functional groups

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.

Organic chemistry is not often found in a first year chemistry course in high schools, but it has been a unit in the New York State Curriculum, and it will stay there until the New York State version of NGSS is fully adopted.

As a teacher, there are certain things I think I do well, and other areas where I think I can improve. One of these areas is helping students make connections between topics - especially at the end of a unit. Can I get students to see the proverbial "Big Picture"?

I have used many silver mirror/Tollen's test labs. I have struggled with some and over the years I have found that this version is very reliable if the directions are followed carefully and students work through the procedure fairly quickly.

In a previous post I talked about an equation balancing lab that I have been doing with my students involving building molecular models.