Biochemistry?
I can’t do chemistry!
I thought I was taking
Biology!!
Cell Compounds and Biological
Molecules
 What is your favorite element? ____________________
 Listen to Tom Lehrer’s Element Song to get us back to the
periodic table?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYW50F42ss8
and
 Daniel Radcliffe sings "The Elements" - The Graham
Norton Show - Series 8 Episode 4 - BBC One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAaiYKF0cs&feature=related
 Yikes!
Biology + chemistry = ☺
.
 The Periodic Table (Rapping the elements!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDp9hUf_SV8&feature=watch_response
The main elements in the human body
Quick review of covalent and ionic
bonding.
 Give each pair of students a beaker with water and one with
salt.
 Examine salt crystals
 Discuss ionic bonding
 Dissolve table salt in water.
 Introduce solute and solvent.
Bring out the molecules
WATER
Discuss covalent bonding.
Make water molecules
B2 Describe the characteristics of
water and its role in biological systems
 B2.1 describe the role of water as a solvent, temperature
regulator, and lubricant
 B2.2 describe how the polarity of the water molecule results
in hydrogen bonding
 Peer group discussion: Is it important to study water when
you are studying life? Why?
Have students move molecules to show Hydrogen
bonding. Show differences between water liquid,
gas and solid.
Some ideas

http://www.johnkyrk.com/H2O.html
 water in a beaker to demonstrate adhesion, cohesion and surface tension.
 Flow of water through a tree video on Campbell textbook website.
 Float ice on water 



discuss density and point at which water is least dense
Ice in an alcoholic drink
Have them push the water molecules around as you discuss this.
simulate
What is happening here?
 Spark some discussion around the effect of solute on density.
Water as a solvent.
 Hydrophilic
 Dissolve substances in it.
 Hydrophobic
 Add oil to their beaker of water.
 Fun to do: Colour eruption – child's play!
Cream in a glass bowl with drops of food coloring added.
Add a drop of detergent – discuss why the detergent causes the
colour to disperse. This can be linked in later when proteins,
fats, hydrophilic and hydrophobic substances have been studied.
Science behind the storm in a saucer!
 Proteins and fats interact in water. A good example of this is how proteins form




around droplets of butterfat in cream and whole milk, stabilizing the emulsion
of fat in water.
We can destabilize the emulsion by adding something that combines with fat
and water better than the proteins do. Soaps and detergents do exactly that, and
we can demonstrate their effect with a very colorful display.
The detergent has molecules where one end likes to stay in water, and the other
end likes to stay in fats and oils. Many of the proteins in the milk also have parts
that are water loving (hydrophylic) and other parts that are water avoiding
(hydrophobic). ( a result of various amino acids)
The detergent moves in to replace the proteins at the interface between the
butterfat and the water. But the detergent also attaches to the proteins at their
water loving and water avoiding parts, and this changes the shapes of the
proteins, and changes how the proteins attach to one another.
All of this rearranging can take some time, up to several minutes, to complete.
As the molecules rearrange, they push the water and the food coloring around,
causing them to stir up into beautiful blossoms of color.
Like dissolves like !
http://www.chemistryland.com/CHM107/Water/WaterTutorial.htm
B3 Describe the role of acids,
bases, and buffers in biological
systems in the human body
 http://www.johnkyrk.com/index.html
 Complete a lab testing various chemicals including:









Saliva
Urine
Tears
Milk
Liver
potato
Sodium phosphate
Sodium hydroxide
Hydrochloric acid
Making associations!
Bring out the molecules again!
B4
Analyse the structure and function of
biological molecules in living systems, including
– carbohydrates
– lipids
– proteins
– nucleic acids
Start with making
organic molecules.
Isomers
What was the issue with the isomer of
 Thalidomide?
 Dopamine
 Find some more interesting ones
 How are estrogen and testosterone different?
Functional Groups
 Make
 Hydroxyl
 Carboxyl
 Amino group
 Have students make theirs and
then have their peers check
them.
“Practice leads to
mastery!”
Macromolecules: monomers to
polymers and back again.
Carbohydrates
Starch
Cellulose
 Try mixing it in water
 Use examples in common
 Examine potato cells under
vegetables
 Examine cellulose in
potato cells and other plant
cells
 Pull a termite apart and
examine the Trichonympha
the microscope – lab.
 Students design own lab to
investigate the necessity of
light in starch production.
 Chew a cracker until sweet
 Introduce amylase and
maltase enzymes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOzwGSAPpmo
Lipids
Fats
Phospholipids
 Good animation my
students enjoyed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xF_LK9pnL0

Part of cassiopeiaproject
 Have a few fats and oils
available.
 Reference made to
‘Lorenzo’s Oil’
 ALD –
Adrenoleukodystrophy
 Silly you tube video
“Phospholipids on the Town”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdzLasyT1uc
 Love this one!
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laur
eates/2003/chemanim2.mpg
What is ALD?
 The 1992 movie "Lorenzo's Oil" brought a rare disorder called adrenoleukodystrophy
(ALD) to the world's attention. It is a progressive degenerative myelin disorder, meaning
that myelin, the "insulation" around nerves, breaks down over time. Without myelin,
nerves can't function normally, or at all. Unfortunately, the body can't grow replacement
myelin, so the disorder is progressive -- it gets worse over time.
 ALD is an inherited recessive genetic disorder linked to the X chromosome. Because of
the way genetic inheritance works, only boys have the most severe form of ALD. The
disorder leaves the body unable to break down big fat molecules, either ones the body
makes itself or ones that enter the body through food. Research has shown that this is
most likely due to a carrier protein that fails to work correctly and carry the fat
molecules to where they would be broken down. The fat molecules build up and clog up
cells, and hurt nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. ALD affects about one in 20,000
males. One gene, called ABCD1, has been identified as being associated with ALD.
Genetic testing can be done to see if a woman has the defective gene. This way, a woman
who may have inherited an abnormal gene will know for certain whether or not she has
it (is a carrier) and could pass it on to her children.
(http://rarediseases.about.com/cs/ald/a/041301.htm)
Lorenzo’s Oil
 Makes reference to:
 DNA
 Inheritance of genes
 Myelin sheath and its function
 Enzymes
 Lipids
Involves Critical thinking
 Asking pertinent questions
 Synthesize concepts across disciplines
 Identify assumptions and biases
Encourages:
 Researching reliable sources
 Advocating for self
 Respect for others
Proteins
 Have students make amino





acids using molecules.
Add R groups to the amino
acids.
Have them join them
together to make a
polypeptide by dehydration
synthesis.
Simulate a primary,
secondary, tertiary structure.
Use the Fischer Price Toys
too.
Good time to introduce
amino acid sequencing.
Making connections:
 Lorenzo’s Oil and enzymes.
 Their bodies and their
enzymes
 Other enzyme related
conditions apart from ALD.
 Lactose intolerance
 Hormones
 Sickle cell anemia
 Co evolution with malaria
Nucleic Acids
 Back to Lorenzo’ Oil -Discussion about DNA and coding
 Make models of DNA
 Each student or pair to make a gene.
 Join the gene.
 Change order of bases.
 Different protein may
be coded for and result
in abnormal condition.
What is this all about?
♥Meaningful connections
Analogies
Interesting concepts
☺Having Fun
Taking risks to ask if your connections are correct.
Thinking critically.
Involving emotions ♥
WHY?
 To understand your own body!
 The world
 Make good choices in later life
 Be more scientifically literate
 Take responsibility for self.
Biochemistry?
I can do Biochemistry!
I love Biology!!