Lesson Plan: The Chemistry of Food Biology
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to carry out chemical tests on food to determine the presence of sugars, starch, protein, and fats.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- describe how calorimetry can be used to measure energy contained in food,
- carry out the following tests on food samples, stating observations for positive results: Benedict’s test for reducing sugars (glucose), iodine test for starch, Biuret reagent for proteins, emulsion test for fats, and Sudan IV test for lipids,
- describe the structure of carbohydrates, for example, starch, as a polymer made up of simple sugar monomers,
- describe the structure of a protein as a polymer made up of amino acid monomers,
- recall that lipids are large molecules made up of glycerol and fatty acid molecules.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- the fact that key components of the human diet include proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- condensation/hydrolysis reactions,
- bonds formed between the monomers in biological molecules.
