Magic Grow Capsules Lab Report

The purpose of this lab was to explore and understand the scientific method and how to apply it to experimental procedures, as well as developing an understanding the importance of complete and concise presentation of experimental results obtained by statistical data analysis from collected raw findings. These learning objectives were accomplished by testing the emergence times of sponge creatures from their gelatin capsules by asking the question, “How does water temperature effect the time in which the sponge creatures materialize from their casing?”. An experiment was designed to test this using two different water temperatures and twenty four sponge gelatin capsules (1). Often referred to as “Magic Grow Capsules” or “Magic Animal Growing Capsules” these capsules are comprised of a sponge animal that has been placed in a small casing composed of gelatin. When placed in water the gelatin begins to break down. This is due to the side chains of dissociable and polar groups attached to the amino acids in the gelatin (2). Heat can also plays a factor in how quickly these side chains can be separated from the structure and dissolved. Certain functional groups that resided on the amino acid chains of the gelatin

50ml of the water was obtained and placed into a Styrofoam cup. A capsule was then added to the water and a timer was started. A stirrer thermometer was used to stir the water at a constant pace until the sponge emerged. Once the sponge creature emerged the timer was stopped and the time recorded. This experiment was repeated once more with distilled water heated to 80̊C (1). Once the results from each group were documented an unpaired t test was preformed using the collected data. The t test results were then plotted and graphed to determine whether or not heat had an effect on the emergence time of the sponge creature from the gelatin