Title: Toothpickase Enzyme Lab
Background information:
Enzymes are Proteins. Enzymes control the rate of reactions. Enzymes lower the required activation energy so less energy is needed to start the activation of a reaction. Enzymes are reusable. Enzymes are specific to the substrate. Enzymes are also called catalysts. A catalyst is a factor that controls the rate of reaction without itself being used up. Enzymes have an active site that the substrate will bind. This active site is specific to the substrate. When the substrate binds to the active site on the enzyme, the reaction begins.
Problem: We are testing what the rate of product in an enzyme facilitated reaction.
Vocabulary:
Enzyme:______
Substrate:______
Catalyst:______
Hydrolysis:______
Hypothesis: If ______
Materials: (do not write, just read)
100 toothpicks 1 bowl Stop watch Pencil Spiral notebook
Jobs: (do not write, just read)
Timer: keep track of tell, inform the group at 10,20,30,60,120, 180 second time intervals.
Recorder: record substrate (whole toothpicks) broken in half by the enzyme person, Toothpickase. Fill out data table.
Counter: Count the number of substrate (whole toothpicks) broken by Toothpickase. Tell Recorder so it will written in the data table.
Toothpickase: Enzyme person breaking substrate (toothpicks) in half
Constants:
1. Toothpickase cannot rebreak a substrate (toothpick)
2. Toothpickase cannot look into bowl as he/she is picking substrate
3. Toothpickase cannot remove substrate (toothpicks), the substrate must be put back in the bowl
Step 5: Students read lab instructions and complete lab
Instructions to do lab:
1. Count out 100 toothpicks
2. Put the 100 toothpicks in bowl
3. Timer will say go and start timing the Toothpickase person breaking substrate (remembering to return broken substrate to bowl). The Timer will tell the group when the time interval occurs. Example: when 10 sec., 20 sec. and so on following the data table.
4. The Counter will count as the Toothpickase breaks toothpicks
5. The Recorder will write down the number of substrate broken at the time intervals on the data table.
6. After trial has been run, the group needs to graph the results.
Step 6: Students will write a conclusion on the left page
1. In paragraph form tell me how the substrate concentration affected the rate of enzyme activity.
2. Have the following sentences in your conclusions. Use the background information to complete
Enzymes are ……
Enzymes belong to the macromolecule group …..
The substrate binds to the ……
Time in seconds / Number of Toothpicks (substrate) broken10 se
20 sec
30 sec
60 sec
120 sec
180 sec