Organic Chemistry

 

 

 

1) Why is carbon so important and unique?

 

 

Ans: First of all, carbon has a perfect size to bond with the other atom. Carbon have 4 chemical bond to the other atoms. Carbon can also bond to itself and that's why there are a lot of carbon compound that is forming everywhere and every now and then. Plus, carbon has an ability to form long carbon-carbon chain. Additionally, carbon not only bond in a straight chain, it also can form in a complex branching like a tree. For example, iso and cyclo that is added to the name and that tells if the structure is in a ring or branches. Carbon don’t have limits, the chain can be as long as possible and it will never end. Moreover, it forms single bond, double bond and triple bond. Carbon also has different geometrical arrangement of the molecule and that leads to different physical and chemical properties. That is called isomers.  Lastly, it also can be substituted with the other elements, and that is called the substituted hydrocarbon. For example, there are hydroxyl group, halide group, carboxyl group and amino group. These are called the functional group.

 

 

 

2) How does the structure affect function?

 

Ans: Like chair, its function is to let people sit. If the structure of the share is tall, then it is for tall people because the shape effects what it does. Same as chemistry, the valence shell of carbon has 4, so it can gain or lose 4 electron. Another example is that carbon form single, double and triple bond and so they form in different shapes. The third example is lipid, which made cell membrane so the structure will be in a long chain full of hydrogen. Forming a long chain effect what it does because all of the hydrogen are full, like a saturated hydrocarbon and no more hydrogen can be added because it already reach its maximum. The last example is the saturated lipid and an unsaturated lipid. Saturated is unhealthy because you can’t add anything, while unsaturated is healthy because when the bond break, other hydrogen atom can be added to be full. Therefore, the structure affect its function.

 

3) How does what you learned connect to the real world?

 

 

Ans: It connect to the real world by making me understand how a certain compounds consist of, like methane has one carbon and four hydrogens around it. It also let me know if that compound exist in our real life or not, like methane is a gas that released by human. Plus, I also know how to name and draw the structure of atom and that connects to the real world because I can see things in a chemistry way and understand the reality.

 

 

4) How did you develop or grow as a student through this unit?

 

 

Ans: I think I developed a lot this unit, because I spend almost three hours understanding everything. At first, I think organic chemistry was the hardest topic I have ever learned, so I tried really hard by making sure that I’m not left out in the classroom. I think one of the thing that help me on the test is that I did part C first, so I took my time explain as much as I could. Next time, I think I should do part C first because it really help me on the grade.

 

5)As you look at the work you have completed throughout this unit, what are you strengths?

 

 

Ans: I think my strength are on the practice worksheet and the test. I felt like I understood things faster than the previous unit and that really help me to learn and keeping up my pace, as you can see on the drawing/naming practice worksheet. However, I’m very proud of my grade this unit because I spend time as much as I could to to my best on the test.

 

6) As you look at the work you have completed throughout this unit, what do you think you could improve?

 

 

Ans: I think I could make sure that I didn’t miss anything important piece of information on the test, so my grade won’t be deducted. In this chapter test, I forgot to mention “cell membrane” in part C and my points was deducted because it was an important information for lipid. If I included “cell membrane” in my paragraph, I would have got all four on my test. So I need to be really careful about what I write.

 

6) Evidence