AP Environmental Science Worm Lab Report

Introduction
Caffeine, while not normally considered lethal, is fatal in large doses. Its effects in varying doses
were tested on Kingworms in this experiment. In toxicology, the median lethal dose is
abbreviated as LD50 (lethal concentration 50%), in other words the amount of a substance
required to kill 50% of the members in a tested sample. The purpose of this experiment was to
determine the LD50 dosage of caffeine on Kingworms.
Hypothesis
If 3 doses of caffeine (0.021 g, 0.048 g, 0.096 g) are given to 3 separate petri dishes of worms
and no dose to one control dish, then the percentage of live worms will decrease and the LD 50
dosage can be determined with a linear regression model.
Materials
8 petri dishes
27 Kingworms
powdered caffeine
balance
scooping tool
tweezers
paper
beakers
distilled water
filter paper
Procedure
1.
Scoop 7 worms into each petri dish and 6 worms into control (*not enough worms to
allocate 7 worms to control group)
2.
Assign arbitrary caffeine dosage values to 3 petri dishes: 0.021 g, 0.048 g, 0.096 g.
Control group receives no caffeine.
3.
Use 4 petri dishes to and dissolve each dosage of caffeine into 2 mL of distilled water
4.
Pour water onto filter paper side of other petri dishes
5.
Wait 2 days
6.
Record percentage of dead worms
7.
Calculate linear regression model between grams of caffeine and percentage of alive
worms
8.
Use best fit model to determine LD50 dosage (aka grams needed to kill 50% of worms)
Data Collection/Analysis
( x variable)
Grams of
Caffeine Per
Petri Dish

0g

0.021g

0.048g

0.096g

(y variable)
Percentage of
Alive Worms
After 2 Days

67%
(4 alive/6)

85.71%
(6 alive/7)

42.86%
(3 alive/7)

14.29%
(1 alive/7)

Model of Best Fit Equation: y = -664.9585334x + 79.8945395 *r2 value = 0.7952578902

Proposed LD50 Dosage: 0.0449569981 grams or 44.9569981 mg
Conclusion
The least percentage of alive worms was at the greatest caffeine dosage. The graph shows that
there is a general decreasing percentage of alive worms as grams of caffeine increase, matching
the hypothesis. The calculated line of best fit is relatively accurate, with the r 2 value explaining
79.5% of the variability of the data. Thus the proposed LD50 dosage (44.9569981 mg) can also be
considered as relatively accurate. Errors of this experiment might be sources of human error such
as inaccurate measurements of caffeine. The control group is an outlier and might have been
fixed by allocating the same number of worms in comparison to the other groups.