The Joy of Biochemistry Mini (Edible) Labs!

Biochemistry is a hard unit for so many students. I previously wrote about this last year around this time. We just finished our unit, and I am waiting on the edge of my seat to see their test results.

I took a different approach to teaching it this year. I found students really struggled the most with macromolecules. There is so much information and it is easy to get it all jumbled together in their brain. For that section, I decided to give each macromolecule its own day and to really focus on understanding that one thing all day. Hopefully I will see the benefits of this in their scores!

I taught the macromolecules in order based on the elements they are made of: CHO, CHO (1:2:1), CHONS, and CHONP. This probably makes no sense to some of you, but the main idea is that I tried to find the most logical progression through these four macromolecules and started with the simplest: Lipids, Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Nucleic Acids.

Each day was roughly structured like this:
1. Notes (Super short -- maybe five sentences)
2. Label Diagram and Color Code
3. Mini-Lab
4. Vocabulary Work

My favorite part of this whole system was the mini-labs! We did them together as a class -- no formal write up or questions for them to answer. We orally reviewed the ideas constantly as they were working on the lab. It made the material hands-on, memorable, and in some cases -- edible!

I think my students favorite mini lab we did was probably the mini enzyme lab. We set this up the day before we actually talked about enzymes. I presented them with a cute little story about messed up jello in the cafeteria -- was it caused by the canned pineapple or fresh pineapple? The students could each choose which type of jello they wanted to test in their cup. They wrote their name on their cup, along with what type they chose, and we put them in the fridge over night.

Fresh vs. Canned

Labeled Cups in the Fridge

The next day, they were so excited and anxious to see their jello. I passed out their cups, and some of them were shocked and disgusted that their beloved fresh pineapple didn't allow the jello to set and they had a runny watery mess.

It set up a memorable experience for them to recall how an enzyme becomes denatured (in this case, the heat in the canning process). The enzyme in fresh pineapple, bromelin, breaks down the collagen in jello and doesn't allow it to set into a firm matrix, but the canned pineapple has been heated, and the enzymes denatured, so it is able to set without issue.

The lab maybe took 15 minutes of class time, yet was something we could reference and talk about everytime we talked about enzymes and allowed students with a reference point for all of the concepts. I declare it a success.

For my favorite blog readers, I will give you a quick run down of all six mini-labs I did for the Biochemistry unit for FREE! Just click the link to view! The mini-labs are also included in my Biochemistry Unit Pack on my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

... Teach on.

Today is proving to be a difficult one. I find teaching extremely exhausting when I am not feeling my best. Today, I am tired and would love to have even just one more hour of sleep, but instead I'm waking up at my normal early hour and wearily driving into work to teach all day. I would love a day off, but I rarely take sick days. This isn't to say that I don't take time to care for myself, but I find missing school to be more hassle than help when I am feeling exhausted, and today, I am exhausted and I must teach on.


I feel like an acting class should be part of teacher education programs. Part of what makes content exciting for students is seeing their teacher excited about the content. I am an actor some days, acting as though I'm excited when in reality I'm exhausted. My acting chops get a work out.
So on days like today, when I am just not feeling it, I must put on my acting hat, take a deep breath, and teach on. On days when I am teaching material I myself find dull, but necessary, I teach on. When I want to lose my temper in class, I take a deep breath and teach on.
I am not my most enthusiastic or charming or understanding version of myself today, but my students are here. They showed up to learn, understand, and grow and in return I must show up to teach, communicate, and guide. 

On days like today when I'm feeling under the weather, I will inevitably have students who immediately notice and ask me if I'm sick or if I'm getting a sub (some ask excitedly, others concerned), and I do my best to smile and say that I just have a bit of a cold or allergies. It continues to surprise me how observant they are, and reminds me that I have to keep acting and keep teaching. 

For those of you that are wearing out your acting chops today, I want to remind you... 

You have a student who looks forward to you class every day. 

You have a student who will try their very best to make you proud today. 

You have a student who appreciates everything you do, even if they don't say it. 

You are allowed to be run down, to take a day off, and to be exhausted, but don't get discouraged. For those students, you must teach on. 

... I Have Struggled!

There are some topics that I sometimes feel like I will never enjoy teaching... biochemistry is one of them. 

This probably sounds odd since I teach both Biology and Chemistry -- Biochemistry should be the perfect happy marriage of the two! My problem isn't the content, but rather the delivery and reception of the audience.

Chemistry is taught in 10th grade, Biology in 9th. Biochemistry in the Biology course falls right after Ecology. The transition is difficult for my students. They have to transition from the "easy" content in Ecology that is a lot of review, to Biochemistry, which is in my opinion one of the most difficult units of the whole course. There is almost no prior knowledge of the content and it is so hard for the 9th grade mind to make the transition.

In previous years, I had "chunked" the unit into a few sections -- Atoms, Water, Macromolecules, and Enzymes. Within each of those chunks, I would give them all the information at once along with labs. It was overwhelming for them and for me! It was a lot of information for them to absorb in a short period of time.

This year, I had a different plan. We had a "transition day" where we reviewed the levels of organization again -- a topic we had previously covered at the beginning of Ecology -- and used that as a stepping stone into the levels of organization in Biochemistry. We made a foldable, gave examples, and looked at some sample molecules. It gave students a day to adjust and it gave them a preview to what we were talking about.

The other major difference I did this year was how I taught macromolecules (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids). Previously, I taught them all at once and did lots of activities involving all four macromolecules over several days. This year, I decided to spend one full day on each one. Each day has a few components -- notes/information, mini-lab, color coding and diagram labeling, and vocabulary work. This approach gave me a full day to immerse students in the vocabulary (there is a lot of it!). Although its more work for me -- setting up four different labs in four days! -- but it is totally worth it if students are able to learn and understand the material better.

I am not a teacher who can sit back and do the same thing every year for every unit. Some things I was happy with and will keep relatively the same, but I am always looking for better ways to teach hard concepts. I have high hopes that Biochemistry will be more successful for my students this year, and going forward I'm going to try to plan more lessons that are student focused.

What topics do you struggle with? What are your strategies for redesigning those units?

Some of my biochemistry resources are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store! Check them out!