Education puzzles
Six play exercise types: build-from-disconnect, masked retron, spot-the-flaw, drill, walk, mechanism.
Six exercise types live under /play. Each one isolates a different piece of retrosynthetic reasoning so students (and curious chemists) can drill one skill at a time without grading anxiety. Anyone can run the public exercises; logged-in users get progress tracking and attempt history.
The six types
Build-from-disconnect
Pick the right disconnection on a target molecule, then assemble the
forward synthesis from the resulting fragments. Lives at
/play/[targetId]. Good for students learning strategic bond
analysis: which bond should come apart first, and why.
Masked retron
A reaction product is shown with one substructure hidden behind a
mask. The student picks which retron (precursor pattern) the mask is
covering. Lives at /play/masked/[exerciseId]. Good for pattern
recognition once classes are familiar.
Spot-the-flaw
A pre-built retrosynthesis is shown with a deliberate error introduced
(wrong reagent, fabricated step, missing functional group conversion).
The student finds and classifies the flaw. Lives at
/play/flaw/[exerciseId]. Good for critical reading of AI output
or peer-reviewed routes.
Reaction-class drill
A reaction is shown; the student picks its class from a list of
plausible distractors. Lives at /play/drill/[exerciseId]. Spaced-
repetition friendly. Good for fast recall of named-reaction
families.
Walk-the-model
A guided walk through how the retrosynthesis model would expand a
given target step by step. Students predict the next disconnection
before the reveal. Lives at /play/walk/[exerciseId]. Good for
mental-model alignment with the actual platform.
Mechanism arrows (V1 SPIKE)
Arrow-pushing on a small set of mechanisms; the student places curly
arrows on the right atoms in the right order. Lives at
/play/mechanism/[exerciseId]. V1 is a spike with a single registered
exercise (SN2 on methyl bromide). Treat it as a preview.
When to use which
For an intro class, lead with build-from-disconnect and reaction-class drill to build vocabulary. Add masked retron once classes are landing reliably. Spot-the-flaw and walk-the- model pair best with platform demos, where the goal is to teach students how to push back on an AI proposal instead of trusting it blindly.
Tiers and access
Play surfaces are public; an unauthenticated visitor can run any exercise. Logged-in users on the Education tier get unlimited attempts plus a progress dashboard. Lower tiers (Demo, Academic) get a metered cap before being asked to sign up. Education licenses are provisioned through class enrollment.
What to read next
- CE modules: bundle these exercises into certificate-bearing sequences.
- Instructor class management: assign exercises to students and view per-student progress.