Discussion:

In this experiment, we used respirometer to measure the rate of respiration of the grasshopper
and frog. This device measured the rate of respiration of living organisms by measuring its
rate of oxygen consumption. The respirometer is designed as a sealed bottle with either the
grasshopper or the frog inside together with cotton wads soaked with Potassium hydroxide
(KOH) solution. The Potassium hydroxide (KOH) acts to absorb the carbon dioxide (CO 2)
inside the container and the carbon dioxide released by the grasshopper or the frog during
respiration. Besides, a wire mesh is also being inserted into the bottle to prevent direct
contact between the grasshopper and the frog with the corrosive potassium hydroxide. The
oxygen (O2) uptake is measured by the pipette contained colored indicator solution as marker.
Thus, since all the carbon dioxide has been absorbed by the KOH, all of the drop of pressure
in the bottle can be attributed to the drop of O2 partial pressure in the bottle.

Next, throughout this experiment, we found out that the rate of oxygen (O 2)
consumption by grasshopper increased at every five minutes interval for thirty minutes. The
increased of the oxygen consumption of the grasshopper can be due to temperature or
pressure, the size of its body and its movement. However, since the respirometer is a close
system, the temperature and pressure are kept constant. But, it was also unfortunate for our
group since we were using two grasshoppers of the same weight, which was 0.9648g that
making it hard for us to compare the effect of the different body size on the rate of respiration
of the grasshopper. Theoretically, we believed that the smaller the animal the more rapid its
rate of respiration is. This theory is proved as the small animal like grasshopper is active
(making many movements) and have higher metabolism rate as compared to larger animal
like the frog and therefore contributed in a higher rate of oxygen uptake (Whitney, 1942).

On the hand, the frogs each weighted 28.28g and 20g was used in this experiment
allow us to compare the oxygen consumption between the two different sizes of frog. It was
observed that the larger frog has a higher total oxygen consumption compared to the smaller
one. This is probably due the larger size of cell inside the larger frog and thus required more
oxygen to be supplied into the cells. However, the larger frog has a lower rate of oxygen
consumption despite its higher total oxygen consumption (Nielson, 1997). This is because the
smaller frog has a higher metabolism rate if compared to the larger one. Therefore, when the
experiment was conducted, the frog was left for one minute inside the bottle before the bottle
was sealed and the reading of the respirometer is taken. This is actually to allow the frog to
relax so that its heart will beat faster and hence causing the frog to respire at normal rate.

In addition, we also took some precautions to make sure the reading obtain is
accurate. We assured that the pipette used is dried to prevent the adhesion between the
molecules of the colored indicator and the water molecules inside the pipette. This is because
that kind of adhesion will cause the indicator to be uneven and make it hard to read the
respirometer. Besides, the respirometer should be laid horizontally to avoid the influences of
gravitational force that could affect the reading of the respirometer.