In the second semester majors’ organic laboratory course at Miami, students are introduced to a research project based on the Suzuki–Miyaura cross coupling reaction. Students, working in 4 to 6 person research groups, generate a research proposal, perform the independent research work, evaluate their results, and write a journal-style formal report summarizing their research. The student proposals are based on the extension of a published “green” version of the reaction that employs an entirely aqueous reaction solvent, and the easily recovered, and non-toxic Pd/C catalyst. In the two years that the project has been used, 10 different student research groups have submitted proposals and performed research work in this project. Eight of ten projects led to a successful coupling reaction. Representative results from three of these groups are reported as examples of the sophistication of projects that can be carried out by students at this level.
Novak et al. (Fri,) studied this question.