Abstract
Daphnia has been used to demonstrate the effect of stimulants such as caffeine and energy drinks in several activities designed for use in high schools. There are similar activities designed for college level students utilizing blackworms. This presentation describes how these activities were enhanced by coupling a microscope to a video recording device and digital data recording system such that more accurate quantification of the rate of heartbeats (in the case of the Daphnia) and the blood vessel pulsation (in the place of the blackworms) can be obtained. Thiis facilitates the use of these systems, not only to demonstrate stimulant activities in compounds but also to screen cardiovascular properties in new compounds and or in extracts from medicinal plants. Dose related responses were found and analyzed for each of the stimulant studied. This presentation will describe the set-up for the video recorder and data acquisition system to the microscope and the results obtained and how this could be replicated in middle and high school labs.
Description
Education Poster Session 2
