3/28: Energy

Do We Actually BURN Calories??

Have you heard that term before? We "burn" the calories we eat, or maybe you have heard someone say they are "burning fat" when they exercise. What does this mean? Is burning food the same thing as burning a piece of paper? We will take a closer look at this today!

So far in this unit we have learned that the foods we eat contain energy, but we still need to understand HOW exactly our body gets energy from food. Today we will compare the food in our body to the fuel in a car. We will light some food on fire to try and track the inputs and outputs. Finally, we will get ready for a lab next class by using models to build an ethanol molecule. It's a fun, busy day!

NOTE: We took the Unit 5 Quiz today! If you were absent, please schedule a time to complete this quiz during 1st lunch or after school.

Next class we will be writing procedures to determine what the outputs are when ethanol is burned. This will help us to understand how macromolecules in our bodies are transformed, and how energy is released in our cells.