10.24.2008 - classroom reflection

[Sean Nash]

Post your reflection from today's class session... our breakdown & discussion of carbohydrates, the connection to diet plans, the role & behaviors of the various classes of carbohydrates in human health, the post-it synthesis of table sugar, etc... What stuck out to you as particularly interesting or important? What did you or we learn from those things? Did anything you previously thought get changed in any way?

Also- think about it... October 24th and this was really the first time we played with a version of "direct instruction" of any sort. What are your thoughts?

[Amy]

I agree with the diet plan that we discussed, but only if you have a lot of weight. It could be used to get you skinny, eating away your fat. Then, when you lost all of the weight, you could stop strictly avoiding carbs, exercising with your new-found energy, eating healthy, and it would be easier for you to keep the weight off. It could be used to loose the weight, but don't do it for the rest of your life. It would mess your system up if you went of the diet, got skinny, and kept using it for the next 5 years, only to finally give in and have those carbs that you have been craving forever. Then you gain weight faster than a McDonalds diet would get you normally. Your body would take the carbs and go crazy with them, after living on fat.


I remember doing the sugar molecule diagrams now, from the past, but when we did the drawings on the little boards in our last class, I was lost. When we had this section my freshmen year I didn't pay a whole lot of attention. I didn't understand it, but now that I'm a little older and smarter, it is easier to grasp.


It was easier for me to listen while you taught, probably because that is what we're used to and have grown up with. Instead of me trying to guess what we were going to learn next, I had it given to me and that was easier. I could lean back and soad it all in. I learned a lot today.

[Kaylee Burris]

I learned that carbohydrates and fats are two completly different things. Also that you need carbohydrtes in everyday life and its weird that the Atkins diet tells you not to eat them at all (that would be one hard thing to cut out completly). Also it was interesting to learn that carbohydrates are all saccharides with a differest beginning to tell you what kind it is (mono:one, di:two, and poly:more than two). I have also never made one of those chart things like we did with: glucose, fructose, and sucrose. I also thought that all the sugars having the same chemical compound was really interesting, and how all you had to do was rearrange it to make it completly different. I like how we always do class, but it was fun to mix it up a bit. For us "anal" people ,as you say, it was easier to write notes over it. All in all I think I learned a lot in a hour and a half.

[Ryne Relford]

I learned that there are more kinds of sugar than just glucose, and that each one has a different level of sweetness. I also learned that carbohydrates and fats are two different things. I thought that carbohydrates turned into fat if your body didn't use them for energy.

About the diet thing I really don't like diets because you can lose weight and still have an unhealthy body, because you are depriving your body of important things like carbohydrates or proteins. So a diet like the Atkins Diet can help you lose weight but at the same time you aren't getting somthing that your body needs. So having a workout plan with a balanced diet would be a better idea.

I thought "direct instruction," was good because it wasn't boring, you told us somthing and then explained with somthing we were familiar with. I feel that I learned a lot in this class period.

[Rachel Huntsman]

Before our class on Friday I didn't really understand a whole lot about sugars and how complex they really are. I thought it was neat to learn what exactly a monosaccharide, disaccharide, and polysaccharide was. Each of their characteristics make more sense, as well as how they work together to make more sugars. Learning these new specific things makes carbohydrates more understandable, because before I didn't even realize that carbs were actually sugars.
I liked how we drew glucose and fructose on the post-it notes and could then see how they bonded to make a disaccharide. Monomers and polymers make more sense too because of how they are linked and also broken down.
I think that this was a good topic to actually have "direct instruction" because there were so many little things and pieces that fit together that needed to be explained in detail. I know I wouldn't have been able to understand these things on my own or be taught by someone else in class how it works (no offense to my classmates). It just seemed like this was complex stuff, and it makes more sense if someone who is well versed in it teaches it.

