Download Lab 3: Building Blocks of Living Things Objectives: Understand

Lab 3: Building Blocks of Living Things
Objectives:
Understand chemicals and chemical bonds
Understand the concept of polymer and monomer
Know the biomolecules and subunits that make up living things
Introduction:
Even though over 100 chemical elements (atoms) are known, only four (carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen) make up over 96% of living things. These four elements
are arranged in different ways to make up bigger, more complex molecules that are the
building blocks of life.
These molecules are proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and nucleic acids. Three of them
(proteins, carbohydrates and nucleic acids) are long polymers made of smaller repeating
units called monomers. The monomers of proteins are called amino acids, the
monomers of carbohydrates are sugars, and the monomers of nucleic acids are
nucleotides. Only the lipids are not polymers, but are sometimes made of glycerol and
fatty acid subunits.
In addition to using biomolecules as building blocks for tissues, living things also obtain
their energy from these complex molecules that they take in as food. Large complex
biomolecules cannot be directly absorbed in the digestive tract because of their size.
Enzymes along the digestive tract break down the large biomolecules into smaller
subunits and these subunits are then absorbed across the intestinal lining into the blood
stream where they are used to build complex molecules or utilized for energy.
In this lab you will examine chemicals and their bonding. You will also learn what kinds
of biomolecules are present in various foods.
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