Milk: How Sweet Is It?

Topic
Resource Type
Description
In this activity, students simulate a lactose tolerance test, similar to the one shown in the short film The Making of the Fittest: Got Lactase? The Co-evolution of Genes and Culture, to determine which samples contain the lactase enzyme.
To simulate measuring glucose in patient blood samples, students combine synthetically manufactured “patient intestinal fluid samples,” made of either water or a lactase solution, with milk, and then measure the amount of glucose produced in the solutions over time. Students work in pairs to collect, analyze, and graph their data to determine which “patients” are lactase persistent (lactose tolerant) and lactase non-persistent (lactose intolerant).
The “Resource Google Folder” link directs to a Google Drive folder of resource documents in the Google Docs format. Not all downloadable documents for the resource may be available in this format. The Google Drive folder is set as “View Only”; to save a copy of a document in this folder to your Google Drive, open that document, then select File → “Make a copy.” These documents can be copied, modified, and distributed online following the Terms of Use listed in the “Details” section below, including crediting BioInteractive.
Student Learning Targets
- Plan the steps in an experimental procedure, including controls.
- Test for the presence of glucose in a sample using glucose test strips.
- Collect, analyze, graph, and interpret data to draw a conclusion.
Estimated Time
Key Terms
allergy, disaccharide, enzyme, galactose, glucose, intolerance, lactase, lactose, monosaccharide, persistence
Terms of Use
The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.
Version History
NGSS (2013)
HS-LS1-6; SEP3, SEP4, SEP6
AP Biology (2019)
ENE-1.D, ENE-1.G; SP3, SP4, SP6
IB Biology (2016)
2.5, 6.1
Common Core (2010)
ELA.RST.9–12.3, ELA.RST.9–12.7, ELA.WHST.9–12.1
Math.S-ID.1; MP2, MP4, MP6
Vision and Change (2009)
CC2, CC4; DP1, DP2