Mice, Cockroaches and Metabolic Rate, O2 My!

Abstract

The key impact of this research inquiry was to gain a better understanding of how metabolic rates differed among specific, but different species at different temperatures. Our subject matter for this experiment was to determine how certain animals have comparatively differing metabolic rates at certain temperatures, such as Madagascar hissing cockroaches, Gromphadorhina portentosa, compared to a mouse, Mus musculus. This inquiry was tested through careful experimentation in this exploration, more specifically by running three trials on a single mouse and five cockroaches. These three trials were conducted at different temperatures: one at room temperature, one at a colder temperature and one at a hotter temperature. Our research concluded that the mouse altogether had a higher metabolic rate than the cockroach at all temperatures. However, when we broke down the results from each species separately, we found that the cockroaches’ metabolic rate, when only compared to itself, was highest at the warmer temperature while the mouse’s was highest at the cooler temperature, excluding room temperature.