Today we learned about the importance of mutations for organisms. We started the class by differentiating the shells in multiple ways (the shells were found in the same area). My partner Karina and I separated the shells by their shapes, patterns on the surface and colors. Later on, I learned that these beautiful shells are different because of mutations. Each of the shells have different genes to help them survive and reproduce in an environment, and pass on to the next generation.
Looking for further information, we did a lab of breeding brine shrimp in salt water with different concentrations. The purpose of the lab is to see what is the percentage of salt water would be better for the brine shrimps to survive and reproduce.
Question: In what environment can the brine shrimp can survive and reproduce more easily?
Hypothesis: Brine shrimps can survive and reproduce better in water with high concentration of salt.
Design:
1. Get 5 dishes with the same size.
2. Put 50 ml of distilled water in each dish, with a salt concentration of 0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2%
3. Place 20 brine shrimp eggs in each dish, and put the lids on top of the dishes
4. Wait for 24 hours, and open the lids to find out how many brine shrimps hatched in each dish
5. Calculate the percentage and record the results
Analysis: As a result, the dish with 0.5% concentration of salt has the most brine shrimps hatched. There is no brine shrimps hatched in the dish with 0% concentration, and the number of brine shrimps hatched goes down from 0.5% concentration.
Conclusion: From the lab, we can see that the brine shrimps can almost adapt to any type of water with different salt concentrations, which explains why they can survive when the rains fall or the water evaporates.
- Andy Liu '15
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