GENERAL EDUCATION COMMON ASSIGNMENT TEMPLATE
Note: This is the assignment that all professors teaching a section in the San Jacinto College Core Curriculum during fall 2014 will agree upon, teach, assign, assess and document in Blackboard. Submit one assignment per course to the Office of Vice Chancellor for Learning and Assessment.Due no later than February 7.
- TITLE & NUMBER OF THE COURSE:
Biol 1406 – Biology for Science Majors I
- TITLE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
Lab Report #2 – Enzyme Lab
- GENERAL EDUCATION CORE OBJECTIVES TO BE ASSESSED WITH THIS ASSIGNMENT (List specific general education outcomes and any student learning outcomes):
General Education Outcomes:
Communication Skills, Critical Thinking Skills, Empirical and Quantitative Skills, and Teamwork
Student Learning Outcomes:
Lab 1: Apply scientific reasoning to investigate questions and utilizescientific tools such as microscopes and laboratory equipment to collectand analyze data.
Lab 2: Use critical thinking and scientific problem-solving to make informeddecisions in the laboratory.
Lab 3: Communicate effectively the results of scientific investigations.
Lab 9: Identify the substrates, products, and important chemical pathways inmetabolism.
- DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT (as it would appear in your syllabus or class handouts)
See the following pages for:
1)A description of the lab, including pages that will be turned in by the group on the day of the lab
2)“Lab Report Materials” – Information provided to the students on how to write a lab report. it includes a grading rubric detailing how the lab report will be graded. An individual lab report will be turned in by each students.
3)Teamwork Assessment Form – To be turned in individually by each student assessing the performance of him/her self and the members of that team.
Experiment #4: Design your own experiment (NOTE: This activity would be part of a larger lab including experiments that investigate the activity, specificity, and ideal conditions of the enzyme catalase)
This is the section of the lab that you will be writing your lab report about. You and your lab partners will have to turn in the following:
1)a groupwork assignment turned in during this lab describing your materials, procedures, and results (one per group)
2)INDIVIDUAL lab reports describing this experiment (these must be done independently)
3)INDIVIDUAL teamwork assessment documents describing how well all the members of your group did or did not contribute to the team’s success
Your lab group will need to design an experiment to test EITHER
a)the effect of enzyme concentration on catalase activity or
b)the effect of substrate concentration on catalase activity
Your instructor will tell you which of these you are testing.
Your lab group must create the protocol to test the appropriate variable, including a list of necessary materials and the steps you followed during the experiment.
What variable will your group be testing?______
1)Brainstorm within your group to determine a rough idea of how you will carry out your experiment. Describe it the general protocol. ______
2)What materials will be necessary for you to carry out this experiment? Be specific! This information needs to be included on your lab report.______
3)What is the controlconcentration for your group’s experiment? ______
4)What other conditions will you test? Your group must test at least two other concentrations during the experiment (e.g. 3 cm of enzyme and 5 cm of substrate, or 0.5 cm of enzyme and 4 cm of substrate). Be very specific in describing your test tubes. ______
Use the space below to list the method you and your group use to carry out the experiment. Be VERY specific – you will use this information in writing your lab report. (Use only as many steps as are necessary). Check your experimental design with your instructor before continuing.
Step 1: ______
Step 2: ______
Step 3: ______
Step 4: ______
Step 5: ______
Step 6: ______
Step 7: ______
Step 8: ______
Use this page to record the results of the experiment your group performs. Use only as many rows of the table as necessary.
Results of testing for effect of concentrationTube / Amount of enzyme in cm / Amount of peroxide in cm / Bubble column height in mm / Results
1
2
3
4
5
6
Graphs your results below. Makes sure to label your graph.
What effect does variable you tested have on catalase activity?______
Do you think it would be possible to have too much of this substance in the tube? What would happen then? ______
What do you think would happen if each of the test tubes you tested if the experiment was allowed to run indefinitely? Would all the test tubes eventually have the same amount of product?______
Lab Report Materials
General Instructions for Writing Lab Reports
Writing a lab report is a standard feature of science lab classes. It will be part of your grade for each lab practical this semester, because it is the best way to organize all of the information needed to understand the lab procedures and results. A person should be able to read your lab report and:
- Know exactly how to do this experiment
- Find a table, graph or photo of your results
- Know what you concluded at the end of your experiment
- Know what experiment you would do next to follow up on these results
Science writing is somewhat different from writing for other disciplines. What are the major differences that you should look out for?
