Week 3 · Readings & resources

Week 3 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Biology Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 3 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 64–73 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (20–22 min total)

① Building chains and sorting the four classes

Chapter 3, Section “Build and break: monomers, polymers, and water” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Building and breaking chains with water” · Remember: cells build a chain by removing one water per bond and break it by adding the water back.

Monomers and Polymers: Dehydration Synthesis and Hydrolysis — David Bird Science — a short whiteboard-style walk through how monomers join by dehydration synthesis and come apart by hydrolysis; each time a bond forms or breaks, say out loud whether water leaves or enters. (video, 6 min) (captions: automatic)
Biological Molecules - You Are What You Eat: Crash Course Biology #3 — CrashCourse — a fast, lively episode on carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins and the foods we find them in; it uses more chemical detail than the chapter, so hold on to the building blocks and the jobs and let the extra structures go by. (video, 14 min) (captions: creator)
The Four Biomolecule Families: Carbs, Lipids, Proteins, Nucleic Acids — sciencemusicvideos — a compact tour of all four families, including nucleic acids, with each family's monomer and job; pause after each family and check it against the chapter's table of the four classes. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)
How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label — U.S. Food and Drug Administration — the official guide to the food label; read the Nutrients section and find the lines for total carbohydrate, fat, and protein, three of the four classes, and notice that dietary fiber is listed under carbohydrate. Use it while working through the Week-3 module overview. (reading, 6–9 min)

② Fats, oils, and folded proteins

Chapter 3, Section “Build proteins and fold them in four levels” · Session 2, Segment 5, “Proteins and their four levels” · Remember: a protein's job depends on its fold, and denaturation loses the fold but keeps the sequence.

Lipids — RicochetScience — a short overview of triglycerides, phospholipids, and steroids, plus waxes, which the chapter leaves out; watch for why a triglyceride is not a chain of one repeating monomer. Stop at the phospholipid's role in the membrane; next week takes up how the membrane is built. (video, 6 min) (captions: creator)
Protein Structure - Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, & Quarternary — The Organic Chemistry Tutor — a brief run through the four levels of protein structure in order; it names the bonds at each level in more detail than the chapter, so focus on the order and on what each level adds. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)
What are Proteins? — Learn.Genetics — a short illustrated page on how 20 kinds of amino acid fold into proteins with very different jobs and how proteins change shape as they work; it builds on Week 2's idea that bonds and water decide how molecules behave. (reading, 2–3 min)

③ Structure determines function: one amino acid, one iodine color

Chapter 3, Section “See one amino acid change the job: sickle cell disease” · Session 2, Segment 6, “One amino acid, one changed job” · Remember: the order of amino acids is information, so one change can alter the fold and break the job.

Sickle cell disease — MedlinePlus Genetics — a plain-language health reference page; read the Description and Causes sections to see how hemoglobin and its beta-globin chains connect to the sickle shape, and skip the inheritance details, which the course takes up later. (reading, 4–6 min)
Molecule of the Month: Hemoglobin — PDB-101 — an illustrated feature on the hemoglobin molecule and its four chains; read the opening section and the section on troubled hemoglobins, where the sickle cell change in the beta chain is described, and skim the rest. (reading, 6–8 min)
Iodine Test for Starch: How Amylase Breaks It Down! — Faction Education — a bench demonstration of iodine turning blue-black on starch and of the color fading as amylase digests the starch; it is the cracker on your tongue, run in test tubes, and a good preview of this week's lab. (video, 7 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Amino Acids — National Human Genome Research Institute Talking Glossary — the course's free glossary of genetic terms, open at its entry for amino acids; read the definition and the short narration text, and skip the related-term links about genes, which come later in the course. (reading, 1–2 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

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