ABSTRACT
One of the goals of the Science Education Against Drug Abuse Partnership
(SEADAP) is to increase student knowledge about drugs through the
implementation of an inquiry-based curriculum. A science teacher who was a
participant in the SEADAP program served as a facilitator for middle school
students participating in an after-school program to assist them with designing
their own experiment using planarians (flatworms) exposed to caffeine, sugar,
and an energy drink. Results indicated that the average velocity of the
planarians in 1 mM caffeine, 1 mM sucrose, and 0.1% Monster Energy drink
increased in comparison to their behavior in spring water. The students also
learned that substances such as energy drinks can be lethal to planarians.
Key Words: SEADAP; inquiry-based instruction; energy drink; planarians;
flatworms.
Introduction
Energy drinks are popular among teenagers and are consumed
more frequently by them than by adults
(Visram et al., 2016). Strangely enough, in
the United States there are no limits on
the amount of caffeine that an energy drink
can legally contain (Rath, 2012). This is a
major concern and problem for the health
of youth because energy drink consumption
can cause adverse health effects, including
headaches, anxiety, heart palpitations, chest
pain, increased heart rate, nausea, insomnia,
anxiety, hallucinations, nervousness, breathlessness, and stomach aches (Pagán et al.,
2009; Rath, 2012; Bernstein, 2014). In addition to caffeine, energy drinks contain large
amounts of sugar, which can cause cavities, periodontal disease, diabetes, and obesity (Rath, 2012).
Making students aware of the dangers of energy drinks is important, and this was the motivation of a group of eighth-grade students
who participated in an after-school program that examined the different effects that an energy drink could have on the human body.
They did this through an experiment using planarians, a type of
flatworm that displays mammalian-like responses when exposed to
substances such as caffeine and sucrose (Rawls et al., 2011; Zhang
et al., 2013). Energy drinks are readily accessible, associated with
substance use, and consumed by teenagers (Terry-McElrath et al.,
2014). The procedure designed and implemented by these students
was unique to their inquiry about the effects of Monster Energy
drink on planarians. The students hypothesized that caffeine,
sucrose, and Monster Energy drink would affect the motility of
planarians.
Purpose
The purpose of this student-organized investigation was to examine
the motility of planarians via their velocity in different concentrations
of sucrose, caffeine, and Monster Energy drink and
determine the effect of these solutions on this
organism.
Participants
This lesson is designed for a classroom of 25 students, and the teacher will need at least 30 minutes
to set up all the materials for the investigation.
Instruction
During discussion with the teacher, students
compared the human nervous system to the planarian nervous system and were introduced to how planarians can be used as a model
“The students
hypothesized that
caffeine, sucrose, and
Monster Energy drink
would affect the
motility of
planarians.”
The American Biology Teacher, Vol. 81, No. 6, pp. 430–434, ISSN 0002-7685, electronic ISSN 1938-4211. © 2019 National Association of Biology Teachers. All rights
reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Reprints and Permissions web page,
www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p=reprints. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2019.81.6.430.
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