fandomhigh | Biology, Tuesday, 9/12, Period 2

Elliot grins at the class as they file in, and four lab stations are arranged in the back of the room.

"Hi, guys. We need to do a little bit of chemistry this week before we get into the serious biology. The kind of chemistry used in biology is called biochemistry, or the chemistry of life. There's a whole long chapter in your books about it, but basically it's the study of the chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Since life forms alive today are believed to have descended from the same common ancestor, they naturally have similar biochemistries -- even for things you'd think might be random, like the genetic code or handedness of various biomolecules.

"Biochemistry is the study of the structure and function of cellular components, such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, and other biomolecules. The biochemistry of cell metabolism and the endocrine system has been extensively described. Other areas of biochemistry include the genetic code -- DNA and RNA -- protein synthesis, cell membrane transport, and signal transduction.

"Today, you're going to split into four groups of three. Each group will test an everyday food for three common kinds of organic molecules -- sugars, proteins and fats. Before you do that, let me show you the experiments you need to do to test for those things."

She proceeded to manipulate a series of vials through experiments to test for sugars, proteins, and fats before waving the students back to the lab tables. " Each group should test one kind of food. I'm not going to assign groups this week, but I might start to in the future. Let me know what you guys would prefer."

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Zack went over to workstation I.

"Hey, Zack," Willow said. "Want help?"

"Hey, Willow," Zack replied. "Sure. Which test do you think we should try first?"

"Sugars," Willow said. "I could use the rush."

"Busy weekend?" Zack asked. "Right, sugars, we need Benedict's reagent for that."

"Not enough caffiene in my system yet," Willow replied. She looked for the Benedict's. "How's things with you?"

"Quiet, mostly, " he said. "Although somehow I ended up TA for Dr Covington's class by questioning her lack of scientific bias."

"Maybe she likes a challenge?" Willow suggested. She smiled proudly. "I'm the TA for this class. So far no badge to go with the honor though."

"Maybe. She certainly liked setting us a challenge." Zack smiled back. "Congratulations. We get badges?"

"I feel we should," Willow said. "Or maybe a little sign."

Zack nodded. "How else are they supposed to know we're TAs?"

"Exactly!" Willow said, pleased to find someone who understood. "Sure there's that extra air of coolness that we carry but for some reason some people don't pick up on that."

"Which is their loss," Zack replied. "Since we can't share our TAly wisdom with them."

"Which means they are so screwed in the extra credit department," Willow said, nodding.

"All the more for us then."

"Are there extra credit limits?"

"I don't know, but there could be."

"If nothing else I suppose there's the joy of knowing you got that much of a higher grade," Willow pointed out. "Compared to the non-extra credity types."