Tuesday, June 7, 2011

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.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

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.

Friday, May 13, 2011

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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Monday, May 9, 2011

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

Sunday, April 10, 2011

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.

Friday, April 1, 2011

This week in Science -Spider Habitat Design-

   This week in science i made a habitat for a spider. We also learned a lot about spiders. We learned what type of environments they live in. We learned a lot from the Carbon Cycle game. We also learned a lot from our group partners.

    Later on we made a giant habitat displaying how out spider will live. we put in branches, dirt, and bugs for it eat. We put in limiting factors, a food chain and more. We also colored it to make it look good. all our group members helped make it a wonderful poster.

    In our picture, we have a lot of scientific stuff. In our food chain the sun sun always starts off everything. It then has grass, which are the producers, then little insects which are consumers. the flies are the secondary consumers, and the main predator, the spider, is the tritary consumer. This goes for the energy pyramid too. The energy converts from the plants, to the insects, to the spider. Without another spider, the spider's capacity cannot increase.


  

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

This Week In Science: Energy

    This week in science we learned about a lot of things. We learned about energy pyramids and food chains. We learned to classify different organisms by what they eat. We also learned how energy transfers from organism to organism in a food chain. We learned what a Autotroph, Heterotroph, Herbivore, and Carnivore were. They are basically producers, consumers, primary consumers, and secondary/tertiary consumers.

     We also made a food chain the day we learned about what it was. We used animals from our fantasy habitat. The day after we learned about energy pyramids. We then made a picture depicting our fantasy habitat animal in a energy pyramid. We also took a quiz on everything. After coloring everything we completed another week in science.


Monday, March 7, 2011

My Fantasy Habitat

This week in science we created a fantasy habitat. First we saw a demonstration of what a fantasy habitat was. We watched a video too. It showed all the different animals involved in the habitat. Then we started our fantasy habitat be choosing an animal, learning about it, and then drawing a picture.

 I learned a lot about my animal too. I choose a cheetah. I learned about where it lives, what it does, and what animals live around it. I also learned what a biodome is. It is a habitat where an animal lives. I also learned what biotic and abiotic means. I hope to learn more going forward in science class.


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

This Week in Science

We dissected frogs this week in science class. It was what i like to call "the 3 C's". It was crazy,cool,and creative. It was pretty disgusting though. In the end we all chipped in and helped take out the frog's organs. We also used the internet alot.The internet helped us learn the different parts of the frog and gave step by step instructions on how to dissect.

By doing the dissection i learned alot. It was very entertaining and interesting. I learned why frogs are bio-indicators. I learned how to tell a male frog from a female frog.I learned that my organs my look like a frogs organs. I learned different things about a frog's tounge by dissecting it and looking at it. Overall i learned alot from this project and am happy that i did it.


This is a picture of the flag of the United States Of America. I choose this picture because i like America.











I chose this picture because it clearly shows the frog along with someone interacting with the frog.





I choose this picture because it shows us in the process of removing the skin.
 

This picture shows the frog fully opened about to be dissected. I  showed this picture because it shows most of the organs inside the frog.

This picture shows us taking out the heart of the frog. i chose this because it was a hard process and i remember the trouble we had doing it!







Tuesday, February 8, 2011

My First Post

Wow.......this is kind of interesting. This is my first post and i am supposed to be writing about frogs. I'm glad i will be dissecting a frog. I'm also glad it's dead because dissecting alive frogs would be hard. I hope this will also be a good blog.