Investigation 3
Toxicology
Toxins are ubiquitous in our society. Even substances that are commonly considered healthy such as vitamins and water can be toxic if over used. Knowledge that toxicity is dosage dependent enables students to transfer the lessons of this investigation broadly to other substances about which they will need to make informed future decisions. By first creating a definition for toxicity and then observing and analyzing the effects that differing concentrations of ethanol have on the Daphnia heart rates, students learn that alcohol is a toxin.
Students will:
- Measure the effects of alcohol on the heart rates of Daphnia.
- Define toxicity as the property of a substance to substance to harm humans or animals and is related to dosage.
- Graph heart rate vs. alcohol concentration.
- Interpret data to conclude that alcohol negatively affects the regulation of heart rate in Daphnia.
