Investigation of Whether Temperature Affects Enzyme Activity

Assessment for DCP and CE

Determining if temperature affects enzyme activity

This investigation is using a range of temperature in order to find weather or not

Temperature affects enzyme activity.

I will:

1. Observe the effects of different temperatures on enzyme activity

2. Infer the relationship between the two

3. Use a line graph to display data and draw a conclusion

Research Question

How does temperature affect enzymes activity?

Variables

Independent Variable: Temperature

Dependent Variable: Time that the solution takes to become clear

Controlled Variable: Enzyme Concentration, Milk Concentration, Enzyme volume, Milk volume.

Background

When molecules bump into each other, the kinetic energy that they have can be converted into chemical potential energy of the molecules. If the potential energy of the molecule becomes great enough, the activation energy of a reaction can be archived and a change in chemical state will result. Thus the greater the kinetic energy of the molecules in a system, the greater the resulting chemical potential energy. As the temperature of a system is increased it is possible that more molecules per unit time will reach the activation energy (2). Therefore the rate of reaction will increase. On the other hand if the temperature reaches a certain amount the enzyme might denature and therefore no longer able to carry out the reaction.

Method

1. Pipette 5cm cubed of casein suspension into one boiling tube and 5cm cubed of protease solution into another tube.

2. Warm up your heavy duty beaker which contain water until your wanted

3. Once reached the chosen temperature place your boiling tubes inside the beaker and leave them to preincubate for 5 minutes

4. A...

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...gation

In order to get a more precise temperature and to keep that temperature level it would have been better if during my experiment I had used an electronic water bath. On this you can select the wanted temperature, and the water bath will automatically heat up to it. This would take out any possible misreads of the thermometer, and would also make the process a lot quicker.

Another problem with this experiment was determining at which stage the solution turned completely clear. I had a black piece of card, which I held behind the boiling tube to see when the solution turned clear, however this was not very efficient. I think that it would have been better if I had gotten a white piece of card and wrote a black letter on it, then looked through the solution until I could clearly see the letter.

These few changes could have improved the validity of my work.