Organic Chemistry Brick by Brick, Compound 1: Using LEGO® to Teach Structure and Reactivity

This book series aims at providing real hands-on learning of organic chemistry from the ground up by utilizing an innovative approach of using LEGO® baseplates and blocks to model and visualize various chemical structures and their reactivity. It uses 2x2 blocks for atoms, 1x1 blocks for electrons, and 2x1 blocks for bonds that naturally depict the octet rule. Baseplates also make structures closer to what we usually see in modern chemistry textbooks and papers. The first compound part teaches molecular formulas, valence, Lewis-Kekulé structures, tetrahedral carbon, structural and conformational isomers, the structure of benzene, stoichiometric reactions, proving structure through substitution reactions, and the principle of least structural change, the Wöhler synthesis, different ways to represent bonds and skeletal formulas.