Introduction to Human Biology 

Course: BIOQ 1099 

Instructor: Lee Beavington 

One-sentence summary: 

Students bring in the ingredient list of a food item they consume and connect the ingredients to the study of macromolecules and nutrition.  

For the nutrition unit, students brought in a food that they regularly eat. They were asked to study the ingredients list. They pinpointed the ingredient that was least familiar to them (typically something very long and hyphenated, such as L-Lysine monohydrochloride). Then they were asked to research this specific item, and classify it according to the four groupings of organic macromolecules: carbohydrates, protein, fats, and nucleic acids (being DNA, all plant and animal food has this!). This allowed them to be more discerning about the food they eat, the source of their food, and how it connects to the study of biology and human nutrition.  

Also of note: we learned how often we eat ingredients whose origin we know nothing about.