DYO #2: Fruit Fly Population Investigation

Problem (Question): How does putting four female and two male fruit flies affect how many adults are going to be after three weeks?


Hypothesis: If I put four females and two males in a vial then i expect to see 646 adults at the end of three weeks because each females lays 20 eggs each day. The eggs take 16 days to become adult flies. After three weeks a female would have 160 eggs, but we have 4 females and six fruit flies. We multiply the eggs a female would have after three weeks (160) by the number of female fruit flies in the vial (4), then add the fruit flies we started with (6). This would give us 646 adult fruit flies at the end of three weeks.

Background Research: The Fruit Fly has four stages of life; egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Each stage looks different. The egg looks like a grain of white rice, the larva is a tiny white worm, the pupa looks like a small cocoon & the adult looks like a miniature fly. A female can lay 20 eggs per day, and it takes 16 days for the egg to become an adult. You can tell the difference between a male and a female fruit fly by looking at its size,  the female is slightly bigger than a male fruit fly. Also by looking at its abdomen, male fruit flies have a darker tip and females have a lighter tip.

Procedure:

• Step 1: First we chose to use the combination of 2 females and 1 male fruit fly.
• Step 2: Then we put the flies to sleep using something called FlyNap.
• Step 3: After we put the flies to sleep, we put food in the vial to make a habitat for the flies.
• Step 4: Then we identified the female and the male fruit flies by looking by looking at their abdomens. 
• Step 5: After we chose 2 females and 1 male fly, we put them in the vial and sealed it.
• Step 6: We are also going to observe two other group's vials with the same combination as ours to see if there are any differences.
• Step 7: At the end of three weeks we are going to count all the adult fruit flies and find out how many adult fruit flies there were at the end of three weeks. 

Data Table and Graph: The effect of the number of Fruit Flies on the number of adult fruit flies at the end of three weeks.

Analysis: I observed three vials for three weeks. Each vial had a different number of adults at the end of the three weeks. Vial 1 (ACOE) had 151 adults, Vial 2 (Elijah) had 105 adults and Vial 3 (18) had 70 adults.
When first starting this project I hypothesized that if I put four females and two males in a vial then I expect to see 646 adults at the end of three weeks because each females lays 20 eggs each day. The eggs take 16 days to become adult flies. After three weeks a female would have 160 eggs, but we have 4 females and six fruit flies. We multiply the eggs a female would have after three weeks (160) by the number of female fruit flies in the vial (4), then add the fruit flies we started with (6). This would give us 646 adult fruit flies at the end of three weeks.
My data did not support my hypothesis because the results weren't the same. I predicted to see 646 adults at the end of three weeks but there were only 151 adult fruit flies at the end of three weeks, thats lower than what I predicted.
Some possible reasons for the difference in my hypothesis and actual results could be carrying capacity. Carrying Capacity is the amount of living organisms an ecosystem can support. Another reason could have been a human made error. Someone could have done something to affect our results , like shake the vial and kill some flies or let some loose. Also maybe they could have been affected by the temperature of the place they were kept in. It might have been to cold or too hot.

Conclusion: Well overall we were trying to find out how many adult fruit flies there would be at the end of those three weeks of observation. After setting up my experiment I observed it for those three weeks. In the beginning nothing was happening, everything looked the same. It was like at the end, on the third week that I noticed there were way more flies. The vial was full of flies flying around and eegs on the wall and pupa and larva crawling. My data didn't support my hypothesis because my hypothesis was wrong. There were more flies than i predicted there would be. Something that could have gone wrong would be that some flies might have been killed or let loose by others. If i could do this over i would chose to put them in a bigger space to see what the difference would be. One question i have would have to be how does the temperature of the room where they are kept affect them ?

This Week in Science (No Impact Man)

           Well the documentary No Impact Man was about a mans mission to live a year without affecting the planet. He would not do anything that would affect the planet, which would be not emitting trash,  and not burning any fossil fuels. It was hard for him and his family. They went through many struggles and disagreements. Some of his ideas worked and others didn't. During this project, he was criticized and made fun of, but that didn't stop him from completing his project. They had to sacrifice many things and it wasn't easy for them, but they still went on with the project. Some of his ideas can really help the planet and if many more people would follow them then maybe the world would be a better place than it is now.
          No Impact Mans behavior helps lower his impact on the planet. Him and his family go into this big transition. They stop using electricity, which helps emit less carbon dioxide into the air which reduces the greenhouse gases causing global warming. They try and produce as little waste as they possibly can which helps cause less trash in the landfills. They ONLY eat local foods, since these aren't imported from other places. If they aren't imported they don't have to be brought from other places through trucks, which helps the environment. Many things they do actually CAN make a difference, but others are just a little crazy. Like the no toilet paper one, thats just a little too bizarre for me.
         When i was watching the documentary i found some parts to be CRAZY, funny, and just cool. Like the whole no toilet paper rule, my first impression was "WHAT!! EWWWW THATS DISGUSTING" ! which it really was. Like yea i understand you don't want to create waste but like thats just too crazy. Other things i found to be cool, like the compost bin, that was a pretty cool idea. I don't know if i would be able to live a year the way he did but after watching the movie, i started to watch the way i live. I try to not have a negative impact on the planet, but man thats hard >:/

