Engage students in organic chemistry with a simple one-pot synthesis using the Mannich condensation reaction. This hands-on lab reinforces key concepts like reaction mechanisms, chromatography, and yield calculations, making abstract ideas tangible while building essential lab skills.
Helical structures can be built from media such as LEGO bricks and paper. These structures can be used to model helical structures in chemistry. These include circularly polarized light and various helical biomolecules.
Demonstrate the Law of Definite Proportions by quickly and easily preparing one or more esters!
Thin sheets of polystyrene can be patterned with permanent markers to represent repeating units of the polymer and then shrunk down in size using heat. The shrunken models of the repeating units can be connected with a string and then flipped into positions to demonstrate different types of polymer tacticity.
This is the third in a series of classroom activities using paper tools to teach organic nomenclature. This post covers the two common naming systems used for carboxylic acids and derivatives, and second for alcohols, thiols, ethers, amines, and ketones.
What does a recent visit to Fort Bridger State Historic Park in southwestern Wyoming, a plant similar to an onion, and an armed conflict between Native Americans and the US government have anything to do with chemistry? Much. Check it out here.
Who is not interested in food, right? Why not use what happens in the kitchen everyday to teach some chemistry? This blog post shares some conceptually based questions based on the information found on the backside of a popular dry mix brownie product.
To help introduce students to organic nomenclature in a way that clearly summarizes the patterns that exist in the IUPAC system, a series of paper tools were developed. The paper tool in this activity can be used to introduce the IUPAC naming of major classes of organic compounds. These paper tools are easy to print and distribute to every student each semester.
Organic nomenclature is usually taught as an introduction to organic chemistry. To help introduce students to organic nomenclature in a way that clearly summarizes the patterns that exist, a paper tool for naming hydrocarbons was developed.
Cold weather brings about the opportunity to demonstrate glass transition temperatures of polypropylene containers.
