Name : Umar Rehman

Does caffeine affect heart rate?

Purpose
To investigate the effect of caffeine on the heart rate of Daphnia (water fleas).

Caffeine
Caffeine is a central nervas system stimulant of the methylxanthine class. It is the world’s most
widely consumed psychoactive drug. Which is especially in tea and coffee plants.
Hypothesis:
I think that as the concentration of caffeine increases the heart rate of the daphnia will also increase.
Scientific Reasoning:
Caffeine is found to effect the nervous system and speed up the rate of nerve pulse being sent and
received in human beings. Caffeine is a drug that is known to be a stimulant, this explains its effect
on the central nervous system and heart rate in humans
Analysis of Variables:
Independent variable
The independent variable in this experiment was the concentration of the caffeine solution that the
daphnia was placed in.
Dependent variable
The dependant variable in this experiment is the heart rate of daphnia that was measured in beats
per minute,
Controlled variables
There were some variables that we kept the same to increase the validity of our results, we had to
control the temperature as the daphnia’s heart rate is temperature sensitive. We also had to ensure
the daphnia weren’t stressed as this can raise the heart rate.
Control Procedure:
We turned off the light between counting to help prevent a raise in the temperature of the water and
we used pond water to ensure the daphnia are in a similar physical environment.
Apparatus
Pond water, microscope, cavity slide, Cotton wool ,daphnia, caffeine solution, beaker, spatula,
pipette.
Procedure.
 Set up a range of labelled test tubes each containing about 10cm3 of a caffeine solution, and
one tube containing pond water only.
 using a wide ‘mouthed’ dropper pipette place two or three Daphnia Into each tube. Leave in
the solution for about 5 minutes.
 Put a cotton wool into the cavity slide and and drops of pond water and caffeine solution on it
.
 Transfer carefully a daphnia onto the wet cotton wool and cover with a cover slip
 View under the microscope and count the heart rate for 30 seconds.
 Record heart rate into the results table.
 Return water flea to labelled beaker, so that they can be returned to the college pond
 Repeat measures at each concentration of caffeine.
Results

Concentration Heart rate of daphnia over 20 minutes Mean value of heart rate of Daphnia (Beats per minute)
of caffeine (%) (Beats per minute)

TEST 1 0.1(%) 166 182 195 413

TEST 2 0.2(%) 194 200 210 464
TEST 3 0.3(%) 225 218 273 534
TEST 4 0.4(%) 269 290 300 659

Conclusions:
These results support my hypothesis, the results shows a trend and you can say that caffeine
has an effect on the heart rate as the results support this. There is a positive correlation
between the heart rate of Daphnia and caffeine concentration . As i increased the concentration
of caffeine the heart rate of daphnia increases accordingly .

Making improvements by choosing alternative apparatus.

We could have used a microscope without a light to stop the effect of light on the temperature
of the water.