Volume 6, Spring 2008 - Saddleback College

Fall 2007 Biology 3A Abstracts
15. THE EFFECT OF MODERN ROLLER COASTER RIDE ON HUMAN HEART RATE. Yoko Kamei and
Diana Nguyen. Department of Biological Sciences, Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, California 92692
The human heart has an average heart rate of 72 beats per minute. In our experiment, seven females
and seven males between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight were selected in order to determine
whether riding a modern roller coaster has a significant effect on human heart rate before and after the
ride. The fourteen human subjects being tested had no history of cardiac disease. We measured the
human heart rate using a chest and wrist heart rate monitor on each human subject. We recorded the
heart rate beats/min before and after riding Disneyland’s California Adventure’s California Screamin’ roller
coaster. As a result, the average heart rate beats/min of the tested human subjects before riding the roller
coaster was 87.50 beats/min ± 3.47 beats/min (±se). The average heart rate beats/min after riding the
roller coaster was 171.85 beats/min ± 6.64 beats/min (±se). In our experiment, the higher heart rate
beats/min after riding the roller coaster is the tachycardia heart rate. As a result, the average human heart
rate beats/min is significantly higher after riding the roller coaster than the average human heart rate
beats/min before riding the roller coaster (p=3.66 x 10 -9 , two-tailed t-test).
16. THE AFFECT OF ROUNDUP ® ON OXYGEN PRODUCTION OF RED ALGAE (RHODOPHYTA)
Robert E. Maloney and Bianca Christensen. Department of Biological Sciences, Saddleback College,
Mission Viejo, California 92692
Red algae have been established by biologists to be an efficient oxygen producer. The effect of a
pollutant such as the presence of a commonly used weed killer, on the ability of Rhodophyta to continue
producing oxygen at normal levels sparked an interest for our study. It was predicted that the RoundUp
(Scotts Co, Marysville ,OH) will affect the photosynthetic efficiency of Rhodophyta and that the
experimental group would produce signifgantly lower rates of oxygen production than that of the control
group. Rates of oxygen production from the control group were 6.64 ± 0.702 ppm and from the
experimental group were 4.86 ± 0.575 ppm. These results do support our hypothesis by showing that the
Experimental group does produce significantly lower rates of oxygen production than that of the control
group.
17. THE EFFECT OF SOIL pH ON THE GROWTH OF PHASEOLUS VULGARIS AND RAPHANUS
SATIVUS. Lindy A. Ackerman and Brittany N. Lincoln. Department of Biological Sciences, Saddleback
College, Mission Viejo, California 92692
The pH of the soil greatly affects plant growth, affecting the availability and uptake of nutrients by the
roots of the plant. In this experiment, the effects of different pH solutions on the growth of two common
food crops: the common pole bean plant (Phaseolus vulgaris) and radishes (Raphanus sativus) were
studied to determine the optimum pH for cultivating these crops. It was hypothesized that there would be
a significant difference between the growth of these plants, separately, at pH 3 and pH 9. It was
determined that there was no significant difference between the growth of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) at
pH3 and pH9 (p=0.41, unpaired, two-tailed t-test). It was also determined that there was no significant
difference between the growth of radishes (Raphanus sativus) at pH 3 and pH 9 (p=0.05, unpaired, twotailed
t-test).
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Saddleback Journal of Biology
Spring 2008