[MIchelle]

In my opinion whoever wrote the article for the atkins diet was RETARDED. haha. I also think that diets that try to cut out carbs completely are crazy. Now that i know how carbs work, it just doesn't make sense to me that people think they can go with out them. I really didn't know that carbs were the body's fuel.

Also our breakdown of sugar and glucose. I didn't understand how it was set up, but after the diagram, notes, and explanation it makes a lot more sense, and it gives me a better understanding of the things i put in my mouth!

[kristen sheehan]

I really liked our discussion last class period. I know that now that carbohydrates are something you need, rather than something some diet says you need to cut out. If I were to go on that diet, I know I would look like a balloon. You really with any diet, after someone gets off of it they gain the weight back, not all the time, but sometimes.

I always thought of sugar just being the stuff I put in my tea. You know that stuff that makes everything taste sweeter. But now I know that there are many different "levels", I guess of sugar. I had heard of the term monosaccharide and polysaccharide before but really I just thought they were something I'd never learn about.

I also think it's cool how different people who are involved in different activities need different types of sugar. Like runners need polysaccharides, people who are semi-active need disaccharides, and people who are not very active need monosaccharies, all of this has to do with the rate at which you are going to burn energy. It would be stupid for a runner to eat something before a meet that isn't going to stay with them.

You cleared a lot up for me Mr. and Mrs. Nash... again!

[Sean Nash]

You are too sweet. However, remind me Tuesday to touch on this one:

"I also think it's cool how different people who are involved in different activities need different types of sugar. Like runners need polysaccharides, people who are semi-active need disaccharides, and people who are not very active need monosaccharies,..."

There are a couple of misconceptions here. Nothing that won't be easily cleared up, I think.
;-)

[Erin McAndrews]

I didn't really realize there were so many different types of sugars. I've gone through my life just thinking there's just one type of sugar and that it wasn't really all that complex. I just thought, "Oh, sugars make you hyper and give you energy," but really they are more than that. I also thought that carbohydrates contributed to making people overweight.

I liked the "direct instruction" for this topic. I would normally say that I don't like learning from "direct instruction," but I honestly think I wouldn't have learned as much if you taught this topic in a different way. For something complicated like this, I think "direct instruction" would work best.

[Taylor Snider]

I learned a lot about the lesson. One thing was that there are more types of sugar out there that i didn't know about. Some of them give u short bursts of energy while the others steadily release the energy. The diet plan we read about said to not eat carbohydrates, but that sounds really hard to do. I mean carbohydrates are what keep your body going so it would be dumb to cut them off.

I really liked the "direct instruction" because it helped me understand the lesson a lot better. The drawings were helpful too.

[Abby Lucas]

I thought learning about the carbs was confusing. I got most of it, but I spaced off a couple of time and WHAM, I was lost. You announced to the class the difference between fruits and veggies. That was most interesting. And sad. So on Veggie Tales...some of them are fruit?

I've always been curious about the different "-ose" endings. I usually look at the ingredients of the food I'm eating completely out of boredom (it's not like I understand it...) But I guess I'll understand some of it now. I had no idea we would be learning about water and sugar stuff in biology. I guess I thought it was more...the study of life and not the study of how life works. Which was stupid to think.

I'm not very fond of the whole "direct instruction" thing. It was too much like every other class that I have to sit through. I prefer the previous way. However, I think it would be harder to understand with the previous way because it's a type of knowledge passed from one to another and not so much from trying to understand alone.

[Chris Michaels]

well everything has been pretty much summed up but, I personally liked the direct instruction from class friday. i thought this subject could probably not been taught any other way. Well and understood.but i haven't seen anyone say anything about the amazing discovery we all found out on Friday.... We have all been mis-lead by our past science instructors... Corn, Green Beans, And PEANUTS people PEANUTS are fruits they are fruits how amazing and disturbing is it to know that we have been wrong all this time in our life and as juniors and seniors we find out.....

[Sean Nash]

ha.... you're killing me.

;-)