Dosage Lab
By Ioan Bolohan
Science Period 7
October 5, 2006
Problem:
How much of the compound vinegar will affect the growth and germination
of radish seeds?
Hypothesis:
I think that 50% concentration of the solution will halt the germination of
the radish seeds.
Experiment:
Materials:
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Cups
Pipette
Tray
Vinegar
Plastic Sandwich Bags
Radish Seeds
Paper Towels
Graduated Cylinder
Beakers
Procedures:
1. Prepare six solutions of your chemical (following the instruction on the
“Making Solutions for Toxicity Testing” worksheet) Label the cups as
#1 (control) through #6 (full strength chemical)
2. Label six plastic bags, with the number of the solution, the percent of
concentration of chemical, and the letter and period of the group.
Here #1
is an example:
0%
Group 1D
3. Put two paper napkins together and fold them in half so that they fit
in the plastic bag. Fill each bag with two folded napkins.
4. Using proper safety precautions, pour each chemical solution (in all
20mL) into the matching bag.
5. Count out ten radish seeds, and place them on the moist napkins in the
bag for Solution #1. Space the seeds out evenly.
6. Seal the bag, pushing out the air as you go.
7. Repeat steps 5 and6 for each of the other solutions.
8. Place seed bags in a stack on the tray indicated by Mr. C (A.K.A.
Coolio, C-Squared, Chamillionare, and C-Dog)
9. After 1 day, 2 days, and 3 days observe the number of seeds that
have germinated.
Drawing of Activity:
Key
Green- Germinated
aaaaaaradish seed
Brown- Not
aaaaaagerminated
Aaaaaaradish seed
Day One
Control Group0% Vinegar 100% Water
6.25% Vinegar
93.75% Water
12.5% Vinegar
87.5% Water
25% Vinegar
75% Water
50% Vinegar
50% Water
100% Vinegar
0% Water
Day 2
Control Group0% Vinegar 100% Water
6.25% Vinegar
93.75% Water
12.5% Vinegar
87.5% Water
25% Vinegar
75% Water
50% Vinegar
50% Water
100% Vinegar
0% Water
Control Group0% Vinegar 100% Water
6.25% Vinegar
93.75% Water
12.5% Vinegar
87.5% Water
25% Vinegar
75% Water
50% Vinegar
50% Water
100% Vinegar
0% Water
Day 3
Conclusions
1. My chemical liquid was vinegar. Vinegar has no potential harmful
reactions with humans; for it is ingested in our foods and as a topping
for others. This means that it isn’t harmful to us and made me think
that it most likely wouldn’t have a bad reaction with the plant, though
the experiment had a contradicting result.
2. The bag with the highest dose was also the bag with the highest
concentration because it had the most possible percentage of the
liquid text subject, 100%. As proven in class, 100% is the highest
concentration or dosage a living individual (fauna or flora) might
encounter; for more would be virtually impossible.
3. The “effective dose” of my chemical is 12.5% concentration or a
2.5mL dose of vinegar. I arrived at this conclusion by looking at my
results graph and seeing that the amount of germinated seeds
decreased to zero just as the concentration reached 12.5%.
My hypothesis was incorrect. I thought that 50% concentration of the
vinegar would kill radish seeds and halt germination when all it took was
12.5% concentration. I chose the 50% concentration as my answer because it
I wasn’t sure whether the vinegar would have a positive or negative result, so
I went with the safe option of one half or 50%.
The only problem that I encountered throughout the experiment was a
small margin of error with the liquid measurements and the smashing of the
radish seeds which could have germinated though died in the process of
their smashing.
Charts and Graphs:
Bag
Number
Test Liquid
1 (Control)
Dose
(Percent of
Concentration)
0%
Day 1
Number of
Number of
Seeds
Seeds Not
Germinated Germinated
10
0
Response
Day 2
Number of
Number of
Seeds
Seeds Not
Germinated Germinated
10
0
Day 3
Number of
Number of
Seeds
Seeds Not
Germinated
Germinated
10
0
2
6.25%
2
8
3
7
3
7
3
12.5%
0
10
0
10
0
10
4
25%
0
10
0
10
0
10
5
50%
0
10
0
10
0
10
6
100%
0
10
0
10
0
10