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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1998  > April  >
In the Classroom
Overhead Projector Demonstrations
Illustrating Tetrahedral Carbons in Organic Compounds
Stella D. Elakovich
The University of Southern Mississippi, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Box 5043, Hattiesburg, MS 39406-5043
Cover
April 1998
Vol. 75 No. 4
p. 479
Abstract
Beginning organic chemistry students readily learn that sp3-hybridized atoms are tetrahedral in shape with 109 degree bond angles, but frequently, the tetrahedral shape is one that is foreign to them. This paper describes a method of illustrating the tetrahedral nature of carbons by use of an overhead projector and molecular models. Regardless of the class size, the illustrations are clearly visible to all class members, and since only one model is used for all illustrations, and only rotations of this model are made, students are convinced that all illustrations are of the same structure. After this illustration, students are better able to distinguish between different representations of the same molecule and representations of different molecules.
More Information
*  Citation
 Stella D. Elakovich. J. Chem. Educ. 1998 75 479.
*  Keywords
 Organic Chemistry, Demonstrations, Molecular Properties/Structure, Teaching/Learning Aids
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 June 25, 1999
June 24, 2005
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