Unit 2 Reflection

This unit contained information about how the molecular complexity  serves as the building blocks for life by bonding together and being the base of everything. It was also about the different types of carbohydrates, such as monosaccharides, which are very sweet and consist of one ring, disaccharides, which are somewhat sweet and consist of two rings, and polysaccharides, which taste plain and starchy, containing three or more rings.









 I also learned about lipids, which are large molecules that include fats, phospholipids, oils, waxes, and cholesterol. Lipids are made up of long chains of carbon and hydrogen called fatty acids.







 Unit 2 also teaches about Enzymes and their structure of individual amino acids chained together, bonded by a peptide bond.
















An essential theme was understanding the structures of things such as carbohydrates, enzymes, and lipids. My strength was understanding the different types of carbohydrates.  I fully understood this topic Mr. Orre thoroughly explained it.











One of my weaknesses was understanding what exactly enzymes do. I did not fully understand the vodcast, "Messing with Enzymes," because I was absent the day it was explained in detail. I learned how to differentiate monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides from eachother. The information was a bit difficult to grasp, but in the end, I was able to understand more about these topics which made me feel like a better student. I want to learn more about Polysaccharides and find out why they taste so plain. 

The Sweetest Lab

     In this lab we asked the question, "How does the structure of a carbohydrate affect its taste?" I found that the monosaccharides were the sweetest, and the polysaccharides were the most bland. Fructose, which I ranked 180/200 on degree of sweetness, was the most sugary tasting carbohydrate. Its snow white grains tasted like extremely sweet sugar. While the white, chalky starch was a very tasteless and unpleasant polysaccharide to eat, having a sweetness degree of 0/200. As I learned from the "Miniature Biology" vodcast, monosaccharides are simple sugars consisting of one ring. Whereas Polysaccharides consist of 3 or more rings and taste starchy or plain. This data supports my claim that monosaccharides are the sweetest.
    Our data may contradict expected results because we sampled the polysaccharides first instead of the monosaccharides, which could have affected our taste buds. The polysaccharides are bland and could have lead us to think that the monosaccharides and disaccharides tasted sweeter than they usually do. Due to these errors, in future experiments I would recommend clarifying that students should taste the monosaccharides first.

     This lab was done to demonstrate how the structure of a carbohydrate does in fact affect its taste. From this lab I learned that monosaccharides are sweeter than disaccharides and polysaccharides. This helps me understand the concept of the different structures of carbohydrates. Based on my experience from this lab, I can remember that a sweet carbohydrate, such as fructose, is a monosaccharide, and a bland carbohydrate like cellulose, is a polysaccharide.

Characteristics of Life Collage

Jean Lab Conclusion

In this lab we asked the question, "How does each concentration of bleach affect a 5x5 square of jeans?" We found that the bleach with the highest concentration whitened the jeans the most. We found that the 50% concentration bleach damaged and somewhat wore down the fabric. The 25% somewhat lightened the jeans, but did not damage the material. The 12.5% concentration of bleach barely lightened the fabric, and the water had no effect on the jeans. The highest concentration of bleach did the most damage to the jeans because it was the strongest and contained no water.
  While our hypothesis was supported by our data,  an error of letting the 50% soaked jeans sit in the water for longer than 2 minutes may have affected our results. This error could have caused the bleach to somewhat wash off of the jeans, giving inaccurate results. Another error was spilling bleach on the table. This did not affect our results, though Tyler and I did accidentally put our hands in the puddle of bleach several times. Due to these errors, in future experiments I would recommend assigning one person to timing each jean square that is soaked in water. In future experiments students should me more cautious not to spill bleach, and to notify other group members if bleach is spilled.
  This lab was done to demonstrate the affects that different concentrations of bleach have on 15 5x5 squares of jeans. From this lab I learned how to carefully do a step-by-step lab, which helps me understand the concept of the Scientific Method. Based on my experience from this lab, I can apply this knowledge of how different concentrations of bleach affect jeans, to my personal life, if I ever decide to lighten my jeans without destroying them.