Resource adapted from Michigan State University’s Carbon Time instructional materials

Pīcekaen pemēhHigh-hopes for Bioenergy and Sustainability

What are plants made of at the atomic and molecular scale?

Recall what you know about air by zooming in to the molecular and atomic scale.

• What could we know about our food by zooming in on it?• How do you suppose we could zoom in on food?• Write down your ideas about these two questions.

This video Food Is Fuel can help us zoom in on food to see what we can learn at the molecular scale

http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvsn6.sci.bio.fuel/food-is-fuel/

Learning more: What else can we know about food at the molecular scale?

Without using a bomb calorimeter, what are some ideas you can think of for another way of figuring out what kind of molecules make up a carrot, for example?

What are plants at the molecular scale?

One way to find out what molecules make up the plants we eat is to read nutrition labels.

Fat, carbohydrate, protein, vitamins, water – these are all types of molecules that make up plants and other foods.

What are plants at the molecular scale?

We will use labels with a serving size of 100 g.This means that 1 g = 1% of the materials in the food

Most of what makes up our food are the molecules called fats, proteins, and carbohydrates (which includes sugars)

What are plants at the molecular scale?Which of the organic molecules found in foods do you

predict that plants contain?(fats, carbohydrates, proteins)

FATS in Peanut Butter (Seeds)

How much fat is in 100 grams of peanut butter?

(Note: this peanut butter has had no other ingredients added other than peanuts.)

Peanut Butter

What are FATS?

CARBOHYDRATES in Carrots

(roots)Total carbohydrate = starch + sugar + fiber

How much starch is in 100 grams of carrots?

Carrots

What are CARBOHYDRATES?

glucose molecule

PROTEINS in Carrots

How much protein is in 100 grams of carrots?

Carrots

What are PROTEINS?

Adding Up Materials in Plants

Organic materials in carrotsFat: 0%Carbohydrates: 10% (10g out of 100g)Protein: 1%Cholesterol and vitamins: less than 1%

Inorganic materials in carrotsMinerals (sodium, iron): less than 1%

What’s left? WATER: about 89%

What patterns -- similarities and differences -- do you see in these organic molecules?

Carbon atoms (atomic scale) form the backbone of all theorganic molecules (molecular scale) that

living organisms (macroscopic scale) are made of

What size do you picture a carbon atom?

Zoom in, using the interactive zoom online: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cells/scale/

How does the size of a carbon atom compare to a coffee bean or grain of rice?

Food provides the matter that living beings need to build and repair their bodies

Matter comes from the organic (carbon-based) molecules

Remember:THE THREE FACTS ABOUT ATOMS

1. Atoms last forever (usually).

2. Atoms make up the mass of all materials.3. Atoms are bonded to other atoms in molecules.

FATS

PROTEINS

CARBOHYDRATES

How do plants get the molecules that their bodies are made of?

Food provides both matter and energy

Chemical energy in food (measured using a bomb calorimeter)

Calories are a measure of the chemical energy in food. We burn food and measure the heat energy that is given off in calories. That heat energy comes from the high-energy bonds in organic molecules

Chemical Energy in Food:C-C and C-H bonds are bonds that can be broken to obtain chemical energy

FATS PROTEINS

CARBOHYDRATES

Record 3 ideas in your POSOH Notebook

• How do you think the corn, beans, and squash of the Three Sisters get the fat, carbohydrate, and protein molecules that they are made of?– Where do the atoms and molecules come from to

build these plants?• How do you know?

– Where do atoms and molecules move as these plants live and grow?

• How do you know?