Biology

This project was a cookbook that showed our newly gained knowledge of nutrition and macromolecules. The students had just finished a unit on the four main macromolecules in food, and were demonstrating how these macromolecules are digested and used in the body. On the wellness side, the students had to find a recipe, make it healthier, and then cook it. The pictures inside the book were provided by students. The purpose of this project was to reduce obesity. The recipes had to be trimmed of excess calories and approved by the lovely unnamed wellness teacher. Included in the project were several things; two recipes from each student, a picture of each cooked recipe, a picture of each student with the cooked food (not included in the final product), a theme for the book, and a scientific principle from each student with an illustration of their principle. My group deviated on a few occasions, such as one student only needing to include one recipe and no illustration, and another student not needing a scientific principle.

The process of completing the cookbook required a long process with much knowledge. The beginning of the project was cooking the food and taking a photo. Next, we inserted the recipes and pictures into the PowerPoint file. After that, the scientific principles and illustrations were completed and inserted. Once a title page, front cover, table of contents, and about the author sections were inserted, feedback was given several times from teachers and other students, with many revisions along the way. From biology I learned what kind of molecules are in food; carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. I learned what I need to survive and why. The four main macromolecules give the body the essentials to carry on with cellular functions. From wellness/fitness I learned all about obesity, and why it is such a health hazard. From high blood pressure to coronary heart disease, the knowledge gave the students a reason to help prevent obesity from spreading.

As with everything, there were ups and downs with this project. The best thing I learned from this project is the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats. Saturated fats are solid fats that clog arteries, while unsaturated fats are liquids that flow easily. I felt accomplished for increasing my knowledge of what goes through my blood every day. The greatest challenge throughout the project was keeping everything consistent. With over thirty pages, there is a lot that can go wrong. There were so many font size and color inconsistencies that that was the majority of the editing process. I feel most proud of my recipe pictures because they turned out so good. I tried to make them seem appetizing and ready to eat, and I think I did that well.

A DRSS quality that I used a lot of was persistence. I used persistence during the innumerable drafts and revisions that needed to be made to get this project spotless. There were so many revisions of the little things like changing font size, so without persistence, I simply would’ve exploded. All explosions aside, I also used collaboration. Collaboration was used during the combining of multiple PowerPoint slides into a single file. The entire team needed to collaborate to get the theme and style the same.