The Gymnema Taste Lab and the Signal Transduction Pathway

When it comes to understanding cell communication and the signal transduction pathway, the Gymnema Tea Taste lab has become a class favorite. Of course, I first heard about this lab through my favorite source of ideas, the National AP Biology Teachers facebook group. You can find the write up for the lab at the Biology Corner here.

Last year, the lab happened to land on Grandparents' Day at our school. On that day, I not only had my students, but also many of their grandparents. I modified the lab to shorten it to the basics so I could hand the grandparents a one sheet lab that allowed them to also participate. This lab handout is here. The grandparents LOVED it! After the tasting, I handed students chalk markers to sketch out the signal transduction pathway on their tables with their grandparents.

I do think what tea you buy is important. The fist tea I bought did not work, but I've had great success with Buddha teas. I think part of the reason for success is having 100% gymnema sylvestra tea vs. just 48% gymnema.

This worked great for me, consistent results every time.

This did not work for me, even when I concentrated it.

One year, I had an exceptionally adventurous class. After they tried all of the foods I had provided in the lab, they went to their lunchboxes and tried bananas, strawberries and raspberries just to see what it would do with natural (unprocessed sugars). They were pleased to see that it really did work on fruits too. We also counted papillae after dying their tongues blue. As you can see in the picture, they were good sports about everything!