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Kevin Pereira
Ms Isaac
Kevin Pereira
Culture Of Daphnia
Distilled Water
Caffeine Solution
De-caffeinated Coffee Solution
Paper Towels
Droppers
Light Microscope
Glass/Cavity Slides
Counter
Stopwatch
Calculator
50ml beaker
Measuring cylinder
Variables in this experiment:
Manipulated Variable: Presence of Caffeine
Dependent Variable: The heart rate of the Daphnia
Independent Variable: Surrounding temperature and light
intensity
The surrounding temperature and light intensity should be kept
constant because any changes could result in an inaccurate
heart rate, for example, high light intensity could stress the
Daphnia out and cause their heart rate to increase and give
inaccurate results.
Plan:
1. Take a small piece of cotton wool and keep reducing its
size until it is just a few fibres.
2. Place the fibres on a glass slide.
3. Add the Daphnia and some water until the Daphnia is just
covered by it.
4. Put the slide under a light microscope and adjust the
magnification so that the organs of the Daphnia can be
seen clearly.
5. Identify the heart of the Daphnia through the light
microscope.
6. Add a few drops of ethanol to slow down the heart rate of
the Daphnia if it is too fast to count.
7. Start a stopwatch and record the number of heartbeats
with a counter for 20 seconds.
Ms Isaac
Kevin Pereira
Ms Isaac
Kevin Pereira
Ms Isaac
Kevin Pereira
Ms Isaac
Kevin Pereira
Analysis: By looking at the bar chart we can see that the mean
of the heart rate of the Daphnia with exposure to Caffeine
(assumed to be caffeinated solution) was only slightly more
than the heart rate without Caffeine(assumed to be
decaffeinated solution). The chart shows the mean of the
heartbeats of the Daphnia with exposure to the different
solutions, which is good because it shows the results more
clearly, in the table some values are much lower than others
and some values are higher in the control than in the caffeine
graph, which make the results seem inaccurate. The bar chart
is likely to look like this as decaffeinated also contains
stimulants in it and still contains a small amount of Caffeine,
this wouldve meant that the heart rates of the Daphnia would
still increase even without the Caffeine solution. This could also
be due to different sizes of Daphnia used and also Daphnia that
are of different ages. For example, younger Daphnia could have
faster heart rates than Daphnia that might be nearing the end
of their lifespan. The bar chart could also be slightly inaccurate
because alcohol was added at the start to decrease the heart
rate to make it easier to count. Different amounts of alcohol
given to the different Daphnia could have caused some heart
rates do decrease more than the others and thus show a lower
heart rate in the Caffeine graph. Another reason that the lines
might not be accurate is the amount of Caffeine added could
have varied slightly as it wasnt measure in definite amounts,
rather in drops and some drops could have been greater than
others and thus affect the heart rate.
Improvements:
1. Use another control solution as well that contains no
stimulants, such as water.
2. Use Daphnia that are all roughly the same size or the
same mass.
3. Add equal amounts of alcohol and solution (caffeinated or
decaffeinated) to each Daphnia slide.
Conclusion: The heart rate of the Daphnia does increase with
Caffeine as seen in the bar chart, even though it is just slightly
as Caffeine is a stimulant and affects the nervous system. I
have also concluded that de-caffeinated coffee does increase
the heart rate even though 97% of the caffeine concentration is
Ms Isaac
Kevin Pereira