Lipids
As far as the types of Lipids, we've got:
1. Fats
1. Fats
Well that's easy enough to remember. For those who can't seem to connect the two, I always think of someone who's gotten botox in their lips. They plump up and look really fat. FAT LIPS. For remembering the general structure of fats (a glycerol and 3 fatty acid chains) I like to thing of a ...
G======
G======
|
|
|
This kind of makes the shape of an F. F for Fats.
2. Phospholipids
Breaking it down, we've got PHOSPHO and LIPID. Aren't scientists just SO clever?
To me, a phospholipid always looked like a guy smelling the amazing scent of bacon....which is fatty, thus falls under the context of lipids! (his head is the phosphate head, the wafting scent are the fatty acid tails)
This kind of makes the shape of an F. F for Fats.
2. Phospholipids
Breaking it down, we've got PHOSPHO and LIPID. Aren't scientists just SO clever?
To me, a phospholipid always looked like a guy smelling the amazing scent of bacon....which is fatty, thus falls under the context of lipids! (his head is the phosphate head, the wafting scent are the fatty acid tails)
3. Steroids
Who's seen fantastic 4?
Surprisingly, I have not. It's on my list, ok? Geeze just cause I work at a video store...
Anyway, here's Thing from Fantastic 4
Who's seen fantastic 4?
Surprisingly, I have not. It's on my list, ok? Geeze just cause I work at a video store...
Anyway, here's Thing from Fantastic 4
Notice the shape of his arms. Geometric. Imagine him flexing. Kind of looks familiar. Please ignore my lacking art skills.
Anyway, that's how I remember steroids. Thing looks like he's been on steroids, his arms look like the classic 4 carbon ring structure, and hey....if you plop a rock in a glass of water, it's not going to dissolve! (steroids are not water-soluble)
Amino Acids
This is kind of a more hands on activity. For it, you'll need pipe cleaners (2 colors) and scissors. It would probably be most effective to put students into groups. Even though pipe cleaners are cheap, there may not be enough scissors to go around, and kids have a proficiency for using more than necessary.
Primary structure:
This is very easily understood by comparing the amino acids to the alphabet. Each AA is a letter, and can be combined with other letters to form words (an AA).
Secondary Structure:
This is where the pipe cleaners come in. Take one color as the base(yellow in my example), and the second as the little hydrogen bonds/radical groups along the backbone (orange).
Take the base strand, and wrap little pieces of orange around it every inch or so.
This is very easily understood by comparing the amino acids to the alphabet. Each AA is a letter, and can be combined with other letters to form words (an AA).
Secondary Structure:
This is where the pipe cleaners come in. Take one color as the base(yellow in my example), and the second as the little hydrogen bonds/radical groups along the backbone (orange).
Take the base strand, and wrap little pieces of orange around it every inch or so.
Then grasp the end between your thumb and first finger like so
Then proceed to wrap the whole thing around your finger
The slip off of your finger and align the little orange side chains so they're perpendicular to the base chain. You now have your alpha helix! This gives the kids a good idea of WHY the Amino acids form this structure (the H-bonds, orange bits).
And for the beta pleated sheets do the same, only don't make a spiral, just bend it back and forth
TA DA that is secondary structure in nutshell.
It's getting rather late in the day, and I'm beginning to get famished, so I'll cut things off here. Part 2 will finish up amino acid structure and proteins.
Toodles!
It's getting rather late in the day, and I'm beginning to get famished, so I'll cut things off here. Part 2 will finish up amino acid structure and proteins.
Toodles!
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