On the first day of the “new experiment,” we went over by 30 minutes because I kept prattling on. Who would have thought 2 hours would have gone so quickly?
On the second day, however, we went over just as long because the four students were all interested in the difference between acid and base hydrolysis of a lactone…whiskey lactone of course! The question that faces me now is, who will emerge with the best understanding of mechanistic organic chemistry? One of the three rising sophomores who will face the course in conventional order next semester, or the senior accounting major who graduates at the end of the summer and who last through about electronegativity 8 years ago as a freshman in high school. No odds on this one!