Molecules of Life Collection^© Teacher Resources

The Molecules of Life Collection^© is a molecular model set featuring plaster models of the 4 main categories of large molecules found in all living things (biomolecules): carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.

Use the Molecules of Life Placemat and the accompanying models to explore the following concepts:

• Each of the structures featured is essential to sustain life.
• Large biological polymers are composed of smaller building block monomers.
• The biomolecules featured on the placemat and accompanying models are magnified 20 million times.
• The size of atoms remains constant in all molecules. For example, oxygen (shown in red) remains the same size whether it is in a nucleotide, amino acid, starch, phospholipid or water.

Each polymer model has 1 monomer highlighted in green to help your students see the repeating pattern. For example, the DNA model has 1 nucleotide colored green and cellulose model has 1 glucose molecule colored green.