Organic Chemistry Course Reacts Well with Students

Eleven students at  are getting a jump start on their college education in the first year of an Organic Chemistry program. Taught by Carrie Jacobus, the course was approved last .

A required class in college for students looking to enter medical school or the nursing field, Organic Chemistry (also known as Orgo) involves the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives.

"In science if it wiggles it's biology, if it stinks it's chemistry and if it doesn't work then it's physics," Jacobus joked. "This was a student driven course because we have students who graduate and go off to college and test out of regular chemistry and placed in Orgo. This class will better prepare those students, especially those who want to go to medical school after college."

To be a part of the class, students had to previously have taken AP Chemistry or AP Biology or currently be enrolled in one of them. Based on one semester of college Orgo, students use college textbooks to study saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, phenols/esters/epoxides/thiols, aldehydes and ketones, carboxylic acids and acid derivatives, carbohydrates, and amines and amides.

"Obviously there is an emphasis to take a college course but it's an unique opportunity," senior Bridge Irvine said.

"This is a big advantage to be able to take this now and then get a better grade in college with less stress," senior Evan Stern added. Stern, who is an EMT in the borough intends to eventually attend medical school and become a trauma surgeon.

With eight seniors and three juniors, Jacobus stated that the main objective of the class is for students to learn the importance of both the good and bad with organic chemistry.

"We're going slightly away from just focusing on academics," she said. "The class gives room for discussion and not just theory."

To assist with that understanding, the class holds discussions throughout the year on four novels they will read including a Slow Death By Rubber Duck: The Secret Dangers of Everyday Things, Silent Spring, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer and A Civil Action.

As part of reading a Slow Death by Rubber Duck, the class will be split into groups to create videos expressing what they read. Then by the end of the year, the class will be prepared to present a research project based on their anaylsis of previously published research studies.

"I want to see a generation of students have a positive relationship with chemistry," Jacobus said. "It's something I'm passionate about. Chemistry can be awful but it shouldn't be."