Experiment design case study: hydrogen peroxide, catalase and temperature, GCSE and A-level biology

One-page reference giving a case study of how to answer questions on experiment design. Suitable for GCSE and A-level students.

The case study is testing catalase-catalysed decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at different temperatures.

This set of notes is oriented towards exam technique and how to answer multi-mark questions on this kind of topic: the need to define and set up an independent variable, to measure a dependent variable, define some control variables, and maybe plot the data and mention some safety precautions. I specifically mention that you don’t need to give too many control variables-students often think they can get more marks listing dozens.