Baby Bottle Safety Elysia Burke

Purpose The purpose of this experiment is to determine, using duckweed, the detrimental effects that the chemicals in microwaved baby bottles can have on a living organism.

Hypothesis  It is thought that the duckweed plants grown in the water which is microwaved in the plastic bottles will produce less fronds than those grown in the water from the microwaved glass jars.  Additionally, it is hypothesized that the duckweed plants that are grown in water which is microwaved for longer periods of time will produce less fronds than those which are microwaved for a shorter period of time.

Background- Microwaves  Form of electromagnetic radiation  waves pass through containers and heat food  Waves cause water molecules in food to vibrate, producing heat  Foods with a higher fat content produce more heat  The microwave heat can cause the plastic of a container to leach some of its components

Background- HDPE  HDPE- High Density Polyethylene  Extensive research has proven that the ingredients in HPDE migrate in small amounts into the contents of a container when microwaved  Found in common household objects  Variables which affect chemical migration are  the length of time microwaved  the heat which is applied to the container

Background- Duckweed  Lemna Minor  Asexual reproduction through budding  grows new fronds from budding pouches  pouches are located on either side of an axis at the basal end of the cell  Invasive species- significant growth can be seen in 3 to 7 days  Daughter plants detach when matured

Duckweed Structure

Materials  10 Nuby plastic baby bottles  5 glass jars  15 plastic dishes  duckweed  microwave  growing lamp  spring water  beaker

Procedure  180mL of water are poured into each container.  containers are labeled Control  Five glass jars are microwaved for 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 minutes.  two minutes microwaved, two minutes rest  Cooled for 24 hours  10 mL of water from each container is placed into each of four sections of a plastic dish  five duckweed plants are placed in each section.  The plants are left to grow for four days under a growing lamp.  the number of fronds of duckweed in each section are counted and recorded Variable procedure is repeated for trials A and B of the plastic bottles.

Results

Variables  Independent variable- amount of time container is microwaved  Dependent variable- number of fronds grown by each duckweed plant  Control- the glass jars  Constants- time microwaved, location in microwave, amount of water in each container, amount of time left to cool, amount of time left to grow

Statistical Tests

Conclusion