One of the (many) things my AS students struggle with is drawing biological molecules correctly. And even I often have to refer to my notes when drawing monosaccharides (though I never have a problem with amino acids or triglycerides). Well, with this simple aide-memoire, my students will never forget the structure of D-glucose:
This shows the direction of the hydroxyls when the D-glucose molecule is in a linear form, as shown:
Now, when I teach the structure of glucose, we mostly look at α-D-glucose, which has the structure:
So, I need to be able to adapt it a little. Turns out it's quite easy.
The fingers correspond to the hydroxyl groups on carbons 4, 3, 2 and 1. So for α-glucose, they need to raise their left hands and flip me the bird. They'll like that.
I might have to warn the invigilators before their Biological Molecules exam though. Don't want the little darlings to get kicked out for swearing at one of my colleagues...
This shows the direction of the hydroxyls when the D-glucose molecule is in a linear form, as shown:
Now, when I teach the structure of glucose, we mostly look at α-D-glucose, which has the structure:
So, I need to be able to adapt it a little. Turns out it's quite easy.
The fingers correspond to the hydroxyl groups on carbons 4, 3, 2 and 1. So for α-glucose, they need to raise their left hands and flip me the bird. They'll like that.
I might have to warn the invigilators before their Biological Molecules exam though. Don't want the little darlings to get kicked out for swearing at one of my colleagues...
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