Teaching an Introductory Organic Chemistry Class for High School Students

A dual-enrollment course was designed in which the elementary concepts of organic chemistry were introduced to high school students. Students were assessed at the end of the term using an American Chemical Society (ACS) standardized exam. The same exam was given to corresponding traditional on-campus sections of the same class taught by the same professor. Intriguingly, when dual-enrollment students' performance was compared with the performance of the traditional on-campus students studying the same content, no statistical difference was detected. Moreover, the dual-enrollment students have scored at a level significantly higher than the nationwide averages advertised by the Examinations Committee of the ACS.