Monday, November 29, 2010

Energy Drinks and Cellular Respiration

Where do we living things get our energy from? Food of course which is broken down from the large polymers (carbohydrates, fats, or proteins) into their monomers. All of these monomers can then some how make their way into the Krebs or Citric Acid Cycle within the mitochondria of the cell. But is that the only way to get energy? What do students think? What about these Energy Drinks that are marketed and targeted especially at the age group I teach (high school)? Well let's take a look. A great web quest I found is called "A Can of Bull." It is a case study into a variety of products, their ingredients and how they work. Great place to start them looking, thinking, and talking about the use or misuse of Energy Drink Products.
I plan to follow up the web quest with having them research, read, and summarize a current event article about some aspect of energy drinks (health effects, marketing, regulating, etc). Then we will sit down for a Fishbowl discussion to share their findings and debate the topic.