Adolescent students are fascinated by their bodies. Educators can leverage student engagement by selecting topics that capitalize on innate student interest.
Topics anchored around diet, nutrition, digestion, and evolution have been crafted into this curriculum unit. This unit is intended to be part of a high school biology course. It may also be used with anatomy and physiology, forensics, health, epidemiology, and biotechnology courses.
This unit will be taught in the first quarter of the biology course when introducing carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and proteins. I believe student interest in the topic will rise if I incorporate human anatomy in the topic of biological chemistry.
An engaging high school science curriculum should address diet, nutrition and digestion in a highly visual and meaningful manner. In this unit I will connect diet and nutrition with an understanding of the major biological molecules by examining the chemical composition of the food we eat. Evolution is illustrated by examples of anatomy and biochemistry of different animals that have specialized methods to consume a variety of foods.
It is my intention to show that the interactions among biomolecules and living systems can be phenomenally fascinating. If students are captivated by a topic, they are much more likely to dedicate the time and energy to master the concepts of that topic.
