Is organic chemistry required in high school? Nope. Can you still teach it? Absolutely!
Organic Chemistry doesn’t have to give your students nightmares. I introduce my students to the fun side of organic with a Flavor Lab and then continue with structures. I focus on the patterns present in hydrocarbons. Our students can always use more practice with recognizing patterns.
This “mini-unit” is a great option for any weird time frames you have to work around. I used to teach it along with covalent bonding, but there’s no time for some years. So, I take it out.
The only caveat is that this mini-unit should be taught AFTER bonding. Your students need to know what a covalent bond is. They should also be familiar with Lewis Dot Structures. One year, I taught it in May because I had time to fill and wanted to do some enrichment. So really, it’s a great educational filler unit!
Organic Chemistry Lesson Plans
Total Duration: 4-9 days
Note: a day refers to 45-50 minute periods.
| Topic & Timeline | Tasks | Description |
| Carbon Intro 1-2 days | Bodies as Carbon Organic Chemistry Intro Notes + Practice | You’ll need some room for this first activity. Get outside if it’s nice or go to the gym. This activity can be super quick, but if your students are into it, you can add lots of fun challenges to take a whole period by itself! Your students are now carbon atoms, bonding with each other and making long carbon chains. Challenge them to make double and triple bonds too! If you want to get fancy, blow up some “hydrogen” balloons. They’ll have to remove a balloon whenever they want to bond with another carbon. Follow it all up with some notes to solidify what they learned by moving around. |
| Naming Organic Compounds 1 day | Naming Hydrocarbons Notes + Practice | Students get really into naming organic compounds.I know you might be cringing, but my students always love it. They can see the methodical nature. The pattern makes sense to them. As an extension, or maybe even extra credit, have your students bring in something from home that has a long list of ingredients, like lotion or shampoo. After this lesson, they should be able to draw some of those structures based on their names! |
| Functional Groups 1-3 days | Flavor Lab Functional Groups Discussion Student Handout Functional Group Research Identifying Functional Groups Practice | Ok so… I used to work for a Flavor Company. I worked in Quality Control to make sure the flavors were made correctly and gave them the stamp of approval so they could be shipped to the customer. I created this lab to give students a little peak into my old job and introduce functional groups in a fun way. Students will taste ten different flavors. These flavors are labeled, not with names, but with organic structures! You can use candy flavoring in sugar water OR jelly beans. The jelly bean colors sometimes give the flavors away. Follow this lab up with a functional group discussion. You can lead this discussion OR you can have your student groups each research one functional group and share what they’ve learned. This can be a formal presentation if you have access to computers. Wrap all that up by having students hunt for functional groups on hydrocarbons (worksheet). |
| Assessment 1-3 days | Building Biomolecules Sign-Up Sheet | I like to give an alternative assignment for enrichment units like this. For this organic unit, I like to have my students biomolecules. They sign up for a small biomolecule and build it out of whatever they want. They get pretty creative! I’ve still got a project that used scrap metal welded together from my first year of teaching! Along with building the structure, they write a little blurb about the bonds in their molecule. If you choose to do this project, I caution you to use SMALL biomolecules. If you have a student that is adamant about building insulin, suggest they just do a small section. They can build it at home or you can give them time to complete it in class. Up to you! |
Further Reading
The Chemistry Particle’s Guide to Teaching High School Chemistry, The Chemistry Particle
