Biology
Design Lab
Fall 2014
Objective: to demonstrate and understanding of the scientific process
Area of interaction: approaches to learning
Criteria B and C Inquiry and design and Processing and Evaluating
Your Task: To demonstrate your understanding of the scientific process by creating a viable experiment to test
what variables could impact yeasts ability to metabolize sugar.
What could impact yeasts ability to metabolize sugar?
You may have been told at one point that yeast is a living organism but how do we know for
sure? One of the 7 characteristics of living things is the ability to metabolize. This means that
yeast must be able to perform the process of cellular respiration in order to be considered
alive.
Using your notes:
1. Write out the chemical formula for cellular respiration.
2. Label each reactant and each product
3. Explain what is happening in this process.
4. Identify which of the products you may be able to collect and measure to show that
cellular respiration is actually taking place
5. What variable could you change that could effect this reaction?
Your assignment is to design and run an experiment that tests if yeast has the ability to metabolize
sugar. Please use the Design Lab worksheet provided to plan out, run and evaluate your experiment.
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