Apologia General Science, Module 12, Energy and Life

►What we did at Sahm-I-Am

Interactive Study Links: 
• Quizlet Flashcards

Other: 
• Respiration/Combustion - how food is converted to energy (great short article)
• Energy Chart - for use with Experiments 12.1 and 12.2
See this and more at Debbie's Educator's Resources (Thanks, Debbie!) 



(1) p. 295-297, Life's Energy Cycle
Producers and Consumers - and what about decomposers???
• Producers (plants and algae) make their own food.
• Consumers (humans and animals) get their food from another source.
• Decomposers break down the remains of other dead organisms.
These are fungi (mushrooms, yeast, mold, etc).  Although they are consumers (since they do not make their own food), they are classified separately because they play a distinct role in Creation by "recycling" dead organisms.

Omnivores  =)

Of the three classifications of organisms above, consumers 
are further classified by what they eat.
• Herbivores are consumers that eat only producers (plants and/or algae).
• Carnivores are consumers that eat only other consumers.
They are meat-eaters only, like lions or tigers, (but not bears), oh my!  
• Omnivores are consumers that eat both producers and consumers.
Bears eat fish as well as berries; so do I!  =)


Apologies for the clicking at the beginning.  It does go away, I promise. =)




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(2) p. 298-303, How Do Organisms Get Energy From Food?
Photosynthesis enables plants and algae to make their own food, but also provides animals and humans with food and oxygen.

Cellular Respiration is the process by which humans and animals convert food and oxygen into energy for ourselves.
This process also produces carbon dioxide for plants as well producing water.

This process of Cellular Respiration seems very much like the slow Combustion that is in your textbook, doesn't it?  According to an email from Apologia, "They are the same thing in the end, but there are some additional components to cellular respiration that enable our cells to harness the energy being released."
The process of Cellular Respiration has an additional step that allows it to harness the energy.

What Is Cellular Respiration? -- powered by ehow

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(3) p. 303b-308, What Actually Gets Burned For Energy?
There are only three things your body can burn:  carbohydrates, fats (lipids), and proteins.
These are called macronutrients (not micronutrients) because you must eat a lot of them every day.

Part 1


Part 2

1. Carbohydrates convert to energy quicker than fats or proteins.  These are the first macronutrients that the body will burn.  If there more than enough carbs, the body will store them as fat for later use.
2. If the body is low on carbohydrates, the body will begin to burn fats (or lipids).
3. The last macronutrient the body will burn is proteins.

Macronutrient #1. Carbohydrates
• Simple carbohydrates:
-monosaccharides (mono- means one, so a monosaccharide is one sugar, or simple sugar).
• Complex carbohydrates:
-disaccharides are made of two monosaccharides that are linked up (di- means two, so there are 2 sugars in a disaccharide).
-polysaccharides are made of many monosaccharides.  (poly- means many)

►Video of examples of simple and complex carbohydratess.

Macronutrient #2.  Fats 
Fats are called lipids.  There are two kinds of fats: saturated and unsaturated.
Your body can make most of the fats that you need from carbohydrates and proteins.
A few essential fats that your body cannot make can usually be found in vegetable oils.



Macronutrient #3.  Proteins
Proteins are made of long strings of amino acids.  There are 20 amino acids that are needed in your body, but there are only 12 that can be manufactured by your cells.  The other 8 amino acids cannot be made by the body, and must be supplied in foods you eat.  These 8 are called essential amino acids.
Various combinations of these 20 amino acids form into long strings called proteins.
►See a list of the 20 amino acids.  The 8 essential amino acids are marked with an *asterisk.
These amino acids have three letter abbreviations, and you will see this in the following video.
The beginning of this video will give you an idea of what proteins are.
[When he walks over to the screen, you may skip up to 2:35]


►Video he showed, if you want to see it.



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(4) 308b-310, Energy Use in the Body
Ectothermic Frog - warming up from the outside


Endothermic organisms need more food because they must maintain constant body temperature.





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(5) 311-312, Calories and Food
What is a calorie?
It is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water 1º Celcius.


Just keeping warm even burns a few calories.

Basal Metabolic Rate - BMR





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(6) 313, Metabolic Rates Throughout Creation

I could find no videos for this section.

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(7) 314-316, How Combustion Works in Living Organsims
I could find no videos about the combustion that occurs in cells, but I found plenty about Cellular Respiration.  [Review what was written up in Section 2 of this post.]
Nearly all the videos on Cellular Respiration are far too advanced for General Science, but I did find some that I could edit down to what I think you might be able to understand.
There are a few terms that aren't mentioned in your textbook, but I think you'll get it.
--One that is mentioned is ATP.  ATP is not energy itself, but basically molecules that are a storage place for energy.  Like an outlet is not electricity, but it can release electricity when needed.