For this portion of the unit, students will simply be introduced to the story of the Oakland A’s and Billy Beane. The story can be summarized as follows. The Oakland A’s need to think differently about their players. They cannot afford superstars. They have one of the most restricting budgets in baseball and they need to work around it. Billy Beane understands this. Relying on statistical analysis, he shirks conventional wisdom and develops new hiring statistics. Instead of hiring a superstar and paying lots of money, Beane hires two or three players who have the combined input to match that of any superstar. In this way, Beane creates a competitive team by piecing together stats and filling in the gaps.
This summary captures a few important ideas: 1) Mr. Beane had to think differently and rely on statistics; 2) superstars could be replaced by a combination of lesser players; and 3) this could all be done at a lower cost. In short, Mr. Beane recognized that statistics governed baseball. Star players yielded better averages, but lesser players, in combination, could replace them. Mr. Beane thought simple. He paid specific attention to interactions between the bat and ball—no matter how many players it took to get these interactions. For him, players were means to end and that end was runs and wins. This reduction allowed Mr. Beane to think differently about the game of baseball and it also allows us to understand collision theory and enzymes. In this vein, a key analogy will be introduced that will help students understand how enzymes operate, specifically in terms of the collision theory.
Collision theory dictates that molecules must collide to react, but also that not all collisions result in a reaction. For a reaction to occur: 1) The interacting molecules must have enough kinetic energy—energy of motion—to overcome the repulsive and bonding forces of the individual reactants and 2) The molecules must be in the correct orientation. Collision theory paints a dynamic picture of the molecular landscape—although molecules are constantly bouncing off each other all the time, they must have the correct orientation and the right amount of energy to undergo a reaction and create products. Using baseball, we can view this same dynamic landscape at the human-scale.
In this analogy, reactants will be baseballs and products will be homeruns. In this way, players are viewed as enzymes because they facilitate the interaction between bat and ball, or the conversion of reactants (baseballs) to products (homeruns). What constitutes a reaction then, is the collision of the player’s bat and a baseball to produce a homerun, which is a powerful analogy for collision theory. The majority of the time, when the bat makes contact with the ball it does not produce a homerun; rather balls are strewn in every direction all over the field. Thus, just as molecules require proper orientation and the right amount of energy to undergo a reaction, bats must make contact with baseballs with the correction orientation and energy in order to produce a homerun.
To explore collision theory further, a classroom activity will be conducted, which will be fully detailed in the labs section. All chairs will be cleared from the classroom. The class will then be split up into groups of five. Each student will be given a chance to throw a soft tip dart (darts with plastic tips) at large overinflated balloons taped to a wall. Students will find that as they throw darts some will hit balloon dead on, but not with enough energy. Other times, a student will throw a dart and it will have enough speed, but hit the balloon at an off-angle. Only those darts thrown with the correct orientation (towards the center of the balloon) and enough energy (speed of the dart) will result in a popping of the balloon or creation of the product. The activity will be done so that each student will rotate and get a chance to participate and then observe.