Extra Knowledge:
How to Draw Aspirin

This tutorial is included because some students have trouble connecting the symbols we use to draw molecules, the microscopic molecules themselves, and the macroscopic materials that are made up of those molecules. To people with strong chemistry backgrounds, these connections are second nature. But they aren't always obvious to students. This tutorial is meant to demonstrate and cement these connections in their minds. In addition, the language of chemical symbols is not always easy for beginners to understand. This tutorial aims to make the symbols clearer.

The tutorial starts by explaining that symbols represent molecules, and molecules make up everything material. Then it goes on to explain what each part of the drawing of an aspirin molecule represents: each letter, each line joining letters, and what shortcuts are used in drawing the symbols. We hope that after reading this the students will be able to decipher other molecular representations in this module with a little thought.

This tutorial is useful in conjunction with the reading The Important Lesson and the activity Build Your Own Molecule.

Relevant National Science Education Standards

Unifying Concepts and Processes — The tutorial describes the system of the aspirin molecule and its components in detail.

Physical Science — The tutorial drives home how atoms are joined to make the molecules that make all materials.