Biochemistry Functional Groups Activity for High School Biology

This lesson really helped my students learn their functional groups in a fun way! In this visual lesson titled "Scariest Worksheet Ever", students color code alcohol, sulfhydryl, amine, and carboxyl groups on a "scary" worksheet full of monomers that they may not yet recognize. Some schools are moving towards teaching more biochemistry in their introductory biology courses and this is especially true in honors biology courses. Students often struggle to be able to identify structures. Before students can recognize monomers of carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, and proteins, they must be able to recognize functional groups like alcohol, sulfhydryl, amino, and carboxyl groups.

I call this worksheet “The Scariest Worksheet Ever” because initially when I hand it out, that is the first thing every student thinks! It does look really scary at first. But as students search through the structures to find, circle, and color code each functional group, it becomes a lot less scary! After it is colored in, it serves as a terrific visual study guide for my students!

Functional Groups Studied in this Worksheet:
Alcohol/Hydroxyl Groups, Amino Groups, Aldehyde and Ketone Groups, Phosphate Groups, Carboxyl Groups, Sulfhydryl Groups


The worksheet is one page long. Teacher Instructions and an Answer Key Page are included!

Looking for some hands-on activities to help make your biochemistry unit more exciting? Try my Biochemistry with Beads, Pipe Cleaners, and Paper Clips Activity Bundle!

Would you like homework pages to help your students review what they've learned in class? Check out my Biochemistry Unit Homework Pages here.

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