Daphnia Practical Write-up
Purpose and Hypothesis
The purpose of this experiment was to determine how affected the heart rate of the daphnia. The results gained from this experiment aids scientific researchers in finding out how caffeine can affect heart rate as well as human health.
My hypothesis was that as we increase the caffeine dose the daphnia heartbeat would increase at the same time.
Variables
The independent variable was the amount of caffeine we administrated to the daphnia. The dependent variable was the heartbeat of the daphnia before and after their caffeine intake. The control variables were the species of daphnia used, the water temperature and the type of microscope used
Method
Ultimately our method was successful despite the experiment itself not being successful .We was able to carry out all of the steps without difficulty despite environmental troubles. 1. Gather all the relevant equipment including the daphnia, solutions of no caffeine concentration and two of different solutions of caffeine concentrations.
2. Remove the daphnia from its initial environment using a pipette, disposing of excess water in a few drops.
3. Pipette the daphnia onto a microscope side into the dipped part, remove excess water still remaining using a filter paper or a paper towel.
4. Add a few drops of distilled water and remove excess water using a filter paper or a paper towel to prevent the daphnia from moving around more than need.
5. Focus the daphnia in the microscope slide under the microscope using the lowest magnification possible.
6. Count and record the number of heartbeats per/15 seconds. Do this twice and then calculate the average number of beats per minute. This is the baseline heart rate. If Daphnia moves too much, remove it from the well, put a tiny dab of Vaseline at the bottom of the depression well, and then add the Daphnia.
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