pipilo

I like teaching this organic chemistry course.  The students are a little scared at first, but they really get into labs like this where they make things that have familiar and interesting aromas, like the wintergreen minty smell of methyl salicylate.  They don't have to understand all the reactions yet, but they can enjoy the experiences.  The great thing is that they've all had another chemistry course before and they're all good students who know what it takes to pass a tough science course.  Most of them will be going into nursing or another allied health science field.

These two students were pretty proud of the silver mirror they created on their test tube by adding the Tollens reagent to their formaldehyde solution.  It doesn't show up too well in the photo, but it's a shiny coat of silver metal, all around the bottom of one of the tubes.