Science Fair Projects About Caffeine on Heart Rate Daphnia

Water Fleas Experiment

Water fleas can be a great test subject for medical experiments. They are easy to find and easy to examine. However, they are living creatures so make sure that you are humane in your experimentation methodologies.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this experiment was to determine how caffeine affected the heart rate of daphnia Pullex (Water Flea).

I became interested in this idea when I read two different sources that gave me conflicting information about caffeine affecting the heart rate so I wanted to test it.

The information gained from this experiment may be used by the medical world to show what caffeine does to the heart rate and to human health. This information may also be used by patients with serious heart problems, and also by heavy coffee drinkers.

 

View your specimens on TV with a Video Scope Eyepiece attachment to your student microscope!

HYPOTHESIS

My hypothesis was that as the caffeine increases, so would the daphnia heart beat.

I base my hypothesis on information collected from the Internet site "Healthcentral.com"that says "that caffeine taken in the faster the heart rate.

EXPERIMENT DESIGN

The constants in this study were:

-The same species of daphnia
-The same water temperature
-The same microscope
-The same kind of habitat
-The same amount of food

The manipulated variable was the amount of caffeine used in the water.

The responding variable was the rate of the heart beat. To determine the heart rate the beats were counted in pulses.

To measure the responding variable a microscope and video camera were used to record how many beats of the daphnia heart rate occurred in 10 seconds. These pulses were recorded with a video microscope and slowed down to accurately count the beats.

MATERIALS

Finish reading this abstract at water felas science fair projects.