DYO #2: Fruit Fly Population Investigation

Problem: How does Putting 2 females and 1 male fly affect the amount of eggs that will be laid in 21 days?

Hypothesis: If i put 2 females and 1 male fly in the jar then the amount of flies by 21 days will be 322 adult flies because if there are two female flies, that can lay 20 eggs each day, if you multiply two by 20 and then use the fly's life cycle to check how many flies there would be in 21 days, it would be 322.

Background Research: In my research I found out that females can store sperm from male flies. They also lay about 20 eggs per day. The egg hatches in 1 day. The larval stays like that for 7 days. It stays as a pupil for 6 days. It turns into an adult and 2 days later it becomes a mature adult. A mature adult is a fly ready to breed. It takes 2 weeks for a fruit fly to become an adult. Females are bigger than male flies, but male flies have a darker colored tip. Females have a lighter colored tip.


Procedure: Step 1- Choose a combination of 1 male fruit fly and 2 female fruit flies. 
Step 2- Put them to sleep with a toxin called "Fly-Nap". 
Step 3- We had to identify which were Male and Female. You can check this by looking at their tip. The darker tip represents the male.
Step 4- Prepare a vile with food for the flies and put them inside with a small brush and keep it horizontally until they wake up.
Step 5: Observe 2 other groups flies and yours.
Step 6: After 3 weeks, count the flies using fly-nap, and then write down the numbers.


Data Table and Graph: The effect of (IV) the ratio of males to females on (DV) the number of adults after 3 weeks.

Analysis: I looked at 3 vials, each with 1 male fruit fly, and 2 females. Vial 1 had 60 flies, Vial 2 had 105, and Vial 3 had 70 flies. the average was 78. My data did not support my hypothesis because I thought there would be 322 flies but the average of all 3 vials is 78.3. I think I didn't calculate right. I didn't realize what would happen if some flies did not survive the experiment. Some flies probably were not also born on the exact date that i predicted.  I thought that if they were born on the exact date i predicted, there would be a lot of flies. In the end, I didn't even come close. At the end of the experiment, my data did not match my hypothesis.

Conclusion: I wanted to find out if I change the number of male and female flies there are, would it change the reproduction rate. I then used 1 male and 2 female fruit flies to test this experiment. My hypothesis failed. I thought that all together there would be 322 adult fruit flies after 3 weeks. Instead the average of the 3 vials of fruit flies was 78 flies. My data didn't support my hypothesis either. I think i calculated ahead and did not really think realistically, that if some flies weren't born on time or if some flies died, what would happen to my hypothesis. I i can do this experiment again, i would observe the flies more carefully. If there was one question i could investigate further, i would like to know how much flies do fruit flies reproduce when not held in captivity.

Post 11: This Week in Science (No Impact Man)

For the whole year, No impact tried a project to waste as little energy as possible to live. This included no toilet paper,light, eating all things natural and more. He became famous for this reason and received a lot of criticism.
His  behavior is very laid-back. Although he is laid back, he is driven toward his goal. He doesn't give up and continued no matter what anybody says. He feels like he can change the world. But the way he went through it, just wasn't enough.
I felt glad, but at the same time i felt that he was trying to hard. He took very drastic measures. He should have started with very reasonable and easy things. He gave up WAY too many things. Everything was for a good cause, but for me, they are needed for me to live. I felt although he was helping the world, he might of been hurting himself a bit too.

Post 9: This Week in Science (Fruit Flies Part 2)

   This week in science we put three fruit flies in our habitat. We also made a poster to show how the fruit flies develop. We showed that they will continue increasing in numbers because we picked a good amount of flies for the experiment. We picked 2 females and 1 male. we put them inside a jar and we will see how they progress.

   We learned a lot of things too. We learned that females produce 20 eggs a day. They also have a cool ability store sperm from the males. So the males only need to reproduce with the females once. They also have an extremely short life span. it takes one day for the eggs to hatch, 7 days to turn into a pupa, 6 days to become an adult, and 2 days to fully mature. All together, we learned a lot this week in science class.

This Week in Science (Fruit Fly DYO Part 1)

This week in science we did a lot of work. We switched all the tables into 3 stations. Then we went to each station doing different things. We observed our spider and fruit flies. We also checked on our habitat and on our flies. We started a DYO based on our flies. We made a table in our book to record things about our multiplying flies.
We learned a lot of things too. We learned about different types of graphs. We learned that line graphs are for changing and bar graphs are for comparing things. We learned how to make a hypothesis. We also learned about variables and how to involve it in our hypothesis. We learned more about flies too by doing background research.

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Post 8: This Week in Science (Fruit Flies Part 1)

This week in science was cool. We received the flies that we ordered and put the teachers put them into tubes. We then studied our habitats again and we studied the flies. We first studied the flies with a glass magnifier. We also received a paper showing all kinds of body parts of a fly. After studying and drawing the flies, we took a closer look at it with a Microscope.


We learned a lot about the flies too. We learned about male flies and female flies. Females flies are actually bigger than male flies. male flies also have a darker bottom. The female stores the males sperm and then makes babies. the egg hatches in a day, turns into a larva, becomes a pupa for 6 days, and then becomes an adult. We learned so much about little flies. this is what we learned this week in science.

This Week in Science (Ecosystems)

My team, putting in organisms in our habitat

     Last week in science we had a lot of fun. We made a design habitat to predict on what type of habitat our spider will live in. We then went on a trip to a garden to actually make our habitats. We dug up dirt, put moss, put worms, and put twigs in our container. I wanted to learn more about all of this. We learned that the worms we had were called earth worms, we learned there were different types of moss, and more.
   

This week in science we explored our habitat and saw all the changes within it. Our moss grew, our worms disappeared, and more. We figured out what type of kingdom our animal belonged in, and color coded it.We also researched and created an accurate illustration of our habitat. I learned alot about moss. They are non-vascular plants that absorb water and nutrients through their leaves.

Our humid habitat

 I want to also learn about the earth worms. We had about 6 earth worms in our habitat

This week in Science: Carrying Capacity

This week in science we learned about carrying capacity. By using examples such as deer, how they reproduce, and where they live we created a game. The game's focus was to show how the environment depended on deer. It also works vice versa because the deer depend on the environment. We then took tallys and put it into a graph. We also played another game where we organized environments and the animals that live there.

We learned about predator/prey relationship. We also learned about mutualism. We watched videos of how all of this works. We learned about carry capacity too. The it works is that, if an animal reproduces too much, then there may not be enough resources to do around. Or, if the certain resource that an animal needs isn't available, then the animal that needed that resource dies.