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Planning and Implementing Practical Work

Designing an investigation and controlling variables

  • 4 things to know
  • Components 01, 02 and 03

Overview

Recall questions on independent, dependent and control variables, holding temperature and pH constant in enzyme work, control experiments, continuous and categoric variables, repeats and ranges, null hypotheses, preliminary experiments, allowing for individual differences between subjects, and validity.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Process

How should an investigation into the effect of substrate concentration on an enzyme's rate be controlled?

Evaluation

What makes an investigation's results reliable and its method valid?

Key term

Name three variables that must be controlled when investigating the effect of substrate concentration on the rate of an enzyme-controlled reaction.

Key term

How is temperature held constant in an enzyme investigation?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is meant by the independent variable in an investigation?

    Model answer

    It is the variable the investigator deliberately changes, or whose values they select.

  2. 2

    Define the term dependent variable.

    Model answer

    It is the variable that is measured, because it responds to changes in the independent variable.

  3. 3

    Why must control variables be kept constant throughout an investigation?

    Model answer

    So that any change in the dependent variable can be attributed only to the independent variable, which makes the conclusion valid.

  4. 4

    Name three variables that must be controlled when investigating the effect of substrate concentration on the rate of an enzyme-controlled reaction.

    Model answer

    Temperature, pH and enzyme concentration must all be kept constant.

  5. 5

    How is temperature held constant in an enzyme investigation?

    Model answer

    The reaction vessels are held in a thermostatically controlled water bath and left to equilibrate before the reactants are mixed.

  6. 6

    Why is a buffer solution added to an enzyme reaction mixture?

    Model answer

    It resists changes in pH, so pH cannot act as a second variable affecting the activity of the enzyme.

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