Brine Shrimp Lab Template
#20
Name _____________________
You will be working in groups of 3-4 to design and carry out an experiment to test the effect of one
abiotic factor on brine shrimp.
Title:
Statement of the Problem:
Background Information:
Organisms must interact with their environment and other organisms in order to survive. An
organism’s environment provides the organism with all of its needs: space, water, energy, and air. The
specific area in an environment that provides an
organism with all of its basic needs, is called its
habitat.
In order to meet its needs, organisms must
interact with both the living and nonliving parts of its
environment. The living parts of a habitat are called
biotic factors, which include all autotrophs and
heterotrophs. The nonliving parts of the environment
are called abiotic factors. Abiotic factors include
water, sunlight, oxygen, temperature, soil and certain
chemicals.
For aquatic organisms-organisms that live in
water- other abiotic factors include pressure, pH,
salinity, circulation patterns and dissolved oxygen. In
this lab, you will investigate how changing one abiotic
factors affects the hatching of brine shrimp cysts.
Brine (brine = salty) shrimp are tiny animals
(see classification chart) that live in salty inland lakes
and eat microscopic algae. They are often grown to be used
as aquarium food. The brine shrimp life cycle begins with the
hatching of cysts (eggs). These cysts may stay dormant for
years as long as they are dry. However, once they are put
back into salt water, they continue their life cycle (see
diagram above.) After about 20 hours the cysts burst and the
baby brine shrimp leaves its shell. Brine shrimp reach
adulthood in 8 days and can continue to grow to 20mm in the
correct environment.
Classification of brine shrimp:
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Subphylum
Class:
Order:
Family:
Genus:
Species:
Animalia
Arthropoda
Crustacea
Branciopoda
Anostraca
Artemlidae
Artemia
various species
Brine shrimp prefer 25-30oC for hatching and a
salinity of 30-35 parts per thousand (ppt). Many species can
live in freshwater for only 5 hours before they die. Brine
shrimp need a pH of about 8. This means the water can’t be too acidic or basic. A strong light is needed
for hatching and so is a strong oxygen supply.
Variables:
* Independent:

Dependent:

Constant: (start a new line for each one)
Experimental Design: Sketch the experimental design, including all levels of the IV.
Materials: salt, water, petri dish, pipette, clear plastic cups, brine shrimp cysts, graduated
cylinder, tin foil,
Procedure: (step by step instructions: need to be numbered)
1. Obtain a plastic cup. Label the side of the plastic cup with your initials, section and IV level.
Hypothesis: (2 parts- prediction and reasoning)
Data Tables:
Qualitative Data
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 3
Day 4
Hatched?
(yes/no)
Qualitative
observations
Quantitative Data
IV
Day 2
Conclusion:
My hypothesis was ____________________________________ my data. I predicted that
(supported by/ not supported by)
__________________ would hatch the most brine shrimp. The data showed _______________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
(use specific data here…NUMBERS…from your data table!!!)
____________________________________________________________________________________
One possible error in my experimental process that could have occurred while collecting the data
was ________________________________________________________________________________
(a. consider how you counted shrimp… b. were your constant variables all kept constant?)
This could have affected the data because___________________________________________________
(explain how this could have affected your data…up? down? Why?)
____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
If I had to do this experiment again, I would try to eliminate this error and make my results more
accurate by ___________________________________________________________________________
(suggest specific changes you would make to your procedure & why- don’t just put “I would measure better”)
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
One thing I learned about brine shrimp by doing this lab is
One additional investigation I’d like to do with bring shrimp is
because
Brine Shrimp Lab Rubric
Title
1
_____
Statement of the Problem
1
_____
Variables
Independent
1
_____
1
_____
Dependent
Constant
2
_____
Sketch
4
_____
Materials
1
_____
Procedure
8
_____
Hypothesis
4
_____
Data Tables
1
_____
Graph
8
_____
Conclusion
8
_____
40 pts
_____
Experimental Design
TOTAL
(summative)