Enzymes in the Home Lab Activity

I used this activity with my accelerated Living Environment class this fall. Previously I had used a simple starch digestion lab to study enzyme action and I was excited to try something new and perhaps more comprehensive. My results with this activity were mixed; If I were to use this activity in the future I would have to modify it. When I received my kit and started looking at implementation the first thing that jumped out at me was "24 students working in 6 groups of 4" would need 186 test tubes and 48 beakers or cups. That said to me the activity was going to be quite complicated. Experiment 1 in the kit was essentially a study of making cheese. Both rennin and vinegar were used to curdle milk however the directions specified 3 concentrations of each to be conducted in 3 different temperatures. This was a great idea but in retrospect I should have either subdivided my class further or cut it down to 2 (1?) concentration or altered the number of temperatures used. As it was simply setting up and labeling the test tubes took most of the period and we had to rush to observed the results and clean up. However we were able to curdle the milk successfully. The detergent and meat tenderizer experiments relied on detecting protease action by seeing if the gelatin emulsion was removed from photographic film. Again, my students had mixed results and had difficulty detecting the reaction properly. Overall, I recommend using this activity only with high achieving students that have a long lab class period. I would also suggest cutting down the first experiment.