Physical Science Fertilizer Lesson: Nitrogen makes amino acids, proteins, plants and YOU!
Details of Nitrogen's role in organisms:
1. NITROGEN is the key element in amino acids: there are 20.
3. Amino acids are strung together by your cells to make the primary protein structure.
4. Most proteins have ~300 - 3000 amino acids each.
5. Characteristics of proteins come from how they are folded and combined.
6. DNA is a linear molecule. (It is not MADE of protein but CODES for proteins!)
7. LINEAR DNA code makes a LINEAR product: protein AA sequences.
Nutrition:
1. Nitrogen is the main limiting nutrient in the world. (The air is ~80% N 2 but can only be "eaten" by
bacteria.)
3. Plant growth is limited by available Nitrogen. (Beans have bacteria on their roots that "fix" Nitrogen for them!)
4. The Nitrogen gets into plant amino acids & plant proteins. (Usually absorbed as some form of ammonia: NH3)
5. You eat the plant, or the animals that eat the plants.
6. You get the Nitrogen in your amino acids & proteins.
7. Your dead body and wastes put the nitrogen back into the soil.
8. Voila: The Nitrogen Cycle! Another Animation
9. Your cells can fabricate 11 of the 20 amino acids.
10. That means that you must eat 9 of them whole: the Essential Amino acids!
Plant Project:
1. Now you can see just how important Nitrogen is and why it is a "macro-nutrient" for plants.
2. There are numerous sources of Nitrogen in both natural and synthetic fertilizers.
3. We will use a natural source such as fish emulsion or blood-meal, and measure the results in growth.
Main Reference Websites:
http://www.ncagr.gov/cyber/kidswrld/plant/nutrient.htm#Nitrogen (Good overall reference on all nutrients)
http://www.ncagr.gov/cyber/kidswrld/plant/nutrient.htm (Another excellent overall plant nutrient reference)
http://www.grow-it-organically.com/npk-fertilizer.html (N-P-K)
http://chemicalland21.com/industrialchem/inorganic/NPK.htm (N-P-K 2)
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/phosphorus-essential-nutrition-for-all-body-cells.html (Nutrition of P)
http://spdbv.vital-it.ch/TheMolecularLevel/Goodies/AATable.pdf (List of AA structures)
http://www.classzone.com/books/ml_science_share/vis_sim/em05_pg20_nitrogen/em05_pg20_nitrogen.html (N cycle)
http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/tlw3/eBridge/Chp29/animations/ch29/1_nitrogen_cycle.swf (N cycle 2)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002222.htm (Basics on AAs)
http://www.biology.arizona.edu/biochemistry/problem_sets/aa/aa.html (AA text)
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/food/amino-acids-summary.htm (More on AA nutrition)