected in improved
performance in this new discipline,
as well.