1. The Effect Of Alcohol On Blackworms
By: Jared Fearby and Sarah Kuehne
Albion High School
Genesee Community College Bio 100
Materials:
Microscope
Lumbriculus variegates
Plain water
Water with 1 mm of vodka added
Water with 2mm of vodka added
Timer
Welles slide
Pippetter
Introduction:The Lumbriculus variegates, better known as the blackworm is a type of Phylum Annelid with two cell layers, tissues and organs. they have transparent skin, this makes blackworms good for studying pulse rates due to being able to easily see there circulatory system. We are using alcohol as our toxin to test on blackworms. C2H6O otherwise known as ethanol is the main ingredient in many alcoholic drinks. Alcohol can be lethal if enough is consumed. Although every person is different a blood alcohol content of .30% or higher can be lethal. Some common effects of alcohol are Slurred speech
Drowsiness, Vomiting, Upset stomach, Headaches, and Distorted vision.
Plain/Spring Water
1mm Vodka
2mm Vodka 16 13 19 11 12 10 14 15 17
Data Collected BeforeTesting
Results: the data shows that when blackworms are submerged in alcohol for 5 minutes there pulse rate increases. Some of the worms with no pulse appeared dead but after about twenty minutes they appeared to be alive. This could be because the alcohol stopped there circulatory system.
Conclusion: these results show that we were wrong in our hypothesis. The blackworms pulse rates actually increase when submerged in alcohol for 5 minutes. This data was unexpected because alcohol is a depressant which should make their pulse rate decrease. This could be because when alcohol is initially consumed blood will dilate, this can cause the pulse rate to increase. A limitations of the experiment are that we could only keep the worms in the alcohol for a short amount of time or they would die. A better way to test the pulse rate of blackworms in alcohol is to keep them in a lower dosage of alcohol for a longer period of time.
Plain/Spring Water
1mm Vodka
2mm Vodka 13 24 18 20 22
no pulse 15 19 11 26 32 36 14 16 17 31 34 33
Hypothesis: The blackworms in the alcohol will have a lower pulse rate then worms in plain water
Independent Variable: The alcohol
Dependent variable: The blackworms pulse rate
Control setup: the plain water the worms are in
Constants: the temperature of the liquids
Data Collected After Tested
Procedure: 1) First we mixed our toxin in two separate cylinders containing different amounts of alcohol with the same amount of water per container. One containing 1 mm of alcohol and the other containing 2 mm of alcohol. 2) We then labeled and filled three petri dishes. One labeled as plain water and the other two labeled 1 mm and 2 mm. 3) We then took a single blackworm from a room temperature dish holding hundreds and tested its pulse rate before we submerged it into the spring/plain water by placing it on a welles slide under a microscope. 4) We then submerged the worm in the water for five minutes and then removed the worm and tested its pulse rate once more to see if there was any change.We repeated this step nine more times in the spring/plain water. 5) We next tested the 1 mm solution by following the same process as we did with the spring/plain water. 6) Lastly, we tested the blackworms in the 2 mm solution, again following the same process as we did with the other two. 7) Once we finished testing all thirty blackworms, we gathered our results and compared our new found data to our hypothesis.
References:
Drewes, C., (2004, september) Lumbriculus variegatus: A Biology Profile, Pbworks.com
Drewes, Charles D., Dr. “Lumbriculus variegatus: a Biology Profile.”invertabrate neurobiology (n.d.):