Lesson 12. What Effects Respiration Rates?
Estimated Time: 2 days
Objective: Allow students to perform an experiment of their own design to see what can effect
respiration rates in organisms.
EQ: What environmental conditions may affect the rate of cellular respiration in an organism?
Bridge: Watch the short video that show how you can measure respiration in yeast. They really
don’t tell how to do the experiment outright since they need to use what they have learned to
figure out what is going on and what they are measuring, but you really want to at least give
them a jump point of what they might look for.
Yeast Fermentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY6IrdyzhgQ&feature=fvwrel
Mini Lesson:
Expectations for the Work Period:
Using the Laboratory Template, you are going to develop your own experiment to see what
environmental conditions might affect respiration rates. You will use the yeast and fermentation
to do this since we really don’t want to kill any animals in this procedure. You will have to
develop your own question you will test, come up with a hypothesis to test, design the
experiment, collect and organize your data, analyze it and then do your evaluation. By the end of
the first period, you will need to let me know what materials you will need to do your experiment
with so that they are available for you tomorrow.
Work Period: Experimental Design.
Have students set up and present their labs in a gallery walk and record sheet (Experiment title,
independent variable, and results). I try to encourage no more than 2 groups testing the same
variable, so they can see a variety of different effects in the end.
Once they have completed this, have them add the mitochondria to the cells on their big posters
inside of the cell membrane they have already drawn and indicate the reaction taking place (just
like the diagram they did in lesson 11)
Summary: Answer the EQ
Closing: Give a scientific explanation for why each of these variables caused a change in
cellular respiration (hint, it is a concept we have already covered!)
SPED and ELL Modifications:
1. Outline some specific questions for the Bridge video
a. What’s in the beakers?
b. Why are the balloons inflating?
c. Why does it take some longer to inflate then others ?
d. What are the beakers in? Why?
2. For the work period- help students come up with some questions to test.
Apps and Internet Activities:
1. Although not experimental design on respiration rates- this is a great pdf with a rubric for
experimental design to help explain some of the aspects you are looking for in students’
experiments: http://mjksciteachingideas.com/pdf/ExpDesRef.pdf
2. This is another template for experimental design- can be opened in a word or pdf form:
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/criticalthinking/6562
3. A virtual activity –how temperature affects respiration rates:
http://www.phschool.com/science/biology_place/labbench/lab5/intro.html
4. For Data Analysis students could use netbooks to make their own graph using:
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx?ID=47b2a8e81efd48f991d8e34272
cce760
Independent Practice: Answer the following regents questions.
Base your answers to questions 1 through 6 on the information and diagrams below and on your
knowledge of biology.
The laboratory setups represented below were used to investigate the effect of temperature on
cellular respiration in yeast (a single-celled organism). Each of two flasks containing equal
amounts of a yeast-glucose solution was submerged in a water bath, one kept at 20°C and one
kept at 35°C. The number of gas bubbles released from the glass tube in each setup was observed
and the results were recorded every 5 minutes for a period of 25 minutes. The data are
summarized in the table below.
Directions (49–51): Using the information in the data table, construct a line graph on the grid on
the next page, following the directions below.
1. Mark an appropriate scale on each axis. [1]
2. Plot the data for the total number of bubbles released at 20°C on the grid on the next
page. Surround each point with a small circle and connect the points. [1]
3. Plot the data for the total number of bubbles released at 35°C on the grid. Surround each
point with a small triangle and connect the points. [1]
4. State one relationship between temperature and the rate of gas production in yeast. [1]
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5.
Identify the gas that would be produced by the process taking place in both laboratory
setups. [1] _____________________________
6. Give a biological reason as to why gas production in the higher temperature is higher
than in the lower temperature [1]
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