The 26th and the 28th of February some students of "G.Segantini" school have visited the labs of the Insubria University in Como. There, guided by Professor Roberta Bettinetti, responsible of Water Ecology and Ecotoxicology, we have performed an ecotoxicology test.

Ecotoxicological studies explore the mechanism and processes whereby the environmental chemicals exert their effects on ecosystems and their impact on the populations and communities.

In our test, we have used a population of Daphnia Magna, a little crustacean, as a bioindicator. We have tested their survival in some solutions of water with a different concentration of Potassium Dichromate.

At the end, we have collected our results and we have defined a standard method for a good test.

Below you can see a short video showing our experience.

And here another video showing all steps of the experiments and what our students have understood (this second video is in Italian language but each step is quite clear looking at the images). 

If you want to know something more about Daphnia Magna download this file:

SCIENCE, DAPHNIA MAGNA.pdf

If you want to know something more about scientific method, you can see the file below : 

THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD etwinning.pdf