Investigating the effect of caffeine on the heart rate of Daphnia

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Shivalee Patel

Core Practical Write Up

Testing the tensile strength of celery xylem and vascular bundles

Planning

I am going to be testing the tensile strength of celery’s vascular tissue with and without sclerenchyma and comparing it to see how the sclerenchyma affects the overall strength of the vascular tissues. 

Dependant variable: The dependant variable in this experiment is the mass/force needed to snap the vascular tissue strands. This will be measured by slowly placing masses on the end of the tissues until the strand snaps. We will then count up the mass added to the vascular tissues.

Independent variable: The independent variable is whether or not the vascular bundle will include sclerenchyma or not. 3 groups are going to be testing without the sclerenchyma and 4 groups are going to be testing with the sclerenchyma.

Controlled variables: We are going to be controlling the length of vascular tissue used which will be kept at 15cm throughout the class. The batch of celery used is also going to be controlled as much as we can use the celery from the same bunch each time. The method to hang the weights from the tissues is also going to be kept the same through the class room because different ways of attaching weights can add pressure to the vascular tissues in different areas making it break at different times possibly.

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Hypothesis: I believe the vascular tissues tested with the sclerenchyma will have a much higher tensile strength in comparison to the vascular tissues without the sclerenchyma. The sclerenchyma is very much lignified. This gives the plant more support meaning it takes a lot more force to actually cause the tissues to break. The vascular bundles being tested without the sclerenchyma will easily snap because the tissues only contain a minor amount of lignin and a lot of packing tissue which is not as tough as the sclerenchyma.

Key equipment: I will be using two clamps to hold the bull dog ...

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