Bryn




 * __Title: Caffeine, Sugar, and You!__**


 * __Introduction:__**
 * Goals**
 * To observe the effect caffeine and sugar (the substances found in commercially sold energy drinks) affect your heart rate.
 * To compare the effect these substances have on the heart rate of a person who does not normally drink large amounts of caffeine to the effects it has on a person who regularly drinks large amounts of caffeine.
 * Relevance to Students:**
 * Many students regularly drink large amounts of commercially sold energy drinks to help them stay up to study. We would like to see what kind of effect this caffeine is having on their bodies.
 * Variables:**
 * Independent: The amount of “energy drink” ingested measured in mL
 * Dependant: Students’ heart rates measured in potential milivolts by electrocardiogram(EKG)

-appx. 3 liters of any commercially sold energy drink (we are using Red Bull) -exercise heart rate moniter -electrocardiogram (EKG) -saliene solution (to moisten heart rate moniter electrodes) -lab pro adapter -logger pro computer program -computer - 3 students = 1 student who doesn’t drinks energy drinks…………………………………(Jessie) = 1 student who drinks a moderate amount of energy drinks…………………(Phil) = 1 student who drinks large amounts of energy drink regularly………………(Chris)
 * __Materials:__**


 * __Method/Procedure__**
 * 1) Hook up Lab Pro device to computer
 * 2) Moisten heart rate moniter electrodes and ask student volunteer to put it on so that it fits tightly across chest
 * 3) Attach heart rate moniter sensor to lab pro device
 * 4) Stick EKG electrode patches on insides of both of volunteer’s elbows and on the inside of volunteer’s right wrist
 * 5) plug electrocardiogram into LabPro device
 * 6) connect micro alligator clips (circled in picture) to tabs on edges of electrode patches, attatching the green clip to the right elbow, the red clip to the left elbow, and the black clip to the right wrist
 * 7) open logger pro softwar, and collect data for 5 minutes, asking student volunteer to relax so you can establish a sitting heart rate
 * 8) after 5 minutes, have student drink 250 mL, record data for 7 minutes
 * 9) after seven minutes, have student drink another 250 mL
 * 10) repeat steps 8 and 9 about 6 times
 * 11) after 6th 250 mL drink, collect data for another 10 minutes
 * 12) repeat steps on next volunteers
 * //__NOTE!!!!! Do not let amount of caffeine drunk by volunteers exceed 800 mg…any more than this amount can be dangerous to a person’s health!!!!__//**


 * __Expectations:__**
 * I expect that when we graph the results of our experiment, the graph of heart rate to amount of energy drink drunk will not be linear. I think that for the first couple times the person drinks the energy drink, it will not increase their heart rate very much, but then, by the third or fourth cup, their heart rate will suddenly increase. I expect this will happen because for a certain amount of time, I think the body will be able to deal with the caffeine and perhaps spread it out throughout the bloodstream, but at a certain point the body will no longer be able to continue to keep up with the amount of caffeine being put into the system, and so the heart rate will suddenly go up.**

__Results of Experiment Attempt #1:__
 * We just attempted our experiment for the first time today, and we are had several problems that made it so we couldn’t get accurate results. First, we had Jessie (our student volunteer) drink only 100 mL of caffeine instead of 250mL. This was not enough caffeine to get any rapid effects. Secondly, since we were limited on time, we had her drink the red bull every 3 minutes. This caused two separate problems. First, as soon as Jessie raised her hand to drink the red bull, her heart rate spiked, messing with our results. Secondly, three minutes wasn’t enough time for the caffeine in the first cup of Red Bull to take effect, so by drinking the second so soon after the first cup, both cups would start working at about the same time, again messing with the results. We used these problems to alter our procedure to make it more specific, and hopefully we’ll be able to do it next time.

__Results of Completed Experiment :__ **TBA**

__Appendix I:__ Caffeine: Depolarization: Electrocardiogram: Electrode: Heart: Heart Rate: Milivolts: Polarized: Potential Milivolts:**