unit 2 reflection                                                     Jake Beine

Unit 2 of this year was about Macromolecules, enzymes and enzyme features such as structure. In the beginning of this unit we learned about the different Macromolecules. The 4 main types of Macromolecules are lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and nucleic acids. Lipids are fats such as waxes and oils, proteins are things such as meat and milk, carbohydrates are foods such as wheat and bread and nucleic acids are edibles known as sugar. We learned what made up these foods, and what role enzymes had in the process. We learned how enzymes work and how they are put together. We also focused on the components of an enzyme such as the substrate, the product and the active site. We began to understand the structure of enzymes and how they process. Along with enzymes we did a lab helping us to better grasp the concept of how they work. We learned how enzymes contribute to the creation of cheese and tested it out ourselves by making cheese of our own. During this experiment we also learned a lot about things that can affect how enzymes work, such as pH level and temperature. Our understandings on this also helped us to understand how enzymes become denatured and unable to work properly. This unit taught me a lot about my everyday life that i didn't already know. It helps me to better understand the importance of food and the enzymes that work along with those foods.