Experiments in science

Experiments and practical activities are an important part of acquiring science skills. On the one hand, tests and experiments help to better understand theoretical aspects; on the other hand, the students learn the basics of scientific knowledge processes through experiments.
Especially in the Natural Science courses at IB, experiments and practical activities are an essential part of the teaching.
This week, our class 11 dealt with the effect of substrate concentration on the activity of catalase. Catalase is an enzyme that occurs in all animal and plant cells and renders the cell toxin hydrogen peroxide harmless by splitting it into water and oxygen.
The students obtained the catalase from potatoes. The catalase obtained in this way was added to the hydrogen peroxide in different amounts. In this way, the enzyme activity could be observed using a stable head of foam and measured for the evaluation.
In this experiment, the students had to organize and plan the implementation of the experiment themselves. Researching sensible methods, making arrangements with classmates and organizing the laboratory equipment and utensils were necessary for this. It was very exciting to see what the challenges were.
More experiments will follow, we will keep you up to date.

Pham, Mai Thuong