WORCESTER TECH SCIENCE CLASS

What seems to be a problem Teenagers caffeine addiction is a rising issue. More teenagers are consuming caffeine dealing with stress and sleep prevention. Caffeine may cause short or long term hypertension (high blood pressure) that can damage of blood vessels. There are some unproven concerns regarding caffeine causing DNA mutation???

Hypothesis

Objectives

Materials Blood pressure kit Stethoscope Coca Cola cans Alcohol wipes Camera Participants (volunteers) Clock Images of DNA molecule Images of caffeine molecules

Caffeine Hypertension Hypotension Diastolic Systolic DNA Deoxyribonucleic Acid Nucleotides( A= T; G=C ) Adenine A Guanine G Cytosine C Thymine T

Procedures Parents’ permission slips for student participants. Measure student’s blood pressure before consumption of a single Coca Cola can. Participants consume only one Coca Cola can per day. Measure the blood pressure after 30 minutes and 60 minutes of consumption of all fifty participants. Do analysis with gathered data Compare DNA molecule and caffeine molecule. Draw a conclusion.

Measuring blood pressure before

Measuring blood pressure after

Name of Participates Before Drinks After 30 Minutes After 60 Minut es Participant #195/70100/80100/76 Participant #2100/70110/75100/50 Participant #3110/60120/75106/82 Participant #4110/60110/80120/90 Participant #5110/70110/65100/76 Participant #6110/70 100/60 Participant #7 110/80120/60120/70 Participant #8120/60108/68120/70 Participant #9120/77118/70110/50 Participant #10120/78123/70110/80

G Data of blood pressure of 10 most affected participants

Observation Overall, ten students out of 47 or 21 % of participants resulted in a increase of blood pressure by ten degrees after consuming a single coca cola within 30 or 60 minutes. Two out of 47 participants or 4% resulted in a increase of blood pressure after 30 minutes drinking a single can of Coca Cola. After 60 minutes 2 out of 47 or 4% of participants had anther increase of blood pressure compared with 30 minutes ago. Some participates blood pressure after 30 minutes would go up and after 60 minutes it would actually go back down. For some participants, there was a very small fluctuation of blood pressure resulting in either increase or decrease of blood pressure. Four out 47 or 8.5 % of participants resulted to have no effect on caffeine in blood pressure after they drank the Coca Cola can. Three out of 47 0r 6.4% participants acted as control (no consumption of coca cola) and there was no changes on blood pressure after 30 and 60 minutes.

Expected Conclusion Everybody’s organism works in a different way dealing with caffeine. Overall, at least 25 % of participants had a short term increase of blood pressure after 30 – 60 minutes of consumption of a single coca cola can. More tests are required to determine if caffeine has a long term effect in hypertension. 8.5 % of tested students can actually handle caffeine and their blood pressure did not fluctuate. More research is needed to determine if caffeine can replace DNA nucleotides because of similarities of both molecules.(future research)

Acknowledgment We are thankful to my science advisor, Mr. Guri Dura, for helping throughout of this project providing science materials, time, and problem solving. We are appreciative to all my classmates who volunteered in completion of this project and their parents who granted permissions for tested participants. We are graceful to my family for their encouragement and support in completion of this project.