Roly Poly lab
Overview:
In this lab, you will observe pillbugs and design an experiment to investigate their responses to environmental variables.
Objectives:
· Observe various aspects of a pillbug
· design and conduct an experiment examining the responses of pillbugs to different abiotic factors in their environment
Background Information
Terrestrial ispods are land dwelling crustaceans, commonly known as sowbugs or pillbugs (or rollypollys). They are related to lobsters, crabs, and shrimp and terrestrial isopods breathe with gills. While they look similar, sow bugs are different from pill bugs. Pill bugs will curl into a ball when threatened whereas sow bugs will attempt to flee.
Question: (2 points)
______.
Variables: (6 points)
a. My variable for this experiment: ______.
b. A good control for this experiment: ______
______.
Hypothesis: (6 points)
If ______, then ______because ______.
Materials: (5 points)
List all of the materials you will be using in this experiment:
Procedure: (participation – 10 pts)
1. Place 10 pillbugs and a small amount of bedding material in a Petri dish.
2. Prepare one choice chamber as directed by your teacher. The choice chamber consists of two large plastic Petri dishes taped together with an opening cut between them.
3. Use a soft brush to transfer 10 pillbugs into the choice chamber. Place 5 pill bugs in each side of the choice chamber. Cover the chambers.
4. Count how many pillbugs are on the left side of the choice chamber every 30 seconds for 10 minutes and then record your data in Table 1. Continue to record even if they all move to one side or stop moving.
Results: EXPERIMENTAL GROUP
Table 1: (5 pts)
Time (mins.) / # in left chamber: VARIABLE: / Other notes0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
8.5
9.0
9.5
10.0
Results: CONTROL GROUP
Table 2: (5 pts)
Time (mins.) / # in left chamber: VARIABLE: / Other notes0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
8.5
9.0
9.5
10.0
Graph 1: (15 pts)
Use a different color for each line: one for the experimental data and one for the control data. Make a key for your graph.
On the x axis, label the time over 30 second increments.
On the y axis, label number of pillbugs 1 to 10.
You will be graphing the number of pill bugs that chose the left chamber over the right chamber for both the control group and the experimental group.
Title: ______
Conclusion: (chart = 8 pts, paragraph = 12 pts)
Developing a Scientific Explanation Tool
What is the question that you want to answer?What did you do to collect evidence that will be used to support your explanations: