How Does Temperature Affect Enzyme Activity

1333 Words6 Pages

Maia Naylor and Margot Cathelin
10/21/2015
Grade 9
Enzyme Lab Report

Purpose:
Which temperature of potato (freezing, room temperature, boiling) when added to hydrogen peroxide, would produce the most enzyme activity?

Research Question:
How does hydrogen peroxide break down enzymes?
When hydrogen peroxide and enzymes meet, they instantly form a reaction. This reaction is the chemical distillation of enzymes. The reaction is enzymes breaking down and turning into bubbles.
How does temperature affect enzyme activity?
Potatoes have enzymes in them. Enzymes are catalysts, which means they speed up chemical reaction. This chemical reaction produces oxygen gas. In hot substances, the enzyme reaction speeds up. In cold substances, the reaction takes a long time, or will never create a chemical reaction
Does boiling a potato eliminate its enzymes?
Boiling a potato will speed up its enzyme chemical reaction, but if you heat it up to much it will cook and the reaction will stop because all of the enzymes will be cooked.
Does freezing a potato eliminate its enzymes?
Freezing a potato will not eliminate its …show more content…

Having different temperatures of potatoes would help us see which one of three potato temperature would produce more enzymes. The dependant variable was the the amount of activity (bubbles) produced. Measuring this would help us determine which temperature of potato produced more activity. The potato with the most bubbles, the room temperature potato, would be the one with the most enzyme activity. There were many controlled variables. Some of them included temperature of hydrogen peroxide, amount of hydrogen peroxide and the amount of potato. If any of these components were off place, than the whole experiment would be rigged. The factors needed to stay the same throughout the different potato types because then we could base our answers purely on one factor, rather than an unfair