Effects Of A Stimulant On Lumbriculus Variegates John Warne And Vjosa Bela

1. Effects Of A Stimulant On Lumbriculus VariegatesJohn Warne And VjosaBela Materials: microscope, wellslides, slip covers, 2 cups, pipipette,5 worms in stimulant water, 5 worms in plain water, stopwatch Variables: Independent Variable: Stimulant Water. Dependent Variable: Pulse Rate Controlled Variables: Worms, testing area, temperature, and people. Control Group: The worms in the plain water. INTRO:Lumbriculusvariegatus, also known as the California black worm can be found in shallow habitats where it can feed on decaying vegetation. They are found mostly on the banks of small ponds. The worm’s respiratory behavior is to stretch its tail vertically just breaking the water by making a right angle bend. This process facilitates a gas exchange. In a lab setting the California black worm will reproduce a sexually by fragmentation. The reason for using the black worm is because it has a closed system of vessels and capillaries. This makes it easy to read the pulse of the worm in the dorsal vessel. The worm is also transparent. In this experiment worms were places in stimulant water, depressant water and plain water. We will be comparing the pulse rate to our control group which is the plain water. The stimulant water should increase the worms pulse and the depressant should decrease the worms pulse. Procedure: Gather all materials. Then label one cup with an “s” for stimulant, and one cup with a “p” for plain water, also label two other cups with a “p-done” marking and an “s-done” marking. Using the pipette suck up 5 worms from the stimulant water and place in the stimulant cup, Be sure to be careful with the worms, because they are very fragile. Do the same for the plain water worms. Using a pre-prepared well slide and the pipette, place one worm from the plain water cup onto the slide and calculate the pulse rate per minute using a stopwatch. Then return this worm to a different cup with a “p-done” marking on it. Repeat this process with the stimulant worms and place them in a cup with a “s-done” marking on it. Then record all your data. Conclusion:In our experiment, we discovered that the stimulant worm had a higher pulse rate than the plain water by an average of 5.2 pulses per minute. The data we collected ended up supporting our hypothesis; stimulate water did have an effect on the worms. The behavior of the stimulate worms was different from the plain water. One way to improve is to increase the number of worms.. By using more than 5 worms will give us a more accurate data than using just 5. Hypothesis: we predict that the worms in the stimulant water will have a higher pulse rate than the worms in the plain water. www.eeob.iastate.edu/faculty/drewesc.htdoc