PETase Enzyme Analysis Exam Practice
Directions: This assignment will allow you to use AI to help you practice and improve the scientific Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) essay exam you will have in class soon. The AI will give you feedback on your answers and you will have three chances to improve your answers to each question.
Use the DOs and DON'Ts in the following pictures to help you answer the questions well.
Definition of exam terms:
Claim
A statement or conclusion that answers the original question.
Evidence
Scientific data that supports the claim. The data must be appropriate and sufficient to support the claim.
Reasoning
A justification that connects the evidence to the claim. It shows why the data counts as evidence by using appropriate and sufficient SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES FROM THE UNIT WE'VE BEEN STUDYING.
Group 1
Directions: Use the Claim/Evidence/Reasoning strategy to answer the question below. In the table on the next page, formulate a claim, use information in the graphs to provide evidence, & apply scientific principles in biology class to explain your reasoning.
Experiment setup: Plastic pollution is of major concern in our world. An area of the pacific ocean twice the size of Texas is basically a plastic soup that is getting into the food chain and choking marine habitats. For many decades, plastic, a man-made material, was considered non biodegradable, meaning it would not be broken down by natural organisms and persist in the environment for many hundreds of years.
However, in 2016 observant scientists looking around a Japanese plastic bottle recycling plant examined a substance for evidence that bacteria had developed the ability to break down PET (a common type of plastic) through enzymatic action. The scientists isolated the enzyme they thought was breaking down the plastic polymers; they called this enzyme PETase. To check whether PETase was indeed breaking down PET polymers, they put a PET film in a regular environment and then one with the PETase enzyme. The results are presented in the graph below:
Upon further investigations, other scientists tested the products of the PETase enzymatic reaction and how the reaction rate changed according to ambient temperature. The results are presented in the graph below:
In order to check if it was indeed the enzyme that was working on PET polymer molecules, they developed a model for the enzyme’s interaction with its substrate. The model is presented in the figure below:
Figure 1: The figure shows the degradation of PET plastic polymers in a controlled environment (normal environment without PETase) and an experimental environment (one with PETase added).
Figure 2: The figure shows PETase reaction rate at different temperatures.
Figure 3: On the left side of the figure, a look at the internal structure of PETase is presented, and on the right side, a fuller view of PETase is presented. Both sides show the active site with the PET polymer.
Question 1a
Have scientists found an enzyme that breaks down PET plastic polymers?
Question 1b
What data or evidence gathered from text or graphics lead you to your claim?
Question 1c
What scientific principles from our unit on macromolecules and the 7 characteristics of life connects the evidence to the claim and explains why the data counts as evidence?
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