PURPOSE
What are the differences in the structures of some common carbohydrates? What are the differences in texture and taste of different carbohydrates? How does their structure affect their characteristics?
MATERIALS
More materials: Petri dishes, 60 X 15 mm sterile
Plastic spoons
Paper Cups
Tap Water
Plastic spoons
Paper Cups
Tap Water
PROCEDURE
Part I:
1. Us the internet to find some pictures of the structures for each molecule. Also learn the function.
2. Put those structural pictures on your page.
2. Put those structural pictures on your page.
Part II:
1. Use a different spoon for each type of carbohydrate and make a small mound of each on a clean surface.
2. Touch your clean finger to the mound then to your tongue. Base the sweetness on a scale of 100 being the sweetness. Based on their structure predict the oder of sweetest to least sweet.
3. Describe their textures.
4. Put all this data in a table.
2. Touch your clean finger to the mound then to your tongue. Base the sweetness on a scale of 100 being the sweetness. Based on their structure predict the oder of sweetest to least sweet.
3. Describe their textures.
4. Put all this data in a table.
DATA
Predictions Data:
1. Fructose
2. Sucrose
3. Glucose
4. Galactose
5. Lactose
6. Maltose
7. Cellulose
8. Starch
(Sweetest being #1 and least sweet #8)
2. Sucrose
3. Glucose
4. Galactose
5. Lactose
6. Maltose
7. Cellulose
8. Starch
(Sweetest being #1 and least sweet #8)
Recorded Data:
Conclusion/Analysis
The differences in the structures of common carbohydrates is the amount of sugar rings they have. Some of the carbohydrates are really sweet and some are very bland. Their texture is either powder like or granular. The structure can affect their characteristics greatly. We noticed that the more sugar rings means the less sweet and more powder like, vise versa for the least sugar rings.
1. Sucrose, Glucose, and Fructose were the sweetest. The number of sugar rings appears to effect the sweetness because the ones with less rings are sweeter, with the exception of glucose.
2. It seems like the grain sugars have less sugar rings and the powder ones have more rings.
3. Not all of us gave the same score for the sweetness. This could be because we took different amounts of sugar, our taste receptors are not all the same, and because the sugar may have not covered as much of the tongues surface for one person as another. Also, people mindset could have an effect, we are not all thinking the same thing and the judging exactly the same.
4. The structurally similar ones do have similar characteristics. The sugars with the same amount of rings are not similar to each other and the ones with multiple rings are similar to themselves.
In this lab we experienced error and success. The biggest error was our personal human error. We could not all give the same exact sweetness measurement because it is relative to what you believe is sweet and because we may not have consumed similar portions or have them same taste receptors. The only part of this we could fix is we could have a more precise measuring tool to measure the amount of the sugar we put on our tongue, but we can not really fix our judgement or taste receptors. We however did perform everything else perfectly. We used the correct spoons for each sugar and kept the mounds perfectly separated.
An extension to this lab might be testing the sugars in more ways to learn more of their characteristics and see how their structure affects them. We could perform test with other chemicals and to see how it reacts. This way we could group and better understand these carbohydrates.
1. Sucrose, Glucose, and Fructose were the sweetest. The number of sugar rings appears to effect the sweetness because the ones with less rings are sweeter, with the exception of glucose.
2. It seems like the grain sugars have less sugar rings and the powder ones have more rings.
3. Not all of us gave the same score for the sweetness. This could be because we took different amounts of sugar, our taste receptors are not all the same, and because the sugar may have not covered as much of the tongues surface for one person as another. Also, people mindset could have an effect, we are not all thinking the same thing and the judging exactly the same.
4. The structurally similar ones do have similar characteristics. The sugars with the same amount of rings are not similar to each other and the ones with multiple rings are similar to themselves.
In this lab we experienced error and success. The biggest error was our personal human error. We could not all give the same exact sweetness measurement because it is relative to what you believe is sweet and because we may not have consumed similar portions or have them same taste receptors. The only part of this we could fix is we could have a more precise measuring tool to measure the amount of the sugar we put on our tongue, but we can not really fix our judgement or taste receptors. We however did perform everything else perfectly. We used the correct spoons for each sugar and kept the mounds perfectly separated.
An extension to this lab might be testing the sugars in more ways to learn more of their characteristics and see how their structure affects them. We could perform test with other chemicals and to see how it reacts. This way we could group and better understand these carbohydrates.
Reflection
I found this lab to be very interesting and tasty. Fructose was especially pleasing for my taste buds, however cellulose and starch were rather bland and disgusting. I found it fascinating that the chemical structure affects the taste. I never knew this. It reminds me how cool science is because it is in our everyday life even in things as simple as sugar. I learned in this lab that it is important to know that everyone may not have the same judgement and to analyze your data with your models to find patterns and answers.
My partners were Kyle Rockwell, Garret Hoefer, Brain Blaire, and Brandon Kelly. We all cooperated very well together. everyone got a taste of every sugar and we debated our judge on the sweetness before writing down our final answer. That was really important to compare what we though of the sweetness so that a better answer could be made.
My partners were Kyle Rockwell, Garret Hoefer, Brain Blaire, and Brandon Kelly. We all cooperated very well together. everyone got a taste of every sugar and we debated our judge on the sweetness before writing down our final answer. That was really important to compare what we though of the sweetness so that a better answer could be made.