I am going to use Protease I have planned out that I am going to be using 6ml of protease in each test tube that I have got my 3.5 cm protein strip.
I will use a piece of wire to tie to the protein strip to help get it in and out the test tube without it getting stuck. I am using wire because it is thin enough to go into the test tube and also the wire will not affect my experiment so after or before the test I can fit in the protein strip without it getting stuck to corners if it was wet.
I shall use water to help change to temperature of the protease. It is easy to change the temperature of and can be disposed of easily down the sink. Then I would use one beaker to keep the hot or cool water inside it with the thermometer. It can also hold a lot of water in case I need to add some more water so I adjust the temperature.
I am going to use one Thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature. The thermometer allows me to see if the temperature of the protease is changing and if the temperature is where it should be. I would be having the thermometer in the beaker with the water for most of the time during my beaker to make sure I have the correct temperature.
I will use one Stop watch. The stop watch will help me time the time taken for the protein strip to clear, the time will then give me my result that I need.
Method
- Put goggles on.
- Set up my apparatus in front of me ready to be used then confirm that I have everything that is required.
- Fill my beaker up with cool water from the tap.
- I will be using 6ml of protease
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Then I would dial my water bath to the temperature that I need which 1st it will be 30 degrees.
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I then had to wait for it to reach the temperature of 30°C.
- Use my pipette to collect some protease, and then put the protease into the test tube.
- I then added the protein strip into the test tube with the protease inside it.
- Then once my water in the water bath is ready I am going to put in the test tube with my protease and the protein strip then wait for the protease to become cloudy.
- Press start on the stopwatch and time how long it takes for the protein strip to become clear, or for the protease to become cloudy.
- I then repeated this twice more so it comes to 3 results.
- Stop the stopwatch and record the temperature 30 degrees and how long it took to get cloudy and clear into my test result table.
- Repeat this method changing the temperature only from 30 degrees to 40, 50, 60 and 70 degrees.
Preliminary test
The reason that I have decided to do a preliminary test is because I want to try out everything to make sure that it’s going all good so that if I need to make any modifications to the test I would be doing this for my actual test. I also had to make my mind up on the ways that I was going to carry out the experiment I had then decided to use a water bath I then dialed it to 40 and when it was ready at that temperature then I repeated this to 3 different temperatures also I decided as a preliminary I would be using 3 different temperatures and this would have been 40, 40 and 60 then I would for my actual test use 5 difference temperatures and these was my results that I got from my preliminary test. You can also see that I have used a range 10°C each time.
Modifications
I have decided after I had done my preliminary test that I am not going to be using a water bath at all during my real test the reason for this is because I felt that the temperatures was changed also I couldn’t have full control over the water because other people kept on coming and changing the dial which lead to me in the preliminary test to have unreliable test results. So therefore instead of having a water bath I have decided that I was going to use the kettle then put thermometer into it and wait for the water to cool down or warm up so therefore I would have a higher rate of control over my temperatures and I will know for sure that the temperatures are not changed. Therefore this would be the only change that I am going to have I my real test so therefore I would have more reliable results.
The Main Test
I looked at my method I only changed my water bath to kettle and what I done was I used the 5 different temperatures and to make it a fair test I repeated it 3 times and I came up with an average the way that I made the average is I converted the minutes to seconds then added the 3 test that I done together then divided it by 3.
These are the results that I got from the test:
Data
To get accurate results I repeated this test three times to make it fair test. This allows me to have more data to work with and it can be more accurate. It also means that I will know if I have gone wrong in some aspects of my test. I had a fairly acceptable and medium sized range; it covered the cool temperatures and the high temperatures as well as our normal body temperature. However, after the first attempt of my experiment, I found that I could not get the protease to reach the right temperature, which at the time was 20 degrees. So I changed it to 30 degrees and added 70 degrees on. Which then I had 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 degrees.
Conclusion
From my experiment I can see that the enzymes was affected more as the temperature increased it was taking much longer for the enzymes to break down. This shows that the higher the temperature the longer it takes to break down the protein strip. By concluding my results that I have got from the test that I have done I have found out that the nearer the temperature got to our normal body temperature which is 37 degrees, the quicker the reaction time was. As the temperature gradually becomes hotter again the reaction time gets slower and slower these was seen in the temperatures 60 and 70 degrees until it will eventually become denatured after this temperature.
After my experiment I had found out that temperature did affect enzymes, the way that I had found this out is that as we all know the average body temperature for a person is about 37°C which this means that the fastest reaction time should be fastest at this temperature. When I finished my experiment I had found out that the fastest was actually at 40°C.
