Program for adolescents to improve understanding of IUPAC nomenclature in chemistry

Organic Chemistry is the basis for careers in Pharmacy, Pure Science, Chemical Engineering, Biochemistry, and Biotechnology and partly in Medical and Engineering fields. A good score hence becomes a necessity for which proper understanding of the basics of IUPAC nomenclature is needed for STD. XI^th students. Successful teaching and learning of Chemistry depends partly on correct use of a teaching method whose activities target most learning senses. (Mwangi, 2004) A sample of 50 Students of Std. XI^th was subjected to experiential methods for understanding IUPAC nomenclature which included making models, showing animated videos, home assignments and work sheet. A paired sample t-test was conducted to evaluate the impact of the intervention on mean scores of test on writing of IUPAC names. There was a significant difference between mean scores of pre-test and post-test of the selected sample after implementing the program for IUPAC nomenclature. Lecturers of chemistry at the Junior College level can take this as a challenge and conduct more research in this area.