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Today in AP biology we finished our notes by talking about how salinity concentration plays a role in the reaction rate of enzymes. We learned that the more salt concentration there is the more cations and anions there are. This leads to a disruption in the attraction between the charged amino acids. This in return denatures the proteins that can be found. In conclusion to salinity, we learned that enzymes are very intolerant of extreme salinity.
Then after our notes we got to have fun with an interactive activity that allowed us to see enzymes and how they work in a new and interesting way. In the activity our hands were supposed to represent enzymes called toothpicks. In the first part of the activity each person with their lab partner had to count and keep track of how many toothpicks could be broken over ten second intervals of time. By using our hands one lab partner counted while the other broke the toothpicks apart, acting like enzymes bonding with substrates. When finished, we concluded that overall the number of toothpicks broken practically remained the same but then started to decrease at the end. This is because the more toothpicks that were broken, the longer it took to distinguish between the whole ones and the broken ones.
After the first step of our activity we had to mix in twenty paper clips with the toothpicks. We were then supposed to repeat what we did in step one by keeping track of how many toothpicks were broken within ten second intervals. But in this case the number of toothpicks that had been broken continually decreased because the different substance (paperclips) got in the way and took up time as did the already broken toothpicks.
In doing our last experience however, we had to see how temperature would effect how the enzymes (our hands). We first had to break ten toothpicks and see how long it took us to break them at room temperature. Then a person in our lab had to place there hands in ice cold water and then see how long it would take to break the same amount of toothpicks as we did before at room temperature. With the hands being cold and the temperature affected it took twice as long for a person in our lab to break all the toothpicks.
After finishing the activity we then had to graph the data that we had found in step one and two. We then had to draw a trend line in order to show were the average of the two steps were at. Then we were asked a series of questions that pertained to our activity that would further help us understand what we learned as well as how and why by changing thing could effect the accuracy and quickness of an enzyme.
