Seventh grade Life Science teacher Angela Day instructs a class at Martha Gaskins Middle School in Birmingham, Alabama. Students conduct tests for carbohydrates and starch and create a carbohydrates poster. Watch the video and download the complete text of the Carbohydrates Lesson Plan.
Goals of the unit:
- Students will explain how food is essential for life.
- Students will compare the different macromolecules.
- Students will understand how to make good food choices based on the different nutritional values of macromolecules.
- Students will test unknown food substances for the presence of various organic compounds.
- Students will work in groups incorporating various learning styles to develop products which summarize the lesson.
Lesson Overview: This lesson focuses on the essential macromolecules of life and how they relate to real world applications, as well as the function, structure, and the polymerization of monomers into polymers (macromolecules). In this lesson students will use various instructional strategies to connect previous knowledge of macromolecules with life applications. In this lesson students will build models mimicking polymerization. The students will create poster presentations which focus on their particular macromolecule. Students will also conduct food analysis based on USDA nutritional guidelines.
Materials/Resources:
- Sacks containing small bags of spaghetti, table sugar, and grapes
- Posters to complete (Process is differentiated into A or B)
- Markers for writing on posters
- Scissors for each student
- Goggles for each student
- Tape for attaching pictures to posters
- Carbohydrate Informational sheet 2 per group
- Laboratory set-up of materials (Note lab protocol for students)
- 4 Grocery store colored ads for poster work
- Poster with test results of unknown substances
- USDA nutritional guidelines
Links:
www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/index.html
Teacher carbohydrate lab information sheet.doc
Carbohydrate student lab protocol.doc
carbohydrate lesson powerpoint2.ppt
