Research Based Lesson

Research Based Lesson

Subject: Chemistry

Overview: Chemistry relating to medicine and biotechnology is related to students through a combination of lecture(PowerPoint), lab activities, demonstration, and paper-based inquiry.

Vocabulary:

1. Amino Acid – A small chemical that provides the building blocks for peptides and proteins.
2. Peptide – A short chain of amino acids.
3. Protein – A long chain of amino acids. Proteins perform many functions in the body, including providing structure and promoting chemical reactions.
4. Vesicle - An aggregate of molecules in solution, such as phospholipids, which comprises a hollow sphere with hydrophilic inner and outer walls with a hydrophobic region interior to the shell.
5. Hydrophilic - Having a tendency to mix with, dissolve in, or be wetted by water.
6. Hydrophobic - Tending to repel or fail to mix with water.

Goals:

1. The students should be able to describe proteins and what they are composed of
2. The students should be able to relate protein folded structure to activity, versus loss of activity due to denaturation.
3. The concept of using synthetic analogues of protein chemistry will be introduced as an effective method for interacting with biological systems.

Engage

Materials: Pipe cleaners (white, with sharpie marks in various places), colored tape, scissors.

Place small strips of colored tape or stickers onto the pipe cleaners and place 3-4 pipe cleaners (attached end-to-end) on each students desk. Ask the students to fold the pipe cleaners so that stickers of the same color are touching. Allow students to compare the shapes of their folded pipe cleaners. They will all likely be different. Explain that proteins are folded much like the pipe cleaners, and that their function depends on their shape. In this case, each person’s pipe cleaner/protein would have a different job due to the different shapes. Now have the students unfold the pipe cleaners and use the scissors to chop them up. Explain that this is what happens when proteins are digested, and that they no longer do anything after this process.

Explore

Lab Activity – Common Proteins: Reactions and Denaturation (Strong Medicine: Chemistry at the Pharmacy, Experiment 2)

Explain

Go over questions from lab activity. Briefly describe how cells can digest proteins and other foreign material. Introduce the concept of building synthetic materials that can act like proteins (for degradation purposes).

Elaborate

Lecture from PowerPoint on research, protein digestion, etc. Slides can be found at the end of this lesson. Activities may be completed if time permits. Activity sheets can be found at the end of this lesson.

Evaluate

Students may be required to complete a lab report, which can be collected and assessed, as well as their activity sheets. Performance during lab exercises may be assessed for thoroughness as well as accuracy. Any of this material may be included in an exam.

Lecture Slides

Activity Sheets

1. How are a polymer and a protein alike? How are they different?

1. How do cells digest proteins?

1. What if a protein were made of only one kind of amino acid? Would it fold? Would it be able to do a job? Why or Why not?

1. Below, draw a diagram that shows how a cell “eats” a protein. Remember the steps in the process, starting with the cell taking the protein into itself.