In your notebook describe what you think happens when you eat sugar. Start with what happens in your mouth and follow the sugar through the body.

”how do different cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems work together when you eat something sweet?”

”how does your perception like taste depend on your biology?”

To explore the question, what happens when you eat sugar, we are going to try it out ourselves and monitor what we can tell about the process just from tasting. To add a bit of a twist, you will be taste testing water, lemon water, and syrup for comparison first without anything on your tongue (as a control) and then with your tongue either affected by toothpaste or miracle berry.

 in your group, get 3 paper cups - one with water, one with lemon water, and one with syrup. 

Taste Testing Control (No Miracle Berries Or Tooth Paste)

 of water, lemon water, and syrup and write down your findings in a table like the one below and label it 

Split your group down the middle into toothpaste tasters and miracle berry tasters.

put the miracle berry pill on your tongue and move it around until it dissolves coating the tongue. 

, it isn’t dangerous but the taste test won’t have any effect. 

Take a bead of toothpaste and coat your tongue in it. Rinse your mouth out with some water.

Now that your tongue is coated in either miracle berry or toothpaste, 

 of water, lemon water, and syrup and write down your findings in another table, similar to the one above but label it 

How Sugar Affects The Brain - Nicole Avena

Were you a miracle berry tester or a toothpaste tester? ___________________

Give an explanation as to what might be happening with your taste when you eat sugar.

Shapeshifting Protein Makes Sour Taste Sweet

Why Toothpaste Makes Everything Else Taste Bad

Draw, label, and explain a scientific model for what happens when you eat sugar. Use the following format in your notebook. 

Mars exploration at NASA "follows the water." Earlier missions had found that liquid water existed on Mars in the distant past. Perseverance’s older cousin, the Curiosity rover, explored the “habitability” of Mars. It found nutrients and energy sources that microbes could have used, and established that Mars indeed had regions that could have been friendly to life in the ancient past. Did life take hold on the Red Planet? Perseverance takes the next step by looking for the signs of past life itself.

Your goal is to make a plan for the Perseverance Rover to answer the question “is there life on Mars”. 

Your plan should include answers to the following:

→ what data should the Perseverance Rover collect to search for signs of life? 

→ what does evidence of life on mars look like? 

→ what food and nutrients should the Mars rover look for that are consumed by most life we know? 

Use what you know about the characteristics of life to make a mission plan for finding life on mars.

Searching For Life On Mars