Collaboration Through Catalase

To compensate for institutional changes in course schedules reducing opportunity for students to build a robust sense of community within our biology major, we developed a laboratory activity connecting first-year introductory biology students with second-year organic chemistry students. The laboratory activity teaches students how to use indicators as a signifier of enzyme activity in a colorimetric assay while also collaborating with other students in the biology major. In this workshop, participants will act as both introductory biology and organic chemistry students in performing the laboratory activities. At the beginning of the workshop, participants will be introduced to flavonoids as a source of inhibition to catalase catalysis. Groups will propose a source of dietary flavonoid from available plants. In the classroom setting, this proposal is produced by a mixed group of organic chemistry and introductory biology students. Acting as the organic chemistry students, participants will perform methods of extraction on their selected plant sources. In the classroom, these extracts are returned to the paired biology students, who perform the colorimetric analysis. During the workshop, participants will perform the colorimetric assay to determine if their potential source of flavonoid inhibits catalase activity. We will present real findings from our student population including an example fire talk of how students from both collaborate together to present.