Web Activity: Macromolecules in Cells

               1.          What is a macromolecule?

                 A macromolecule refers to a class of bigger and more important biology. They are the building blocks of cells.

       

                      2.          What is a monomer?

                Any of several smaller molecular structures that may be chemically bonded together to form long multi-part polymer molecules

       

                      3.          What is a polymer?

     A large molecule made up of similar or identical subunits called monomers.

        

                      4.          List the four main types of macromolecules.

                Proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids.

5.          What are the types of reactions that macromolecules are shown to undergo?

Hydrolysis reactions, and dehydration synthesis(condensation reaction)

6.          Describe how monomers are joined together.

Monomers are joined together to form longer chains called polymers.

7.          Describe how polymers are broken down.

They go through Hydrolysis reactions.


8.     What is the specific name for the bond between simple sugar monomers?

Dehydration Synthesis

9. Which type of enzyme joins monomers together?

   Polymerase Enzyme


10. Describe how you had to arrange the sugar monomers in order to build a polysaccharide.
I added another monomer, two hydrogens, and one oxygen atom to create water.


11. Which building blocks of macromolecules are not used in building carbohydrates?
 Nucleotide, Amino Acids, and Fatty Acids. 

12. Why is sugar stored as glycogen in the human body?
   It is stored, so it can be used later as energy.

13. Why are plant foods essential to animal life?
   Animals try to take advantage of the plants to manufacture sugar and other   nutrients in them.

14. Describe how starch is digested by animals.
   Starch is going to be digested and stored as energy throughout the body.

15. What is "fiber" and why is it important in your diet?
   Fiber is a carbohydrate polymer thats important for digestive purposes. It can usually be found in fruit and vegetables.

 16. What causes you to pass gas according to the article?
   Fermentation of carbohydrates.

 17. What are some disadvantages of a low-carb diet?
  There are cardiovascular risk factors, these will affect the kidneys, and bone health.

 18. Describe the role that sugars play in cavity formation to your teeth.
   There are multiplicities in the bacteria, the sugars fuel these bacteria. This process causes cavities.

Above is an example of macromolecules.

Water Experiment

When we did the water experiment, we learned some things that we might not of known even existed if we hadn't done this lab. Who would of known you can take a cup of water and transfer the water down a string to another cup? That just blew my mind! We also learned some really cool words while we did the lab. The words we learned were adhesion, cohesion, and hydrogen bond. When the water was being transferred down the string, it was adhesion and cohesion because adhesion means the object sticks to another object. It was cohesion because that means the object stuck to itself. As you can see, these both fit with this part of the experiment. When we did the wax paper experiment, I actually think that was a hydrogen bond. The wax paper wouldn't let the water sink in, so the water droplet just stayed on top of the paper. If you took a stick to the drop you could actually move it across the paper. The next experiment we did, we put as many drops of water as we could on the top of a penny until it ran over the sides. I think this was also a hydrogen bond. I think so because when the water finally reacted with the air, the water spilled over the side of the penny.

     Next, we will talk about how trees get water. I think this is just like the string experiment because the water is being transferred down the tree after the water hits the top. Therefore, I think this is a great example of a cohesion and a adhesion bond. The tree has veins and roots which help transport the water down or up the tree so the whole tree can get the amount of water it needs to so it can stay alive. That's pretty much all i can explain about cohesion and adhesion, here are some pictures so you can kind of get a better understanding.

Adhesion Bond

Cohesion Bond

Hydrogen Bond

                          

Controlled Experiment

The reason for having a controlled experiment is so we can see how the affects we make to the experiment affect the corn. This is the controlled experiment because we change everything we see fit to keep the organisms alive. If we think we want to test the experiment with bugs, we bring them in. We need to make this controlled so we can get a better understanding if we change it ourselves instead of watching it happen in nature. Maybe for example, the corn is the dependent variable because it depends on everything else to keep it alive. Another kind of dependent variable is the seed for the corn. They are the dependent variables because if nothing else does its job to help these two things out, they will both die. The independent variable might be something such as the bugs because they don't need anything else to keep them alive when they can fend for themselves. A second type of independent variable is the water. The water is independent because nothing keeps it alive, it keeps the other organisms alive.
         We have been talking about placebo's in class, a placebo is actually a sugar pill that comes in many forms. It is all about tricking our minds, if we believe its going to decrease pain or help you play better in sports, it will. Another thing we need to know about if we are discussing placebo is the double blind trial. The double blind trial is when a doctor administers the patient or tells the patient he is giving them the actual drug, then it will work for the patient. If they tell them they are simply just giving them placebo, then they just blew it for the patient!

Here is the link for the double blind trial and there is also other information if you're interested:

http://www.ukskeptics.com/article.php?dir=articles&article=double_blind_trials.php

The other useful websites I found while we performed this experiment are under the words that are highlighted in blue.