Many of you are starting to teach biochemistry soon and I want to show you a few biochemistry resources I have that you may be interested in.
Biochemistry is truly the most difficult topic to teach in high school biology (photosynthesis and respiration come to a close second) in my opinion. Here are a few resources that I use to help my students really understand the topic.
In-class activities:
I have a coloring page meant to really help students understand and be able to identify functional groups. I call it “The Scariest Worksheet Ever”, which always gets a good laugh. By the end of the activity, they don’t think it’s scary anymore either! You can see that resource here:
Biochemistry with Beads, Pipe Cleaners, and Paper Clips:
These activities are my favorite activities for the whole school year. It took a few years to really create these, because I kept thinking of ways to improve the subtleties involved. For each of the biomolecules (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids), I’ve got a hands-on activity where students can build models of the molecules, giving them a concrete visual they can keep in their minds for class discussions. I find my students really connect these concepts well with future class concepts like protein synthesis and photosynthesis and respiration, once they have completed these activities. I recently did a Facebook live video showing some aspects of these activities and you can see that video here.
You can find more information about these activities here.
Student Independent Practice Pages or Homework Pages:
Besides my in-class activities, I’ve written several homework pages that I like to use to help students practice skills and review material they interacted with in class.
If you’re interested in my homework pages, you can check them out here.
Here are some pictures of the other terrific pages you can use in your own classroom, available in my TeachersPayTeachers store. They include several structure/function relationship pages, a nutrition facts connection page, a virus connection page, and a chapter summary page!
What did you wish you had for your biochemistry unit? Let me know in the comments and I’ll put it on my list of ideas to work on!
