Enzyme Lab

This lab was new too us but not in many ways. My partner (Seth Harmon) and I have worked with yeast in a scientific experiment before. However never did I know until recently that it was an Enzyme, a catalyst. In this experiment we got a graduated cylinder, filled it with water from a tub, held it in position upside don in the tub so no water could get out. Then we got one milliliter of yeast and ten milliliters of hydrogen-peroxide and poured them into what appeared to be a smaller graduated cylinder but with no markings (I don't know the official term). We then immediately plugged the cylinder with a stopper with a tube coming out of it and submerged it in the tub water which was room temperature; we placed the tube inside the upside down cylinder and started timing. Now whats the significance of this? Well yeast is an enzyme and it will break the bonds in the hydrogen-peroxide and live water and pure oxygen. Since the there is already oxygen trapped in the submerged cylinder it will push through the tube, into the upside down cylinder and push the water in it out. Using this and the ever so constant time we can calculate just how fast this reaction and how well this reaction is occurring. in our first experiment we used ten milliliters of yeast which speed the reaction up at the beginning but it crawled to a halt afterwards. We learned from our mistake and corrected our measurements and ended up with normal calculations.

Rollie Pollie Experiment :P

In this assignment for my AP Biology class we had to gather ten rollie pollies or armadillidium vulgare to experiment its reaction to different environments. In my groups investigation we tested the reaction of wood and dirt to sand. We used some form of tray with two pieces of filter paper, one filled with the forest environment and the with the sandy environment. We discovered that the armadillidium vulgare didn't quite like the sandy environment because the sand particles were too small and easily pushed aside for the crustaceans to get a good grip to climb or very well walk on. Also the sand was dry and bright while the creatures are used to a more moist and shady habitat. This was expected considering I found them behind my shed under some slabs and wood.