SO not only was I super stressed out for Organic chemistry lecture, but now there’s a whole separate lab too?? It is kinda scary when a course has to be split up into two different sections. Luckily I found the lab to be a lot more fun than the lecture. It wasn’t that I understood what was happening any better, but at least it was hands on and I got to see the chemistry come to life! It was also fun to calculate percent error, it was so exciting when I’d get a super small percentage! Plus, we got to wear lab coats. It made me feel like a real scientist, especially when it was paired with the goggles and gloves. We had lab quizzes though, which sucked because you had to actually understand what was happening and why it was happening to answer the questions. At least in labs you get methods to follow, but even still it was so hard to know when to stop certain reactions or if I was adding to much or little of something.
Overall I liked the lab. Just like in lecture Dr. Yeagley made it really fun and interesting, you can tell he really likes teaching this topic. I wish the lab and lecture were together though, because it would have helped bring my grade up! Unfortunately due to COVID this class was cut short, so I didn’t get as much experience in the lab as I had hoped. But I must say this lab is probably what made me realize I love working in labs so much, they’re definitely my favorite part about my science courses.
Below are a few of final products from lab over the semester!
Recrystallization Lab (Spring 2020)
Extraction Lab (Spring 2020)