The temperature that took to longest to break down the enzymes was at 70°C on my first go I found out that it took 311 seconds for the enzymes to break down. On my second go I found out that it took 312 seconds and on my last go I had a result of 297 seconds. This on average for 70°C it had taken 325 seconds. The reason this is that enzymes on work for a certain period of temperature and in the research I had found out that once the temperature does meet about 60°C and 70°C it will then become denatured. Once the enzymes become denatured this will then lead to the body not working and then you can die from this that’s why it’s very important that a person’s body temperature doesn’t increase more than 40°C because it would them become too hot for the enzymes to work.
The fastest times that I can see from my experiment was 40°C on my first go I had got 80°C seconds on the second go I got 63 seconds and on my final and third go I had got 76 seconds. This on average for 40°C was about 73 seconds. The reasons that enzymes like to work so quickly is because the body temperature is 37°C and 40°C isn’t very far off it. The lock and key theory shows us that enzymes are only able to break down at the average body temperature. Once the body of a person goes over 40°C this will slow down the enzymes and after a certain temperature it will become denatured and then it wouldn’t work and it will take longer which can lead to death.
When I look at my graph I can see a different type of trend. I can see that as the temperature does increase the enzymes because denatured also as its getting closer to the main temperature which is 40°C the enzymes get closer and then it will get longer and longer to break down the protein strip. Just between 40°C and 50°C the time taken would increase on average about 186 seconds. This shows that as the temperatures increase by 10°C will be much longer to break down.
Evaluation
I think that I have worked very safely in the experiment the reason for this is because I used goggle’s at all times. I had to work safely and so that I didn’t get any chemicals into my eye goggle’s was the most important safety apparatus that was used. I also used pipette to collect the protease, I had to use the pipette because if I had just tipped it from the beaker into the test tube this could go wrong and cause a spillage on the table which could be very dangerous.
I felt that my technique was easy and it didn’t really have problems with my apparatus the only problem that I had was that the thermometer wasn’t working very well and it possibly gave me wrong results. The way that I found out the thermometer wasn’t working is because I had put inn another thermometer and they both had completely different temperatures. I think that my apparatus was accurate, I feel this because I didn’t have any problems with my apparatus except from the thermometers I also think that it could of be a bit more accurate if I used water bath. The reason for this is because I would have had better results because it would have been at a constant temperature but in the beaker it kept on changing because it would get cold after a little while.
I can improve my apparatus next time by using a water bath at the higher temperatures, the reason that this would be an improvement is because I would then have more control over the temperature and I would be able to change it when ever I want, however a problem that I can get from doing this is people changing the dial of the temperature which would then ruin the results. Also another problem the water bath would give me is that there aren’t enough of them and most people want to use it however I feel that if I used a water bath I would have much more control over the temperature.
I think that my results was reliable, this is because I had done 5 different temperatures and only 3 of them was reliable, also I think that that the majority of my apparatus reflected on my results, the reason for this is because I didn’t have very big problems with my technique and the apparatus. I had old results, I think that these had happened because of my beaker and when I lost track of the temperatures because my 2 of my thermometers was giving different temperatures so therefore I relied on 1 of the temperatures which that could have been the wrong one and this had reflected on my results because 2 of my temperatures appeared to come as outliers.
When I looked on my scatter graph I was able to see that I had two of them with a big error bar these was at 30°C and 40°C. I feel that the reason for this is because I had lost track on the temperature. Therefore as an improvement and to prevent this from happening I have decided that I am going to use a water bath at the high temperatures. If I had to repeat this experiment from looking at my graph I would use the water bath and make sure that I have full control other it rather than have people changing my temperature as it was seen in the preliminary test that I had done. However overall when I looked at my other temperatures I was able to see that the error bars was small and also my lone of best fit was reliable and I know that I can justify the reasons that I had outliners.
I think that my data is reliable the reason for this is because when I have reflected back onto my data I actually felt that it was reliable. The main reason as to why I thought this is because when looked at my data I had seen that I had 2 outliers and 3 that went into the line of best fit. This shows that my results were accurate however fit was 3 outliers this would mean that it wasn’t accurate and reliable. Also when I looked on my data I saw that there were 2 results that had a big error bar and 3 was accurate this also means that if I had 3 bad error bars then this would mean that my results hasn’t been accurate.
I think that my range was very accurate the reason for this is because it was about 10 the reason that I think this was good is because when you use a range of 10 you can then see the difference much more easier. Also if I had something wrong then I would have been able to change it much easier.
I am very confident with my data the reason for this is because whilst I was doing this I had found out that my results was effective and I knew every way that I can improve and I have justified this in many ways. I think that my technique was good and I didn’t really find it very hard to be honest. Also I think that I could have made it much more accurate the reason for this is because I know what to do for next time and I know every way that I need to make sure that I get it right.
