Using Blogs in Science Education

Instead of using the “cookbook” method for this 9th grade general biology enzymes lab, I tried to make it more inquiry-based.  While it still isn’t true inquiry because I gave the students the questions to answer, it was a lot more fun than the cookbook way.  Pictures and a video of the lab plus one student’s results from the first experiment are available here.

I like doing the lab this way because it also helps the students practice designing experiments. Ideally, they should be designing every experiment they perform.

A lot of the students immediately believe that substance X will be more effective than water alone, but most incorrectly believe that substance X will work even better when boiled or with a lower pH. This leads us into a really nice discussion of what enzymes are and what happens when they become denatured.