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Teachers and Resources

• Effective standards based laboratory “Enzyme Function” by Ann Marie Wellhouse. Students will isolate the enzyme catalase from potatoes and then engage in a series of investigations to determine what factors influence the rate of an enzymatic reaction.

  Enzyme Function PDF file (72k)

• Lectures, animations and laboratories on infectious diseases and immunology from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s BioInteractive.

• A protein purification and folding experiment (isolation of phycocyanin from Spirulina cells) from the Journal of Chemical Education.

• Engage students in hands-on activities to model the structure of proteins with materials from the lending library at the Center for BioMolecular Modeling at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

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California State Standards

Grades 9 through 12

Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry

10. The bonding characteristics of carbon allow the formation of many different organic molecules of varied sizes, shapes, and chemical properties and provide the biochemical basis of life. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know large molecules (polymers), such as proteins, nucleic acids, and starch, are formed by repetitive combinations of simple subunits.

c. Students know amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.

Cell Biology

1. The fundamental life processes of plants and animals depend on a variety of chemical reactions that occur in specialized areas of the organism's cells. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know cells are enclosed within semipermeable membranes that regulate their interaction with their surroundings.

b. Students know enzymes are proteins that catalyze biochemical reactions without altering the reaction equilibrium and the activities of enzymes depend on the temperature, ionic conditions, and the pH of the surroundings.

c. Students know how prokaryotic cells, eukaryotic cells (including those from plants and animals), and viruses differ in complexity and general structure.

h. Students know most macromolecules (polysaccharides, nucleic acids, proteins, lipids) in cells and organisms are synthesized from a small collection of simple precursors.

Genetics

4. Genes are a set of instructions encoded in the DNA sequence of each organism that specify the sequence of amino acids in proteins characteristic of that organism. As a basis for understanding this concept:

e. Students know proteins can differ from one another in the number and sequence of amino acids.

f. * Students know why proteins having different amino acid sequences typically have different shapes and chemical properties.

5. The genetic composition of cells can be altered by incorporation of exogenous DNA into the cells. As a basis for understanding this concept:

e. * Students know how exogenous DNA can be inserted into bacterial cells to alter their genetic makeup and support expression of new protein products.

Evolution

7. The frequency of an allele in a gene pool of a population depends on many factors and may be stable or unstable over time. As a basis for understanding this concept:

c. Students know new mutations are constantly being generated in a gene pool.

d. Students know variation within a species increases the likelihood that at least some members of a species will survive under changed environmental conditions.

8. Evolution is the result of genetic changes that occur in constantly changing environments. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know how natural selection determines the differential survival of groups of organisms.

Investigation and Experimentation

1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (such as computer-linked probes, spreadsheets, and graphing calculators) to perform tests, collect data, analyze relationships, and display data.

d. Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence.

k. Recognize the cumulative nature of scientific evidence.

l. Analyze situations and solve problems that require combining and applying concepts from more than one area of science.

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National Research Council Standards

Grades 9 through 12

Content Standard A: Science As Inquiry

Abilities Necessary to do Scientific Inquiry

IDENTIFY QUESTIONS AND CONCEPTS THAT GUIDE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS. Students should formulate a testable hypothesis and demonstrate the logical connections between the scientific concepts guiding a hypothesis and the design of an experiment. They should demonstrate appropriate procedures, a knowledge base, and conceptual understanding of scientific investigations.

Understandings About Scientific Inquiry

• Scientists usually inquire about how physical, living, or designed systems function. Conceptual principles and knowledge guide scientific inquiries. Historical and current scientific knowledge influence the design and interpretation of investigations and the evaluation of proposed explanations made by other scientists.

• Scientists conduct investigations for a wide variety of reasons. For example, they may wish to discover new aspects of the natural world, explain recently observed phenomena, or test the conclusions of prior investigations or the predictions of current theories.

• Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data. New techniques and tools provide new evidence to guide inquiry and new methods to gather data, thereby contributing to the advance of science. The accuracy and precision of the data, and therefore the quality of the exploration, depends on the technology used.

Content Standard B: Physical Science

Chemical Reactions

• Chemical reactions occur all around us, for example in health care, cooking, cosmetics, and automobiles. Complex chemical reactions involving carbon-based molecules take place constantly in every cell in our bodies.

• Catalysts, such as metal surfaces, accelerate chemical reactions. Chemical reactions in living systems are catalyzed by protein molecules called enzymes.

Content Standard C: Life Science

The Cell

• Cells have particular structures that underlie their functions. Every cell is surrounded by a membrane that separates it from the outside world. Inside the cell is a concentrated mixture of thousands of different molecules which form a variety of specialized structures that carry out such cell functions as energy production, transport of molecules, waste disposal, synthesis of new molecules, and the storage of genetic material.

• Most cell functions involve chemical reactions. Food molecules taken into cells react to provide the chemical constituents needed to synthesize other molecules. Both breakdown and synthesis are made possible by a large set of protein catalysts, called enzymes. The breakdown of some of the food molecules enables the cell to store energy in specific chemicals that are used to carry out the many functions of the cell.

• Cell functions are regulated. Regulation occurs both through changes in the activity of the functions performed by proteins and through the selective expression of individual genes. This regulation allows cells to respond to their environment and to control and coordinate cell growth and division.

The Molecular Basis of Heredity

• Changes in DNA (mutations) occur spontaneously at low rates. Some of these changes make no difference to the organism, whereas others can change cells and organisms.

Biological Evolution

• Species evolve over time. Evolution is the consequence of the interactions of (1) the potential for a species to increase its numbers, (2) the genetic variability of offspring due to mutation and recombination of genes, (3) a finite supply of the resources required for life, and (4) the ensuing selection by the environment of those offspring better able to survive and leave offspring.

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