Organic Chemistry Lab

Prior to O-Chem lab, my only lab experience at the college level had been in general chemistry. Being the pandemic class, I was only familiar with the virtual lab experience, which in many ways was not a real lab experience. Stepping into the first o-chem lab session, I found myself ashamed to be struggling with the simplest of tasks, asking many questions, and taking double the amount of time it took more experienced labmates to perform lab experiments. The lab coat I wore felt undeserved. 

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By the time I started Chem347, I was navigating the lab space swiftly and with efficiency. One of the assignments that allowed me to best reflect on how far our growth journey had taken us as a class in lab was a dipeptide project that we concluded the quarter with. The assignment was completed in groups, which added an element of accountability and required communication to successfully get through the project. Most importantly, the experiment required us to complete research and make individual choices that affected the outcome of our results, which was a useful tool in assessing our competence in the material we had been learning. Attached below is the final report from the project:

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