Biology

Biology Plus Notes- November 12, 2015

 

Bell Work- Look in your notes and tell me what an enzyme can do for a chemical reaction.   Answer- An enzyme can speed up a chemical reaction (RXN- short hand for reaction). The reaction might create new products or put new substances together.

 

Students read an article about enzymes and answered 4 questions.  They should have the questions and answers in their notebooks. 

 

People need things to survive:

Water, Oxygen, and Food (vitamins/nutrients)

1. Enzymes act as catalysts and help complex reactions occur everywhere in life. Enzymes help us get our nutrients.  If you have a carbohydrate (sugar) , it may be too big for us to get our energy from it.  We need to break it down. The enzyme Fructase breaks down the Fructose (sugar) so we can get our energy from the carbohydrate. 

 

2.  Proteins are made of Amino Acids. 

We have special enzymes in our stomach. The Proteases (PROT-protein; ASE-enzyme)help break down bonds of the amino acids so we can use them.

 

3.  One enzyme cannot just break down everything. Enzymes are very specific catalysts and usually work to complete one task.

 

4. Enzymes are like assembly lines. They grab one or 2 pieces, do something to them, and then release them. Once their job is done, they move to the next piece and do the same thing again.