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Organic Nomenclature and Safety of Chemical Products

Organic Nomenclature and Safety of Chemical Products
Contributors
Jennifer Tripp
Faculty | University of San Francisco
Learning Objets
Summary
This is a discussion prompt where students find a molecule they use in a personal care product, cleaning product, or processed food. They find the structure, relate components of the name to aspects of the structure, look up the product on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) or FDA websites, and look up the molecule in PubChem. At the end, they need to decide whether they are happy with their product or if they want to find an alternative.
Keyword Tags
Organic Nomenclature
Health / Safety
File (PDF, PPT, image, etc)
discussion_prompt-organic_nomenclature_and_chemical_safety.docx
instructor_notes-organic_nomenclature_and_chemical_safety.docx
Learning Goals/Student Objectives
1. Students identify chemical names and parts of names that describe functional groups and structural features in molecules.
2. Students learn resources to find information about safety and toxicity of molecules and household products.
Object Type
Other
Object Type — Other
discussion board prompt
Audience
High School (Secondary School)
Introductory Undergraduate
Upper/Advanced Undergraduate
Graduate or Professional Training (e.g., Postdoctoral Fellows, Early-Career Professionals)
Other Faculty Educators/Teachers
Green Chemistry Principles
Designing Safer Chemicals
U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Good Health and Well-Being
Responsible Consumption and Production
Safety Precautions, Hazards, and Risk Assessment
None
Teacher Recommendations or Piloting Data (if available)
I use this as a prompt on a class discussion board in the LMS we use (Canvas). I instruct students that they are not allowed to repeat someone else's molecule so they must read through what has already been posted and pick a new molecule. I encourage them to read and discuss each other's entries, which sometimes leads to robust discussion and other times silence, depending on the class. I have used this in both 1-semester and 2-semester organic classes, around the time that we talk about nomenclature. It could be used in other ways, as a homework assignment or as part of larger group projects about chemical safety or green chemistry.

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Submitted by

Jennifer Tripp
Reviewed by
David Vosburg
Published on
Moderation state
Published
Time required (if applicable)
<30 min (out of class)
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.