Developing the enzyme-machine analogy: a non-mathematical approach to teaching Michaelis-Menten kinetics

Abstract

The behavior of enzyme-catalyzed reactions is not made clear to many students by the standard mathematical description of enzyme kinetics. An enzyme-machine analogy is described that has made the details of the Michaelis-Menten mechanism and the associated kinetics more accessible with minimal use of mathematics. Students taught using the analogy appear to have fewer of the misconceptions than those taught using a more mathematical approach.

Keywords

• analogy
• enzyme kinetics
• machine
• teaching