Week 5 · Readings & resources

Week 5 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Biology Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 5 (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 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 68–74 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 (20–20 min total)

① What energy is, and the rules it follows

Chapter 5, Section “Follow the two laws of thermodynamics” · Session 1, Segment 2, “The two laws of thermodynamics” · Remember: energy is moved and changed but never made, and every transfer loses some as heat.

What is energy? — Science Learning Hub — a short illustrated page on energy as the capacity to do work, with kinetic and potential forms and how one turns into the other; skip the details on measuring energy in joules, which this course does not use. Use it while working through the Week-5 module overview. (reading, 3–5 min)
Why Are You Alive – Life, Energy & ATP — Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell — a vivid animated tour of why staying alive means spending energy without pause, and how ATP carries that energy around a cell; listen for how it ties staying alive to the laws of physics. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)
Chemical Reactions in Biology: Crash Course Biology #26 — CrashCourse — one episode that runs through most of this week in order: what energy is, the laws of thermodynamics, ATP, exergonic and endergonic reactions, enzymes, and pathways; pause after each part and say it in the chapter's words. (video, 13 min) (captions: creator)

② ATP and how an enzyme works

Chapter 5, Section “Lower the hill: how an enzyme works” · Session 2, Segment 5, “How an enzyme works” · Remember: an enzyme lowers the activation-energy hill without moving the start or the end, and it comes out unchanged.

ATP: Adenosine Triphosphate — Bozeman Science — a calm walk through ATP's three parts, how splitting off a phosphate to make ADP releases energy, and the jobs ATP pays for; the chapter does not cover its closing part on where ATP is made and its ancient history, so treat that as extra. This builds on Week 4's sodium-potassium pump, which spends ATP to move ions. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)
Catalysing chemical reactions with enzymes — Science Learning Hub — a plain-language article on enzymes as protein catalysts, the energy barrier they lower, the active site, and why an enzyme is not used up; compare its lock-and-key wording with the chapter's two models. (reading, 4–6 min)
How Enzymes Work (from PDB-101) — RCSBProteinDataBank — a short animation built from real protein structures that follows one enzyme, step by step, as its active site grips a substrate and speeds a reaction; the enzyme it shows belongs to a pathway the chapter does not cover, so focus on the active site. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
Enzymes — Bozeman Science — a longer whiteboard-style explainer of the active site and its lock-and-key fit, with catalase breaking down hydrogen peroxide as its example and a section on cofactors and coenzymes; it adds two kinds of inhibition the chapter leaves out, so treat those as extra. (video, 12 min) (captions: creator)

③ Temperature, denaturation, and the catalase lab

Chapter 5, Section “Read the catalase experiment from start to finish” · Session 2, Segment 9, “The catalase experiment” · Remember: an enzyme's rate rises to a peak and then crashes, because heat denatures it while cold only slows it.

Catalase — PDB-101 Molecule of the Month — a short profile of the enzyme behind this week's foam, which splits hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen; notice the iron held at each active site, a helper of the kind the chapter calls a cofactor. (reading, 3–4 min)
Enzymes Experiment - The effect of temperature on catalase in liver. — Science with Mr. Knight — a classroom run of the liver version of this week's lab, testing catalase at several temperatures; watch how the setup holds everything but temperature steady, and name the independent and dependent variables as it goes. (video, 7 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Enzyme — National Human Genome Research Institute Talking Glossary — the course's free glossary of genetic terms, open at its entry for enzymes; read the definition and the short narration text, and skip the related-term links, which reach beyond this week. (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.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com