Question

Can someone help me with this? I have been stuck on it for 3 hours :(

Answer 1

Part A:
In order to learn how living things work, scientists develop ideas and then test them, collecting data to find out whether their hypotheses are correct. This is the basic process called the scientific method. In this activity, you will gain practice following the scientific method by designing an experiment to identify the function of a certain enzyme. You do not have to carry out this experiment, though you may choose to do so if you want!

Background:
The food you eat includes a variety of nutrients. Three of those nutrients – carbohydrates, proteins, and fats – are macromolecules, or very large molecules, that must be broken down into smaller pieces during digestion in order to be used by the body.
Your digestive system includes several enzymes, including amylase, pepsin, trypsin, and lipase. Specifically, amylase is found in the saliva of your mouth and in your small intestine, pepsin is found in your stomach, and trypsin and lipase are both found in the small intestine. Remember from the start of the year that an enzyme is a specific type of protein that causes a chemical reaction to speed up; without them, most of the reactions in our body would be too slow to be useful.
Therefore, it makes sense that these enzymes might be useful in breaking down the macromolecules into small molecules that your cells can use.

Question and Hypothesis:
Rather than try to test all four enzymes with all three macromolecules, we will just study one enzyme – amylase – and one macromolecule – carbohydrates. To make things a little clearer, we’ll focus on the most common carbohydrate, starch. Starch is found in grains (and therefore bread, crackers, rice, and pasta) and potatoes, among other foods. Therefore, the question we want to answer is “Does amylase break down starch?”

Answer 2

Use this question to develop your own hypothesis. As you know, a hypothesis is an educated guess that can be tested. We frequently write them in if/then format – “If we set up an experiment like this, then that outcome will happen.” Write your own hypothesis below to answer the question of whether amylase breaks down starch.
If we _______________________________________________________________________, then ________________________________________________________________________.

Answer 3

@ganeshie8 @geerky42 @Mehek14 @poopsiedoodle @sleepyjess @sweetburger

Answer 4

@ILovePuppiesLol @jtug6 @Ms-Brains

Answer 5

Any idea what the answer might be based on the passage you read?

Answer 6

I do not know how to answer that. Im a little confused by the question it wants me to answer. It threw me off and im not quite sure.

Answer 7

The answer is pretty much already given from the passage. It's asking if amalyse (an enzyme) is capable of breaking down starch (a type of carbohydrate thats apparently a macromolecule). Enzymes are supposed to break down macromolecules into smaller molecules, which would mean that amalyse...?

Answer 8

Amalyse is capable of breaking down starch.

Answer 9

bingo

Answer 10

i'm not too fond of biology but thats just what ive inferred based on reading the background information.

Answer 11

That's fine. Ive been needing some help. Thanks for that. So how would I fill in the blank?

Answer 12

If we _______________________________________________________________________, then ________________________________________________________________________.

^ That is confusing me.

Answer 13

well you could just put anything in for that really. "If we" consume macromolecules such as grains, then our enzymes such as amalyse work to break it down into smaller molecules which the cells in our body can then properly use.

Answer 14

something like that, anyway. =)

Answer 15

Oh I see. It was confusing me when I had to fill that out. Thanks :)