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1 October 2015 Exploring Carbohydrates with Bananas
Dawn A. Tamarkin
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Abstract

Bananas can be used in many classroom lab activities to make carbohydrates easier for students to understand. I detail a simple series of banana activities that can be used to investigate carbohydrates across a wide range of levels of organization and that serve to connect carbohydrate concepts that might otherwise seem disparate to students. For example, the taste of a banana is linked to carbohydrate hydrolysis, as well as to organelle content within banana cells. Bananas can be used safely in any classroom, and inquiry-based learning can be used to progress through related course content. In addition, students will gain expertise in understanding cells viewed through the microscope as they try to examine the starch in the bananas.

©2015 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Reprints and Permissions web page, www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p=reprints.
Dawn A. Tamarkin "Exploring Carbohydrates with Bananas," The American Biology Teacher 77(8), 620-623, (1 October 2015). https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2015.77.8.9
Published: 1 October 2015
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KEYWORDS
amyloplasts
carbohydrates
Cells
dehydration synthesis
Glucose
hydrolysis
Inquiry
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