Keywords: respiration, acid base indicators, muscle activity, carbon dioxide production, lab lesson plan.

Muscle contraction requires energy. This energy is obtained through cell respiration - the process of converting the energy stored in food to energy in the form of ATP. During respiration, oxygen is required and carbon dioxide is given off as a waste product. Would an increase in muscular activity, such as running, create an increased energy demand on the muscles? If this occurs, would there be a corresponding increase in the amount of carbon dioxide production?

Bromthymol blue is an acid base indicator. It is blue when basic, green when neutral and yellow when acidic. When carbon dioxide is added to a solution of Bromthymol blue, it turns green and then yellow depending on the amount of carbon dioxide added. The amount of carbon dioxide in the bromthymol green or yellow can be determined by a technique called titration.

Purpose:
1. To describe how carbon dioxide alters the color of bromthymol blue.
2. To learn how to use a titration technique to measure the amount of carbon dioxide added to bromthymol blue.
3. The compare the amounts of carbon dioxide produced by muscle tissue during different activities.
4. To explain how carbon dioxide production can be used to compare differences in muscular activity.

Materials: 50 mL Beaker, Barnes Dropping Bottle, Bromthymol Blue Solution , Drinking Straws, 0.4 % Sodium Hydroxide Solution, Graph Paper, Stopwatch

Your 6 page download will include a lab that is ready to be photocopied and passed out to your students. It will include: Title, Introduction, Purpose, Materials, Safety Precautions, Procedure, Observation Questions, and Data Tables. You can chose to have your students write their own lab reports or you can have them use the included Student Data Sheets on which they can record their data and answer the questions.

I have also included a Teacher Preparation Page. This will include pre-lab discussion, answers to all questions, and post lab follow up ideas.

You will receive both an editable Word document as well as a pdf form of the lab.

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