Your lesson should outlast the bell.

Organic chemistry is the study of carbon-based compounds and the reactions that transform them. Carbon is uniquely versatile: it forms four bonds, chains of any length, rings, and branched structures — the backbone of life itself. Hydrocarbons are the simplest organic molecules, containing only carbon and hydrogen. Functional groups — hydroxyl, carbonyl, carboxyl, amino, phosphate — determine how a molecule behaves and reacts. Substitution reactions swap one atom for another. Elimination reactions remove atoms to create double bonds. Addition reactions do the opposite, breaking double bonds to attach new atoms. Condensation reactions join molecules by releasing water. Every drug, plastic, fuel, protein, and DNA strand is an organic molecule. Understanding how electrons move between atoms — nucleophiles attacking electrophiles — is the single key that unlocks all organic reaction mechanisms.