Thomas Mahon

Enzymes Lab Report

Shine Bright Like an Enzyme

Thomas Mahon
Enzymes Lab Report

Introduction
Enzymes are vital to all organisms on earth. The
An introduction should have 3 parts: a general introduction to the topic (i.e. enzymes), more
specific background information on what you're testing (i.e. how does substrate concentration
and do different types of mushrooms influence the rate of the reaction and why). Finally the
introduction ends with the two hypotheses being presented (what you think will happen). A good
intro is usually a minimum of 2-3 paragraphs.
Methods
Rate of Reaction Lab
We added 300l, 350l, and 375l of buffer to three groups of five cuvettes with a
pipette. Then we changed the pipette tip and added 100l, 50l, and 25l of substrate to each
respective group of cuvettes. Then we prepared timers and added the enzyme to each cuvette
with a pipette. As soon as we added the enzyme we started the timer. When the timer reached
increments of 1 minute, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 8 minutes, and 10 minutes, we added stop solution
with the pipette to one of the cuvettes. We continued timing and stopping solutions at the
appropriate times until all solutions had stopped reacting and were ready to be measured. To
measure the amount of product in the cuvettes we used a colorimeter. We first calibrated the
colorimeter by inserting blanks, cuvettes filled with purified water, into the colorimeter and
pressing "calibrate." Then, making sure to keep the cuvettes organized by groups of molar
concentration and by times stopped, we measured the ratio of light absorbance, a measure of
product produced in the reaction, in each cuvette. We recorded the data in a data table.
Mushroom Lab
We procured three species of mushrooms: Portobello mushrooms, white mushrooms, and
shitake mushrooms. We cut 1 gram of tissue from each species of mushroom. We placed the
tissue from one of the species of mushrooms into a mortar then added 2ml of extraction buffer to
extract the enzymes and ground the mushroom to a pulp with the pestle. We then filtered the
resulting pulp through a coffee filter in a 1.5ml tube and collected the liquid. We repeated this
process until liquids containing enzymes of all three mushroom species had been acquired. Then
we filtered the pulp through a coffee filter and a funnel and collected the resulting liquids.
In clean cuvettes, we added 300l of substrate and 25l of mushroom enzyme liquid. We
did this so
Results (10 points- 5 for describing results and 5 for graphs/tables)
The Results section contains tables (label them as table 1, table 2, etc), figures (labeled as figure
1, figure 2, etc) and a written (in paragraph form) summary of the results. Any graphs should
have titles, clearly labeled axes, and legends (if applicable). For your mushroom component, you
should calculate mean, standard deviation and standard error for each of your species. Include
error bars on your graph. Write in the active voice past tense (we found that mushroom x.),

Thomas Mahon
Enzymes Lab Report

and refer the reader to tables or figures to support your statements. Remember, you are not
making any conclusions at this time, simply stating what was found.
Error Bar- standard ERROR on error bar
Put standard error and standard deviation in separate title
Discussion (5 points)
Placing your work in context of the broader field and provide an answer to the questions posed in
the introduction. Explain how the results support or do not support your original hypotheses. If
something went wrong, or was unexpected, explain why here. Include what could be done
differently if you were to repeat thes experiment to improve it (no experiment is perfect, there is
always something that can be improved). Also include an idea or two of future experiments that
would expand on the questions you asked, or on the general topic of enzymes.
Literature cited (5 points)
This is a new section- cite a literature sources in your intro and discussion (3 minimum total).
Use legit online sources; look up how to cite websites if you are unsure (or see examples below).
This is done by adding (Young 2015) for a single author paper published in 2015 in the
intro/discussion sentences. For a two author paper done in 2013 it would look like (Young &
Krend 2013) and a multi author paper published in 2014 (Young et al. 2014). At the end in the
literature cited, you write out the long form of the citation in the format:

Literature Cited
Boyer, P. (1997). The ATP Synthase: A Splendid Molecular Machine, Annual Review of
Biochemistry, 66; 20-22

Last name, first initials (year). Title, Journal, volume, pages.

Young, L.C. (2015) Effects of length of lab write up instructions on the probability of students
reading them to the end. AP Biology Research Journal. 43: 1-3.
For websites, if doesn't have a specific author: Name of website, year, name of article, url.
The First Order. (2016). How to keep your stormtrooper uniform gleaming white. Retrieved from
The First Order: http://www.thefirstorder.gov/stormtrooper/uniformstandards

Thomas Mahon
Enzymes Lab Report