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The materials needed for this experiment were: spring water, many black planarians, Train-A-Tray T maze, electronic breadboard, camel hair brush, petri dishes, Tupperware dishes, raw liver, white masking tape, black colored masking tape, and an eye dropper. First we isolated five planarians into separate Tupperware dishes so we could distinguish the planarians and obtain accurate results for each planarian. Next we placed one planarian in the Train-A-Tray and allowed it to swim up to the fork and make a decision regarding which direction they would proceed.
Figure 6 Picture of planarian in Train-A-Tray being prepared to be tested. Black or white tape was placed at the spot in figure 6 where the camel hair brush is pointing. The planarian was started at the end of arm 1 and allowed to swim to the fork where it decides whether to go into arm 2 or 3. The planarian was ruled to have gone into an arm when its head passed the silver metal piece at the beginning of each arm. If the planarian decided to go into arm 3 it was given an electrical shock by the electronic breadboard. Our calculations were made based upon the direction the planarian decided to go into.
Figure 7 Picture of electronic breadboard set at about 9 volts. After completing 20 decisions the planarians were allowed to leave their isolation chambers and return to the reserve planarians’ petri dish. We tested five planarians for white, with the same procedure as demonstrated above. Then we tested five different planarians with black tape instead of white masking tape with the same procedure as previously noted for white. Periodically throughout the experiment we fed the planarians raw liver and also changed their water on a routine basis. They were fed liver about every 10 days and were allowed to eat for approximately 45 minutes. The water, which they were living in, was changed approximately every week. |
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