Mississippi Science CHE.12.1

ScienceGrades 9–12Chemistry

The Standard

CHE.12: Enrichment: Students will understand that the bonding characteristics of carbon allow the formation of many different organic molecules with various sizes, shapes, and chemical properties.

Enrichment: Construct explanations to explain the bonding characteristics of carbon that result in the formation of basic organic molecules.

2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Organic Nomenclature (Enrichment)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students draw simple molecules with carbon and hydrogen. They explain how carbon can form four covalent bonds, including bonds to other carbon atoms, to make chains and molecules with double bonds.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can draw methane, ethane, and ethene with the right number of bonds and hydrogen atoms. They can explain why ethene has fewer hydrogen atoms than ethane.
Common Misconceptions: Students may count a double bond as only one of carbon’s four bonds. They may give hydrogen two bonds or assume every carbon molecule must have a long chain.
How to Assess It: On an exit ticket, ask students to draw C2H4 and explain why each carbon needs only two hydrogen atoms.

Lesson moves

Use clay balls and toothpicks to build methane, ethane, and ethene, then count the bonds around each carbon.
Show drawings of ethane and ethene. Ask students to write why the two molecules have different numbers of hydrogen atoms.
Give pairs four incorrect molecule drawings to fix, including a carbon with five bonds and a hydrogen with two.
Show a propane camping canister labeled C3H8. Have students draw its three-carbon chain and add hydrogen atoms.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CHE.12.1, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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