Organic chemistry is traditionally introduced in biology as 'the chemistry of living things'. Organic chemistry is traditionally introduced in chemistry as 'the chemistry of carbon'. If a student has a poor understanding of the chemist's version of organic chemistry they tend to migrate to the biologists definition as it is conceptually easier to explain. The biologist's definition focuses on the big picture and the chemist's definition is more refined. Effectively teaching organic chemistry to young students means constantly reminding and pointing out where the content they are studying is directly related to their big picture definition.

If organic chemistry is defined as 'the chemistry of living things' it implies that organic chemicals are not harmful to living things. This simply is not the case. Chemistry teachers need to constantly reinforce the health threat of certain organic compounds, especially when exposing students to them in the laboratory.