Chemistry 512 Name______
Project: What’s in Your RDA? Date______
Ms. Levine
What’s in Your Recommended Daily Allowance? It’s All in the Booklet!
So, how does the consumer know which vitamins and minerals are necessary for you to add to your diet? That will be your challenge! You will be assigned a vitamin or mineral and investigate its important role in the functioning of the human body, the quantity that one needs, and in which food(s) this micronutrient can be found as well as its toxicity and health problems that are associated with a lack or deficiency of this substance.
Humans are heterotrophs, and so we must obtain our food, organic molecular compounds, from the environment. The nutrients that we must ingest as food are divided into two categories: macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are classified as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. These complex molecules metabolized in the body to provide simpler molecules which then produce ATP during cellular respiration. The amount of energy produced by a micronutrient when it is completely oxidized (burned) is called its caloric content. Proteins and carbohydrates produce about four calories of heat per gram consumed while fats produce about 9 calories of heat per gram. The micronutrients can be stored by the body until they are needed. Carbohydrates are stored in muscle tissue and the liver as the polysaccharide called glycogen, and fat is stored in the fat tissue of the body. Excess proteins are broken down into amino acids and further processed chemically through metabolic reactions.
Micronutrients are essential substances that we must acquire because we cannot synthesize them or we cannot synthesize them at the rate that we need them. The two types of micronutrients are vitamins and minerals. Vitamins are organic (carbon-containing) compounds and are either fat-soluble or water-soluble. The word mineral comes from the Latin word “minera” which means “mine,” making reference to the fact that minerals are acquired from the ground. Animals obtain minerals or micronutrients from the foods that they eat, either directly as plants (fruits and vegetables) or indirectly as meat. Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen are the components of the “macronutrients” or major biomolecules, i.e. carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and nucleic acids. Since these elements are vastly present in the bodies of animals, these elements are not classified as minerals. The minerals are divided into two different categories: essential elements and trace elements.
There are seven essential elements:
Calcium, CaPotassium, K Chlorine, Cl
Magnesium, MgPhosphorus, P Sodium, Na and
Sulfur, S.
The essential minerals comprise 60-80% of the inorganic material in the body. The trace elements occur in living tissues in small amounts and are classified as essential, possibly essential, and nonessential. The table below listed the various types of trace elements:
Essential Trace Elements(micronutrients) / Possibly Essential Trace Elements / Nonessential Trace Elements
Iron, Fe
Iodine, I
Copper, Cu
Zinc, Zn
Manganese, Mn
Cobalt, Co
Molybdenum, Mo
Selenium, Se
Chromium, Cr
Fluorine, F / Nickel, Ni
Tin, Sn
Vanadium, V
Silicon, Si / Aluminum, Al
Boron, B
Germanium, Ge
Cadmium, Cd
Arsenic, As
Lead, Pb
Mercury, Hg
Usually Present But Also Nonessential:
Sb, Au, Ag, Bi, Ti, Ru
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Your Challenge: Create a Consumer Information 6-Page Booklet That Your Peers Will Read! (See directions for making the book - it will be constructed in class)
The Key Questions for One of the Pages in Your Booklet: Dedicate ONE page in your booklet for each of the following Key Questions:1) Front Cover: What is the chemical structure of the vitamin or mineral? Your name in the lower right corner.
2) What role(s) does this vitamin or mineral play in human metabolism? Why is this substance important to human health? What happens if there is a deficiency?
3) What is the recommended daily allowance or dose for this vitamin or mineral? In what specific concentration(s) is this mineral safe for animals, for humans? In what specific concentration(s) is this mineral toxic to animals, to humans? What are the hazardous effects?
4) Which foods are rich in this vitamin or mineral?
5) Provide a recipe for a main dish, side dish, or snack that is a great source of this vitamin or mineral and something that you and/or your friends would like to eat.
6) BIBLIOGRAPHY: (the last page inside!) Include a bibliography which gives all of the sources that you used at the end of the brochure or fact sheet. Follow the bibliography format used for your other SHS research papers (Easy Bib) for ALL scholarly websites, databases, and books. Your working bibliography must include at least 3 scholarly sources, and at least one of these sources must be a book.
7) Back Cover: Design it too! Make us want to read it even if the book may be flipped over!
Present the relevant information so that it is your own. Copying and pasting text from a source is not your own work. Put the information in your own words so that the reader can understand it and is interested in the information. Remember that you have readers who are interested in their own health but may not have a science background at all! Design the booklet artistically and creatively - you will need related graphics and pictures!
Fill the space! It can be any color and any design that will “sell” your information to consumers. Make us want to stop and read about your booklet! USE YOUR IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY!
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GRADING: Your “booklet” will be graded on the basis of 50 points. You will be evaluated on how thoroughly you have answered the KEY QUESTIONS, your mastery of the information, and your ability to present the information in an interesting and creative way. Teach the consumer about your vitamin or mineral. This project will also be graded as a homework assignment.
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DUE DATE: ______
LATENESS: 10 points will be deducted from your grade out of 50 points per day late for your booklet. If it is not submitted on the due date above, you will receive a zero for the homework assignment grade.
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YOUR MICRONUTRIENT IS: ______
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DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING THE BOOKLET:
1) Fold sheet of legal-sized paper “HOTDOG” (lengthwise).
2) Open the paper and Fold it “HAMBURGER” (widthwise).
3) Fold edge of paper hamburger - up to the center fold - front and back - to make a “W.”
4) Open the “W” and flatten out the sides of the “W” so that it look like: __Λ__
5) Push the sides of the middle upside-down “V” together and cut down from the top of the fold to creases on the flat sides of the inverted “W.”
6) Press the left ½ of the newly cut folded part of the inverted “V” flat with one flat side, and press the right ½ of the newly cut folded part of the inverted “V” flat with the other flat side.
7) Flip the entire paper over, and fold it “HAMBURGER.”
8) Fold it “HOT DOG.”
9) Voila! Your 6-page booklet has been constructed.