Understanding enzyme concept

A response to the Misunderstood Activity
created by Afshan Jabeen (@ajabeen)

Number of views: 114

I teach science courses at the college. Sometimes I use analogies to explain hard concepts. The one concept that is often misunderstood is enzymatic mechanisms. My students have a hard time understanding how enzymes catalyze reactions. I give them the following example of two runners:

Two runners line up at the starting line with the same energy. During the race, one runner grabs a water bottle and takes a drink, overcoming their fatigue. This allows them to speed up and win the race. The water bottle analogy acts much like an enzyme that lowers the activation energy barrier to speed up a reaction. My students find this analogy very helpful since it draws on a universal experience.