Biology:
Combine the topics of evolution, cell biology, genetics and basic
chemistry. Utilize comparative anatomy as a gross view of evolution
and comparative molecular anatomy as the zoom view for evolution.
(Computer analogy may be useful to focus in and out of the two
facets of evolution.)
Combine the following topics to create the unit of study for Biochemistry:
The nature of the Carbon atom
Bond angels/3D shape
Types of Bonds/steric hindrance and electron dispersion
R-chains/How they change the nature of the molecule
Amino acids/fundamental units in living things.
The
nature of bonds: Ionic, covalent, polar covalent, hydrogen,
and van der Waals.
Concentration
of electrons
Attractive and repulsive factors
Charge/Polarity
Size/Steric
hindrance
Hydrophobic/Hydrophilic
interactions
Entropy/Thermodynamics
Proteins
Basic
Composition
Number
of and types that exist
Formation
from amino acids
Linear
sequence
3D
structures/protein folding
How?
Hydrophobic/Hydrophilic interactions
Why?
Efficiency/Entropy
Function
Work
done by proteins in living organisms to sustain the organism
Fundamental
importance to variation within a species
Genetic
proteins G C A T U
Genetic
codes
Genetic
code disrupters
Mutation
causes:
environmental factors, evolutionary changes
effects:
desired/homeostasis
not
desired/disease, defects, death
Introduction: What makes you unique?
Bring in a collage of pictures of my/any family scanned onto a disc. Go back as far as possible. Allow students to laugh at the clothes and hairstyles while narrating familial distance to the person and reiterate the fact that these individuals were at the height of fasion.
Have each student assess there own family with themselves:
Concentrate on what you look like. Next, compare yourself with you parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. Of the following facial parts: nose, eye shape, eye color, eye brow shape, smile, tooth arrangement, outer ear shape, and chin, who in your family has similar looking features in comparison to you?10 minutes to asses then discuss.Have each student compare themselves with the other students in the room. have them repeat the exercise to see if they can come up with any similarities. After 5 minutes they should be able to express that only the possession of a nose, eyes, chin, mouth and ears is what they have incommon.
Questions to pose:
If we are all people why don't we look more the same?
Why could we trace some of our features to another family member?
Why doesn't every family member show similarly expressed features?
If you couldn't trace one of your features back to another family member what could that mean? Look out for sorted stories about who's
a Player in the family!
Hook: Lead questions toward the possibility that something more is going on than what we can see. If we can't see it how these variations are caused how do we prove there is a mechanism for variation within all living things?
Visual: Create and present scanned
images in a sequence going from large view to small
focus: people, to couple, to medical reproductive structures of
each, to
sources of gametes, to gametes, to chromosomes, and to DNA. (for
later discussion
continue sequence from DNA to proteins, proteins to amino acids,
and
amino acids to basic chemical structures of amino acids)
Laboratory Exercise: Isolation of DNA from Duck Blood (proof.)
* Note: Use the from msoe with the web site at the end of it and
add this information: If a small red clump ends up at the bottom
of test tube
#4 this will not
affect your results. It is the white material we will concentrate
on for the DNA; the red spot is remaining garbage from the lysing
of the cell membrane. A pipet can be used to carefully remove
the spot,
as well as, pull up DNA later.
Introduction: At this point in time,
we have been made aware of DNA. We may know
a little bit about what it does, but those who worked on the "idea"
of DNA had far
less to go on.
Questions to pose:
Where would you start to unravel the mystery?
Remember that the scientists, Watson and Crick, had the work of other
scientists to draw on: Mendel's genetic experiments,
Welcome
MMD links