Organic Molecules wrap up and Enzymes intro

Today's daily question was a group activity and we spent about half the class period on it.  The instructions were:

Write out the following table, determine which students accurately described the organic molecule correctly and put a star by them.  Those students that did not – Please “tell them” (as if you were grading this paper), what they did wrong and which organic molecule they DID describe. 

I split you into groups then and assigned you each a student, you were to tell me first if they were right or wrong.  If they were right - you were to tell me what specifically they said that was key, if they were wrong you also made notes.  This is what we came up with!!

We then continued with our enzymes notes - this will lead us into our final section and final lab of this chapter.

I had you jot down on this one that in a lock and key model the substrate binds DIRECTLY into the active site like a key fits in a lock.

We talked about this slide but I did not have you write it in your notes.

Proteins and nucleic acids

Wednesday September 25th

.Looking at the following chemical formula, what kind of biomolecule would you infer this to be?  Why?

               C₁₉H₂₈O₂       

this is an example of lipid.  I know this because there is a large amount of Carbon and Hydrogen.  Some of you put Carbohydrates because it has carbon, hydrogen and oxygen but that is incorrect.  While carbohydrates are made up of these same three molecules the RATIO is much different.  Carbohydrates would have MUCH more Oxygen (usually as much oxygen as carbon)

I look at the nutrition facts on a weight loss shake and see there is 6grams of fat per serving, which seems like a lot of fat.  Only 2 of those grams are “Saturated", the other 4 are unsaturated.  Is there more “good fat” or “Bad fat” in this?  What is the structural difference?  There is more "GOOD Fat" which are the unsaturated fats.  The structural difference is in the type of bonds that hold it together.  Unsaturated fats have at least one double bond which puts a "kink" in the chain.  this allows it to stay a liquid at room temperature vs saturated fats that are straight chains which can stack on top of each other and remain a solid at room temp.

Proteins have MANY different functions – in fact proteins are pretty much involved in ALL cellular functions in one way or another.  The structures of these proteins are incredibly complex.  First, what subunits (monomers) make up protein?
Amino Acids

Next, what determines the function of different proteins?The STRUCTURE directly determines the proteins function.  How the amino acids interact with each other and fold on top of each other determines that structure.

We finished out the Organic Molecules section, then started into Enzymes.  Our next lab will focus on enzymes and we will soon be back to our "can of bull" case study!

here were the notes for today.

Lipids and proteins

We used today to try and just plow through some notes.  I realize this stuff is getting a little dry, but you will see how this all works together soon!!

These were the daily questions - we spent a while tearing them apart again to get you used to the format that keystone
exam questions tend to come in.  Notice on the second one the correct answer is Dehydration synthesis, if the arrow had been pointing the other direction (like the green arrow) it would have been hydrolysis.

here was a model we used of a lipid..... lots and lots of carbons bound to hydrogen!!

Look at how many more bonds are found in a lipid molecule vs a carbohydrate

Then you listened to the following podcast about Jello

b

Condensation reactions

Friday we had our daily question quiz and wrote down a couple slides of notes that we then worked through today... here we go

Monday September 23rd

Carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acids are three examples of polymers found in living things.  Which characteristic do they all share?

A.  Their molecular structures are the same

B.  They are formed from the same monomers

C.  Their synthesis is driven by condensation reactions
D.  The bond configurations between their monomers are the same.

Other than a source of energy – what other functions do carbohydrates have?

Stuctural support (cellulose and chitin) 

Cellular recognition

Which statement BEST describes how starch is formed from glucose molecules?

A.  Glucose macromolecules chain together to form starch monomers

B.  Glucose monomers chain together to form a starch macromolecule

C.  Glucose macromolecules dissolve and reform into starch monomers

D.  Glucose monomers dissolve and reform into a starch macromolecule

One group would take off an OH, the other an H

What you created was a disaccharide and water (which is
why its called a condensation reaction.) 

Carbohydrate structure

Then I reminded you that carbohydrate literally means the
Water of Carbon and if we took a water molecule, broke it apart we got an -H and an -OH, for each carbon I had you add it's "water"

The question was really asking which of the following are carbon based molecules.  The four main organic biomolecules we are made up of are lipids, carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids.

For this question we spend a while talking about the answer choices.  A is just wrong, Carbon is not Trivalent (which means it has 3 valence electrons), B is a correct statement but does not answer the question.  C not only is an incorrect statement, even if it WAS true, that also does not answer the question.  D speaks to the nature of Carbon and its ability to form bonds (4 in fact) with other atoms.

First I had you build the basic ring structure with 5 of the carbons and an oxygen.

You then added the extra carbon to form the functional group

Remember the term 

Carbohydrate literally means the hydrate (water) of carbon, so if you tore a water molecule apart into OH and H, added it to each carbon you would be almost at a glucose molecule!!!

\And then you built the entire molecule!