How could you improve your experiment?

Question

A.  Apply the hormone to mouse cell culture.
B.  Apply the hormone at a concentration of 0.5M.
C.  Hydrolyze the hormone before application.
D.  Add ATP as a cofactor.

Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
What type of thinking is required?

Gather Content
What do you already know about hormones? What other information is related to the question?

Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?

Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?

Answer 1

A.  Apply the hormone to mouse cell culture.

Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
        · How can you improve the experiment?
What type of thinking is required?
            o This is an evaluate question because you have to distinguish between different experimental procedures that might improve the experiment.

Gather Content
What do you already know about hormones? What other information is related to the question?
        · From the previous question you should have already determined that yeast may not have receptors specific to mouse hormones. Thus, you could solve this problem by applying the mouse hormone to a mouse cell culture instead of a yeast one. Hydrolyzing the hormone before application would destroy the three dimensional structure of the hormone so that it would not bind to its receptor properly. Applying the hormone at greater concentrations would not help if there is no receptor to bind any of the hormone.

Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
        · Applying the hormone to a mouse cell culture makes sense if the hormone does not work with yeast cells as mouse cells should have the correct receptors for mouse hormones. Hydrolyzing the hormone before application would destroy the three dimensional structure of the hormone so that it would not bind to its receptor properly. Applying the hormone at greater concentrations would not help if there is no receptor to bind any of the hormone.

Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
        o Answering this question correctly depended on realizing that mouse cells should have receptors for mouse hormones. Did you get it right? If so, great! If not, did you think greater concentrations of hormone would help? No matter how much hormone is added, it will not affect cells that do not have receptors for it. Did you realize that hydrolyzing the hormone would destroy its structure leaving it unable to bind with receptors?