Biology 101: Biomolecule boredom

Lecture 6

I think my class reached new lows in boredom today. I need to figure out how to make carbohydrates, nucleic acids, proteins and lipids exciting (maybe it's not possible). I spent a lot of time talking about amino acids, monosaccharides, fatty acids and nucleotides and how they are formed into polymers that make up most biomolecules. I think the way to do it for non-biologists is to cut back on the actual chemical structures (which is what the textbook spends a fair amount of time on) and spend more time talking about what each group does in the human body. For example, what happens to sugar when you eat it? What happens to protein? What happens to lipid? You could also talk about things that are made out of each component. Your hair and nails are made out of proteins, your muscles are high in protein with some lipids and some carbohydrate stored as glycogen. My biggest problem here is that I haven't taken human biology since high school. It's definitely an area I will need to study.

So if you weren't a biologist what would you most want to know about carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and nucleic acids? How do you convey some fundamental information and still make it relevant to someone who doesn't really need to know the difference between a hydrophobic and a hydrophilic amino acid? Or do you just make them learn facts knowing that they will probably never use them after they take your final?