Carbohydrates
You may find making a concept map is a useful way to organize your knowledge. A concept map shows how key ideas are
connected. Making a concept map can help you learn because it causes you to focus on the main concepts and how they
are related. It helps you to sort out what is important from unimportant details, and helps you tie your knowledge
together into a more meaningful and useful whole.
To make a concept map, you must first decide which ideas are most important. Place the biggest, or most inclusive
concept, at the top of the page. Just a word or a phrase is enough. Cluster sub-concepts around it, and cluster sub-subconcepts around them. Draw lines or arrows between the concepts to show how they are connected and describe the
connections next to the line. Again use only a word or two.
If the topics or connections are not clear, perhaps they are unimportant, or perhaps you are not clear on how they connect,
or perhaps they do not really connect. Remember clarifying relationships is the purpose of making the map. Generally,
maps that are more branched are more useful than ones with many long straight chains of boxes, but there is no one
“correct” map for a particular topic.
Focus on the process of making the map, rather than the map that results. More learning will take place while you are
making the map than when you look at the finished product. You may want to tune up your maps by comparing with other
students or adding information as your understanding increases. Use the following words to try to make a concept map
about carbohydrates.
1. Carbohydrates
26. Hydrolysis
2. Monosachharide
27. May be bitter
3. Polysaccharide
28. Common in plant roots
4. Glucose
29. C6H12O6
5. Starch
30. Lose water (H+ and a OH-)
6. Cellulose
31. Used to manufacture parts of other
macromolecules
7. Glycogen
8. Animals
32. Requires water
9. Plants
33. Sweetness
10. Difficult for humans to digest
34. Aspartame
11. Storage
35. Main fuel for cellular work
12. Structural
13. Molecular shape
14. Digested by symbiotic
microorganisms
15. Artificial sweetners
16. Easily hydrolyzed into glucose
17. Fiber – Not easily digested
18. Hundreds to thousands of
monomers
19. -ose
20. CH2O
21. Carbonyl
22. Hydroxyl
23. Dehydration synthesis
24. Stored in liver or muscles
25. 2 linked amino acids