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Page 1 of 2 Treatments for dehydration In this project, you will find out about the causes and consequences of dehydration. You will devise some experiments to investigate the constituents of commercially available oral rehydration salts (ORS), a common treatment for dehydration. Getting started You should start by doing some research to find out about the causes and consequences of dehydration. Find out about how to treat dehydration including the use of oral re-hydration salts (ORS) and what they contain. Things to think about How will you make your test fair? Will you test the salts as a powder or made up into a solution? How many times will you test each type of oral hydration salt? Find out how to test for levels of glucose and salt using Benedict's test. Buy a number of commercially available oral re-hydration salts and carry out experiments to confirm that the ORS contains the active ingredients that the manufacturer claims. Most re-hydration salts contain glucose and salt (sodium chloride). Devise experiments to test that your sample contains these ingredients. You will need to present and comment on the results of your research and your tests on the ORS. Useful resources Benedict’s test is a standard test for glucose – you will find the instructions in most GCSE Biology/Science text books - ask your group leader or mentor for help. Pure water is an electrical insulator but becomes a conductor when salts (like sodium chloride) are dissolved in it. You could use a battery and an ammeter to set up a circuit to check the electrical conductivity of your samples of ORS. You could compare your measurements with the electrical conductivity of distilled / deionised water and with a salt solution that you have made up yourself. From this you should be able to arrive at some conclusions about the presence of salt in the ORS. Click to edit project description
