Enzymes
Part 1
Learning Objectives
1. What are enzymes?
2. What is an active site?
3. What is a substrate?
Students’ responses
● "1. Enzymes acts as biological catalysts that means they speed up a chemical
reaction without changing due to the reaction themselves. They are also
proteins.
● 2. The active site is the region or area where the molecules of the substrate
undergo chemical reactions and change into new molecules.
● 3. The substrate is the molecules that ie being change by the enzyme during
a chemical reaction."
Students’ responses
"1. An enzyme is a substance that acts as a catalyst in living organisms, regulating the rate at
which chemical reactions proceed without itself being altered in the process.
2. a region on the surface of an enzyme whose shape permits binding only of a specific
molecular substrate that then undergoes catalysis.
3. A substrate is a molecule acted upon by an enzyme. A substrate is loaded into the active site
of the enzyme, or the place that allows weak bonds to be formed between the two molecules.
Once the reaction has taken place, the substrate is now chemically different, and is called the
product."
Students’ responses
The rate of an enzyme controlled reaction is affected by temperature. At low temperatures
enzyme controlled reactions go slowly because the molecules have low kinetic energy.
When the temperature increases the rate of the reaction also increases as the molecules
have more kinetic energy. However, this will only occur up to the optimum temperature (the
temperature at which the rate of the reaction is the fastest), which is usually 40 degrees
celsius. After the optimum temperature, the heat causes the enzyme to denature. The
enzyme changes shape, and the active site no longer matches the shape of the substrate
molecule.
SIMPLE CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT: 1) Conduct the test for starch using iodine. 2) Add
the amylase enzyme. 3) Conduct the experiment twice, once with a low temperature, and
once with a high. 4) If the observe proves that the rate of the colour change from
brown/yellow to blue /black, was faster with a higher temperature, we can come to the
conclusion that temperature does affect the rate of reaction."
Students’ responses
"Materials - Slice of bread, iodine solution, thermometer, plate, stopwatch
Method:
1. Take a slice of bread (contains starch) and place it on a plate
2. Make sure it is placed at room temperature (25C), using a thermometer.
3. Add a drop of Iodine-KI reagent/solution to the bread
4. Using a stopwatch, record the time taken for the bread to turn blue/black from
yellow/brown. Note it down
5. Now, take a slice of bread and, again, place it on a plate. 6. This time heat the
room a little more to 30C. 7. Repeat the experiment and note the time taken
for the colour change to occur. The time taken should be less."
Exam response:
( Check video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylhA84Uyb_A
● Set up water baths at various temperatures (e.g. 0°C, 20°C, 40°C, 60°C and 80°C).
● Add starch solution to 5 test tubes.
● Add amylase solution to another 5 test tubes.
● Place one starch and one amylase test tube into each water bath for 5 minutes - to allow the enzyme and substrate to reach the desired temperature.
● Place 1 drop of iodine into each dimple on a spotting tile.
● Add the amylase to the starch in the 0°C water bath.
● Start the timer.
● Every minute remove a sample of the starch-amylase solution and add it to a drop of iodine on the spotting tile.
● Repeat step 8 until the iodine no longer changes colour - meaning that there is no starch present, in other words the amylase has broken all starch down.
● Repeat steps 6-9 for each of the temperatures.
● Record results.
● Draw a graph to show the time taken for starch to be digested at different temperatures.
Results
● At the optimum temperature the amylase will break down starch very quickly.
● At low temperatures the amylase will break starch down slowly due to reduced kinetic energy.
● At high temperatures the amylase will break starch down slowly or not at all due to denaturation of the enzyme’s active site.
Controlled variables
● pH
● Same volume and concentration of starch.
● Same volume and concentration of amylase.
