Surviving Organic Chemistry
Dr. Kathleen Nolta makes a daunting class doable
—By Nicole Denha
Pre-health students at the University of Michigan are not scared of blood or sharp needles, but they almost all universally fear CHEM 210: organic chemistry. With an average student in the course receiving a 60-65% final course grade, in addition to the course being a prerequisite for dental, medical, pharmacy, and physician assistant programs, it is understandable why the course has such a daunting reputation. These intimidating statistics, along with the widespread belief that organic chemistry is the “weeder” course for these graduate programs, causes students to enter the course with uneasiness and anxiety.
Although organic chemistry strikes much angst among pre-health students, Dr. Kathleen Nolta is working to change that. She has worked vigorously since she began teaching the sciences as a lecturer at the University of Michigan in 1996 to appease these fears in her students. She has an impressive academic background, receiving her undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan, then a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Chicago. Students that are fortunate enough to enroll in organic chemistry with Dr. Nolta typically have a much more positive experience in the course. Though her exams are just as challenging as those of other professors, her students have stated that they felt much more confident with the subject and prepared for exams due to her excellent teaching.
How does she do it? Dr. Nolta integrates a variety of teaching methods while teaching organic chemistry, for she believes that “students prefer different things, so if you do different things you have a good chance at having them benefit.” Students typically attend lecture with Dr. Nolta three times a week for an hour duration. It is surprising to hear that Dr. Nolta classifies herself as a “freestyle organic lecturer” because she is known for her beautiful notes on the blackboard that fit perfectly as if they were planned and rehearsed. It is truly a work of art:
Many students dread lectures. Instead of writing a lecture for organic chemistry, Dr. Nolta therefore says that she always tells a story, and “I know what the story has to relate to (what concept) so I make the characters show that concept.” This method has definitely resonated with students Britanny Hamama and Lauren Kasmikha, for they have both stated that they felt as if each concept built off of each other in the course and ultimately made sense, which is similar to how a good story unfolds. In addition to this, Dr. Nolta encourages questions during lecture because they become part of that story.
In addition to lecture, Dr. Nolta also provides many other resources to assist her students. She regularly records videocasts to supplement concepts in lecture that may be confusing or that require further explanation. For instance, for a lecture on acids and bases, she might put up a videocast on how to use a pKa table, a critical concept in classifying a structure as an acid or base and one not all students know when entering the course. When discussing these videocasts, senior Britanny Hamama emphasized that “Dr. Nolta almost knew exactly what we had questions on from lecture that day and what we did not fully understand.” These videocasts were extremely valuable to students that may not understand concepts fully from just an initial exposure or single explanation in lecture.
In addition to these videocasts, Dr. Nolta uses a coursepack, which is a collection of old exams from four to five years of organic chemistry courses, to help her students in an extremely beneficial way. For starters, she assigns pages from the coursepack that students should be able to complete each week from what they have learned that week. By doing so, she keeps students on track so they are not falling behind and attempting to complete 40 pages of coursepack the week before each exam. The coursepack can be especially tricky because students are not given answers to the questions. Students are told that not being able to get an answer on their own is actually their brain’s way of telling them that they do not fully understand something yet. Abundant amounts of research have also shown that when students rely on existing answers, they create a sense of false self-confidence that they actually understand how to solve the problem because they have the ability to understand someone else’s answer. Furthermore, Dr. Nolta strongly believes that students give up trying to solve a problem more easily when they know the answer is at their disposal. By struggling through solving real test problems, Dr. Nolta believes students will learn more and therefore perform better on exams when given novel questions. Dr. Nolta also assists students with the coursepack by recording videos of her completing difficult problems. By watching these, students are then able to better understand her thinking process.
In addition to providing these resources, Dr. Nolta also holds weekly office hours that accumulate to about six hours where students can attend and ask questions about concepts or coursepack problems that they are struggling with. Although many professors hold office hours, Dr. Nolta takes greater advantage of this time with her students and records these office hours so that students that are not able to attend can watch the recordings and get the same information and experience as the students that were able to attend.
Although Dr. Nolta provides many different resources to help her students master the material, she emphasizes that this alone will not lead to success in her course because “learning is not about listening to me do things– to really learn means that they can tell me how to do things.” Dr. Nolta encourages her students to make sense of things their own way: “There is not one right way, there are lots of ways to approach a problem, but if it is rational and logical and conforms to the patterns that come from nature, then the end results will be the same.” Therefore, students must be able to solve the puzzle and be able to explain how they do so in order to properly learn and master the material.
When asked what the biggest predictor of success in her course is, Dr. Nolta stated independent problem-solving. She emphasizes that “it is not about doing 50 problems all at once, it is about trying it independently, checking it, learning from it, and then coming back to it and trying it again.” It is important to be able to come back to a problem several days later, still see the pattern, and be able to get a solution again.
“Dr. Nolta is a rare treasure to come by for science students at the University of Michigan, for she puts in abundant amounts of time and effort out of genuine desire for her students to succeed,” senior Lauren Kasmikha states. Through her lectures where she encourages discussion and questions, her videocasts explaining dense concepts, and her step by step explanation of difficult coursepack problems, Dr. Nolta has helped students coming from many different backgrounds and education levels to understand such a foreign concept. By other science professors implementing similar teaching styles and passion, more students can benefit. Ultimately, Dr. Nolta stresses that she “speaks from the heart—that is the truth of it.”
Feature Photo by Sesilia Kammo