memorization rather than understanding as I have found myself doing at times.There has been a few times when our instructor will give us a specific example and will demonstrate why a reaction works the way it does. She uses inductive reasoning which is based on knowledge of examples based on knowledge of examples and details (Woolfolk, p.338). "Today we had a demo from another instructor. I remember this guy from high school. Our high school chem class came and watched him to a bunch of demos that would help spark some interest in chemistry. He did some neat stuff with polarized filters and explaining how different chemicals have different optic and chemically properties by just changing a position of one molecule. Pretty cool. This got me to wake up for this class. I think I am understanding this chapter better than the last." (Self-study journal, Day 10) The types of knowledge used in organic chemistry can be put into a few categories; procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, bottom-up processing, and top-down processing. Procedural knowledge is knowledge that is demonstrated when we perform a task; "knowing how"(Woolfolk, p. 249). "Knowing how" to draw organic molecules in the Newman projection is an example. Conditional knowledge is "knowing when and why" to use declarative and procedural knowledge (Woolfolk, p. 249). "Knowing when and why" to use single arrows instead of double arrows when drawing mechanisms of addition reaction and when to use Markovnicov rules, Anti-Markovicov, and the reasons why is an example of conditional knowledge. Bottom-up processing is based on noticing separate defining features and assembling them into a recognizable pattern. Being able to use the some of the same principle of drawing a organic structure all have some of the same features, such as ways to count carbons, open ended lines assume a methyl group, and so on, these separate defining feature can be used to draw a structure t...
