Relative energies between reactants and products I've been asked to draw a relative energy sketch of the reactants and the two products. The reaction being examined was adding copper acetate monohydrate to glycine in two different fashions to create the two isomers cis-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate and trans-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate. I found that the cis-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate was  thermodynamically stable and trans-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate was kinetically favored since when adding heat to trans-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate it changed to the same color as cis-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate therefore cis-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate has a lower energy relative to trans-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate. The part where I'm stuck is where the reactant energy is relative to these two. I know it must be lower than the intermediate trans-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate, but where the energy level of the reactants compared to the thermodynamically stable cis-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate has me stumped, whether it is higher or lower.

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That's interesting; I just did this experiment (I'm actually writing my lab report up now) and for me the trans-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate was the thermodynamically favoured product and the cis-bis(glycinato)copper(II) monohydrate the kinetically favoured. As far as the reactant energy levels are concerned, I attached a photo of a rough graph my lab instructor gave us that illustrates the energy levels for the two pathways to the final thermodynamically favoured product. I hope that helps!!