- The passive voice is used. So instead of writing, “I measured the bone with the meter stick,” it would be “The bone was measured with a meter stick”. The report is about the work, not about you.
- Methods and Results should be written in the past tense because these are things that have already happened.
- Sentences should be as short as possible, and only the most relevant information is included.
- Direct quotes are never used.
- Everything must be rewritten in your own words. Directly copying (or only slightly modifying) someone else’s work (including the work of other students) is plagiarism and will result in a grade of 0.
The format of a lab report is also different. These are the seven headings that you will use to write the lab report:
Purpose of this lab: What did you learn from this lab? What did the experiments teach you about biology? This section should consist of only one or two sentences.
Introduction: This part gives background information about the particular subject that the lab covers and the experiment being performed. You will need references for this section. Your references may NOT include the lab manual.
Materials: The equipment and supplies used should be listed. Specific information should be given as to amounts, concentrations, and so on. Make sure you include ALL of the materials used in the procedure outlined in your lab report. Likewise, make sure you include ONLY the materials used in the procedure outlined in your lab report.
Methods: The write-up of the methods should be similar to a detailed recipe. It must be written in paragraph form. A person who has never done this lab should be able to read this section and know exactly what equipment and supplies are needed and how to perform the experiment.
Results: What was the final outcome of the lab? This will include measurements, illustrations, and answers to questions on the grading rubric. A person who has never done this lab should be able to read this section and know exactly what happened in the lab.
Discussion: This section should explain what the results mean. What was learned? How does this apply to similar situations? It also describes the next experiment that could be done based on the results seen here.
References: When you mention someone else’s work, you give them credit for it. References usually are found in the Introduction and the Discussion section of a report. First, you rewrite it in your own words (Do not use direct quotes!). Then you insert a citation telling where the information comes from. The full information about the reference comes at the end of the report.
For example, in one reference you find the sentence “The Metric System was developed in France under Napoleon in the 1790’s for the purpose of standardization of units as trade expanded through Europe.” You might rewrite this as: The metric system was implemented as a way to standardize units of measurement throughout Europe. It was created in France during the 1790’s (Hoobler et al, 2007). At the very end of the report, you put the entire reference. There is no standard scientific format for references, so we are going to use the standardAPA format.
The grading rubric shows you exactly how your professor will grade your report. The maximum possible number of points that you can earn is broken down by section. As you are writing your report, you should be using the grading rubric to ensure that you have included everything that you should be in the report. That is the way to get the highest grade possible.
Grading rubric, Lab report 2
Lab 9: Enzymes, Experiment #4 –Design your own experiment
Name: ______
Points earned / Points possible / Section1 / Purpose: Objectives of the lab are explained in one or two sentences.
5 / Introduction: First paragraph is a description of enzymes: their function in the cell, what type of molecule they are, how they affect chemical reactions, and what conditions can affect enzyme activity
5 / Introduction: Describe the experiment done in lab. What was the enzyme, and what reaction did it catalyze (what were the reactants and products)? What was the source of the enzyme? What variable was tested in the experiment? What was the control?
2 / Materials: All materials used in this experiment are listed, bulleted list is acceptable.
4 / Methods: The procedure is described in paragraph form, written in past tense and passive voice
5 / Groupwork complete: Materials, Methods, and Results were turned in by the group on the day of the lab.
5 / Results: Graphmade in Excel is used to display the results. It is clearly labeled.
4 / Results: Results are alsodescribed in a short paragraph.
4 / Discussion: The results for each condition tested are explained. Which condition resulted in the most activity?
5 / Discussion: If the tubes were left to sit for 15 minutes undisturbed, would this affect the results? Why or why not?
5 / Discussion: The next experiment you would do if this was your research project is described in detail, including a hypothesis.
2 / References: At least two references are used and are in APA format. One may be the textbook, but you may not use the lab manual or Hoobler reference.
1 / Grammar and format: Document is typed, left justified, Calibri or Arial 10 point font or larger, single spaced, in paragraph form, written in past tense, uses the correct subject headings
2 / Grammar and format: Sentence structure and spelling is correct, words “I” and “we” are not used, no direct quotes
10 / Teamwork Evaluation: Points awarded based on how your professor and team members evaluate your participation and contribution
60 / Total points for the lab report
60 / Total points given for lab practical
120 / Overall points awarded
100 / Percentage Grade (Final grade for lab practical 2)
APA Style for Citations and References
For this course you should never use direct quotations in your lab reports. Please use your words and only your words in your reports. When you use information (not words) from a source, it must be referenced AND cited.
