On structures

Dear Parents,

Yesterday’s session was special. It was a perfect steam session and your kids were the stars!

We began reviewing polarity and what makes a molecule or part of a molecule hydrophilic or hydrophobic. We then took these properties to understand protein structure and orientation within the cytoplasm. We began with primary structure (the sequence), then discussed what common amino acids lead to alpha-helices and beta-sheets in secondary structure, and finally used 3D glasses to better understand tertiary and quaternary structures. The students then used modeling to better understand, where the objective was to creatively build their own protein, but label and explain the amino acids involved in making the folds the proteins exhibited. Although the students took a little while to get started, they eventually showed their knowledge of protein structure and even created their own amino acids with correct bonds and knowledge of common molecular structures.