Name ___________________________ Date ________ Lab An Introduction to Enzymes Toothpickase – 40 points Introduction Biologists are very interested in organic catalysts that control virtually enzymes – all of the reactions that in living organisms. Enzymes are used in all metabolic reactions to control the rate of reactions and decrease the amount of activation energy necessary for the reaction to take place. Enzymes are specific for each reaction and are reusable. Enzymes have an area called the active site to which a specific substrate will bond temporarily while the reaction is taking place. The maximum rate at which an enzyme can catalyze a reaction (in this case the breakdown of a substrate) is known as Vmax. In this activity, you will simulate the reaction of an enzyme with its substrate. You will also determine Vmax. Materials: (per team of three people) toothpicks Computer with or Graphical Analysis EXCEL stopwatch calculator Procedure: In this activity, the toothpicks represent a substrate and your thumbs and fingers represent the enzyme, When you break a toothpick, the place where the toothpickase. toothpick fits between the fingers of both your hand represents the active site of the enzyme. Place the toothpick between the thumb and the first finger of each hand. You must use both hands to break the toothpicks. You can only break one toothpick at a time. PART A: RATE OF ENZYME ACTIVITY 1. Select 100 toothpicks and them in a shallow bowl. 2. In your group of three, one person will act as the enzyme the second will toothpickase, be the timer, and the third person will be the recorder. 3. The enzyme is to break the toothpicks without looking. You may close your eyes or a blindfold will be provided. All of the product (broken toothpicks) must remain in the bowl. 4. The experiment is conducted in 20-second intervals. The timer calls out and “Start” then marks each 20-second interval. The recorder tallies the cumulative number of
Name ___________________________ Date ________ Toothpickase Lab – An Introduction to Enzymes 40 points Introduction Biologists are very interested in enzymes – organic catalysts that control virtually all of the reactions that in living organisms. Enzymes are used in all metabolic reactions to control the rate of reactions and decrease the amount of activation energy necessary for the reaction to take place. Enzymes are specific for each reaction and are reusable. Enzymes have an area called the active site to which a specific substrate will bond temporarily while the reaction is taking place. The maximum rate at which an enzyme can catalyze a reaction (in this case the breakdown of a substrate) is known as Vmax. In this activity, you will simulate the reaction of an enzyme with its substrate. You will also determine Vmax. Materials: (per team of three people) toothpicks Computer with Graphical Analysis or EXCEL stopwatch calculator Procedure: In this activity, the toothpicks represent a substrate and your thumbs and fingers represent the enzyme, toothpickase. When you break a toothpick, the place where the toothpick fits between the fingers of both your hand represents the active site of the enzyme. Place the toothpick between the thumb and the first finger of each hand. You must use both hands to break the toothpicks. You can only break one toothpick at a time. PART A: RATE OF ENZYME ACTIVITY 1. Select 100 toothpicks and them in a shallow bowl. 2. In your group of three, one person will act as the enzyme toothpickase, the second will be the timer, and the third person will be the recorder. 3. The enzyme is to break the toothpicks without looking. You may close your eyes or a blindfold will be provided. All of the product (broken toothpicks) must remain in the bowl. 4. The experiment is conducted in 20-second intervals. The timer calls out “Start” and then marks each 20-second interval. The recorder tallies the cumulative number of
toothpickase_lab_activity.docx