Definitions of the Chemistry of Life

Biochemistry is a difficult subject for both student and teacher. 

As a student, I can say chemistry is difficult and biochemistry as part of the umbrella of chemistry is especially difficult. Chemistry is a combination of science and math which I consider to be complex subjects. I used to enter a chemistry class or look at a periodic table with increasing anxiety. Since, we began looking at chemistry through a lens of how it is part of our everyday and how it may impact our future, my perspective has changed. When I think of chemistry now, I feel a sense of wonder, empowerment, and confusion. If its taken me decades to reach a place of comfortable confusion and wonder. All the while seeing it as a difficult subject matter, how does a teacher see it as difficult. I am not even an ammeter but a teacher is at some level of mastery. I don't understand the difficulty with the subject matter from the teachers perspective. Does their difficulty with the subject matter stem from its capacity to evolve? If not, what is it?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts on Week 8 Class Discussion

When we were discussing the Alkaline diet, my mind kept drifting back to our discussion on color rich foods. I noticed many of the slightly-moderately acidic foods were beige, brown, and tan. The foods in the alkaline category encompassed a variety of colors within each ph range. I realized the two are connected as in most things in life. This means I don't need to know the ph of every food I eat. If I eat a well balanced meal with multiple colors of the rainbow with a hint of beige/tan/brown then I am doing pretty well. I like having the list on hand as an easy cheat sheet for my most recent grocery shopping trip. I picked at least one food in each category and intentionally bought items which were different colors. I will begin meal prep after class today and see how I feel after the end of the week. I can report back via this blog on what I did and how I feel. I love being my own test subject :)
Read more

Chem - HW#2

During class we read an article called "Are you Eating Monsanto weed killer for breakfast." It really opened my eyes to how bioaccumalation of pesticides is affecting us. The study performed by the Alliance for Natural Health showed trace amounts of synthetic pesticides in pre-packaged breakfast foods and grains. This wasn't surprising to me because in the back of my mind I believe none of those items benefit my health. The shocker was "the amount detected in cage-free organic eggs actually exceeded the allowable limit under FDA guidelines." This means the chickens are eating so much corn and feed with synthetic pesticides that their bodies have accumulated more than the regulated amount. I never considered how the synthetic pesticides are getting into the animals and for chickens this means its getting into their eggs. I realized I am likely ingesting more chemicals and synthetic pesticides than I am aware. I currently only buy pasture raised eggs, but I have n...
Read more

Thoughts of Week 3 Class Discussion

As many of our class discussions go, we were on the up and optimistic for our class discussion. One things that stood out to me was how little I know about what to do with my own waste and more importantly my view on what waste is terrifyingly narrow. I originally thought of waste as items which are molded, broken beyond repair, and used paper/plastic/electronics products. In the middle of our discussion I started thinking of everything in my bathroom, under my sinks, and whats gets disposed of during a move out. I thought of my nail polish, toxic makeup, bath products, cleaning products, single use containers, expired herbal patents, and more. It's appalling about how much waste I currently have and do not know what to do with.  This lead me to do some research and I found more information on how to dispose of hazard waste, but I am still unsure on how to dispose of items which arent quite labeled as hazardous waste such as: makeup and nail polish.
Read more