References are listed alphabetically at the end of the lab report. They can be used by anyone who reads your document to find your original sources. Each reference should contain at minimum the following: Author name or names, title of work, and publication date. Anything taken from the internet should include the URL and the date the work was referenced.
Citations appear in the text of the document and refer the reader to the reference that was the source of the preceding information. The correct format for in-text citations is to include the author’s name (or an abbreviated version of the title if no author is available) and the year of publications. It should be immediately obvious what reference a citation is referring to; if this is not the case then you are doing something wrong.
Here are some examples for how to reference and cite some common materials you may use in writing your lab report.
Books and Journals
The reference needs to include enough information to ensure a reader can find it quickly, easily, and specifically. If only part of a work is referenced (e.g. a chapter of a book) that should be noted.
Author name or names. (Year of publication).Title of article or chapter.Title of journal or book, Volume (issue), page numbers.
Brooker, Robert, Eric Widmaier, Linda Graham, and Peter Stiling. (2014). Simple Patterns of Inheritance. Biology 3rd Edition, 321-342.
Herbst-Damm, K.L., & Kulik, J.A. (2005).Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients.Health Psychology, 24, 225-229.
In-text citations should use the format (author, year of publication).
Gregor Mendel made thousands of crosses of peas in his lifetime (Brooker, 2014).
People survive difficult times better when they have a support network (Herbst-DammKulik, 2005).
Websites (List as much information as possible; you may need to hunt around the webpage to find all the information)
Author name or names. (Date of Publication).Title of webpage. Retrieved [date] from [web address]
Harris, William. (18 January 2001). "How DNA Evidence Works." Retrieved 6 January 2014 from
Half of a person’s DNA markers come from their mother and half from their father (Harris, 2001).
If there is no author given for a website, then the reference should begin with the name of the webpage, which should also be used in the citation:
“Apomixis.” (2 January 2014). Retrieved 6 January 2014 from
Apomixis is the asexual reproduction of plants through seeds (Apomixis, 2014).
If there is no date of publication given for a website use the abbreviation n.d. The citation should also include this abbreviation.
Johnson, Tina. (n.d.). “Foods Rich with Enzymes.” Retrieved 6 January 2014 from
Many of the foods we eat contain enzymes (Johnson, n.d.).
Social media sites such as YouTube can also be used as references. The screen name and, if possible real name, of the person posting the information should be used.
Author, A. A. [Screen name].(Date of Publication).Title of video [Video file]. Retrieved [date] from [web address]
Andersen, Paul. [Bozeman Science]. (21 April 2012). Meiosis [video file]. Retrieved 6 January 2014 from
7DrDon. (16 May 2011). Protein synthesis (DNA transcription, translation and folding) [video file]. Retrieved 6 January 2014 from
The female gamete is the egg and the male gamete is the sperm (Andersen, 2012).
Translation, or production of the protein, occurs at the ribosome (7DrDon, 2011).
How To Avoid Plagiarism
Plagiarism is claiming someone else’s words as your own and will results in a grade of 0 in this course. The purpose of writing a lab report is to demonstrate understanding of the material; copying-and-pasting someone else’s work indicates that this has not been achieved.
For example, a student wants to use the following information in the lab report:
A molecule or compound is made when two or more atoms form a chemical bond, linking them together. The two types of bonds are ionic bonds and covalent bonds. In an ionic bond, the atoms are bound together by the attraction between oppositely-charged ions. For example, sodium and chloride form an ionic bond, to make NaCl, or table salt. (Helmenstine, n.d.)
It would NOT be acceptable to quote any part of this information; direct quotes are not allowed in your lab report. It would also NOT be acceptable to only slightly modify the wording of this information. For example:
Molecules or compounds are formed when two or more atoms are linked in a chemical bond. Ionic bonds and covalent bonds are the two types of bonds. In ionic bonds, atoms are held together by attractions between oppositely-charged ions (Helmenstine, n.d.).
The sentences above are plagiarized and would earn this student a 0 on the lab report. They do NOT demonstrate understanding of the science that is being explained.
The simplest way to avoid plagiarism is to read the material, set it aside, and without looking at it write what you remember from what you read. This way the content or learning from the material will be in your own word. For example,
Chemicals are formed through two types of bonds, covalent bonds and ionic bonds. These bonds hold atoms together to make compounds and molecules. Ionic bonds are formed by attractions between positive and negative ions (Helmenstine, n.d.).