February 15, 2012: Lost my chain of thought...

Oh hey there.... yup... still alive! Everyone has been asking me, "Ms. Eberhardt.. what are your plans for Spring Break?" and all I can think about is getting back on here and catching you up on everything! Haha... So, here I am. It won't happen all at once but I will be working on it this week and hopefully catch up a bit. I have to be honest though, I kept decent records of what I made/learned but the dates may be off a little bit. Here we go!

Over the years I have collected a wide variety of metal chains. Some I bought at jewelry supply places and others are from old jewelry that I took apart. Anyway, I saw a necklace in a magazine that utilized several different types of chain and I was like... "I got this." I used jump rings to connect the small pieces of chain to the long, simple chain that goes around my neck. I like the diversity of metals and designs.
So, I always like to infuse stories about myself into biology lessons (that's true right?) whenever possible.... and it is always possible :). When we are learning about macromolecules such as proteins, we discuss the term monomer. Which is a term given to a repeating small molecule that when all linked together create a large or "macro"molecule. Amino acids are the monomers of proteins... and your body is constantly making proteins in every single cell... it's crazy! Your cells are like little protein factories! So why do we HAVE to eat proteins you ask?? Simple. Your cells need to have amino acids to make proteins. I explain this to my students by telling them how my mother and I like to buy old jewelry (and other stuff) to take it apart and make new cooler jewelry :). Your body does the same thing with proteins. We eat proteins and then your body takes those proteins apart and uses the pieces to make new cooler proteins that work for your body! Viola... successfully implanted a story about myself into a biochem lesson (hahaha).