Post 10: This Week in Science (Fruit Fly DYO Part 1)

          This week in science we started to investigate about our fruit flies and their reproduction. We got into small groups and in each group we did something different. In one group we picked out two containers of other peoples flies and started to observe them. In the other group we learned how to graph different types of data. And in the last group we set up a chart in our notebooks that would help us keep track of the two containers we were observing. In the chart we set up the vial number and the number of male and female fruit flies it contained, and put three column, each column is for every week that passes by. We will be recording our observations and by the end of week three we will write the total number of adults in each vial. 

          Well this week in science i learned how to graph different types of data into different types of graphs. I learned that when you are comparing change over time you use a line graph. But when you are comparing quantities you use a bar graph. I also learned that its dangerous to shake a vial lol. We had an accident and lives were lost. But overall I learned how to distinguish the different types of graphs i need to use when graphing change and quantities. 

HAHA LOOKS LIKE DAVID ^

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

          This week in science we figured out how many flies our fruit flies will reproduce in three weeks. We put six flies in our container , four females and two males. Then we fed our spider some wingless flies so it can survive while the others reproduce. Since we are still waiting for our flies to reproduce, we drop some wingless flies onto the spiders web so it can be able to eat while the others reproduce. We also observed our spiders terrarium and saw changes. Some plants are beginning to grow and theres moisture building up inside the terrarium.
          I learned that spiders reproduce fast. They can have as many as 20 eggs in one day. I also learned the number of flies that will be reproduced in three weeks, which would be 2,800 eggs. i also learned how to write it in a proper way. that would be, that if i out six fruit flies in a container, four female and two male, then there will be 2,800 eggs in three weeks because each female fruit fly produces 20 eggs per day.

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

          Well this week in science we observed the changes that occurred in our terrariums. I noticed that there were flies in ours. Question is how did they get in there in the first place?! if the terrarium is completely sealed and nothing is able to get out especially get in. so that's a question that i have and i want to solve. we also observed some fruit flies that David brought in. he said we are going to breed them so they can be food for our spiders.we looked at the under a dissecting microscope and studied them closely. i noticed that for each stage of their life they look different. I wasn't able to find an egg but i saw the larva,pupa, and the adult flies. the larva and pupa look different, the larva is a lighter color and moves differently than the pupa. Then on Thursday we had to solve the problem of How many fruit flies would there be after 3 weeks if we put 3 fruit flies in a  jar. i was absent but i copied the noted from my classmate and figured out that there would be 180 fruit flies in 3 weeks.
          I learned what changes happened i our terrarium. there are some flies that appeared out of nowhere ! and i don't even know how they got there. I also learned a lot about fruit flies. I learned about their life cycle and what they look like at each stage of their life. I also learned that it takes them 16 days to make babies and they can lay up to 20 eggs. Another thing i learned is that female fruit flies are a bit bigger than the male fruit flies and that their scientific name is Drosophila Melanogaster.

                                                      This is the life cycle of a fruit fly.

This Week in Science (Carrying Capacity and Relationships)

Well this week in science we played a game, called "OH DEER". The game was to teach us about carrying capacity in a habitat. We had two groups of students, one group were the "deer" in the habitat and the other group was the "limiting factors". The resources of the group were water, food and shelter. we had the two groups face opposite directions and the "limiting factors" and "deer" groups would have to pick to either be water, food or  shelter. For food the would put both hands on their stomach, for water they would have to put their hands over their mouth and for shelter they had to make a roof over their head with their hands. Then when the teacher would say "ready, get set, Go" the two groups would turn to face each other and the deer would have to run to the resources they chose. If they didn't get their resource they would die. Then we graphed our data on the game. The carrying capacity the number of organisms any environment can support. Limiting factors are the available energy, water, oxygen and minerals, and the ability of ecosystem to recycle the remains of dead organisms ( activities of bacteria and fungi )
We learned how organisms interact in their environment. We learned the symbiotic relationships, which were, mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. In order to understand these better, we watched some videos and played a card game. In the game we had to match different situations with the type of relationship it belonged to. The mutualism relationships is when both animals benefit from the relationship, an example of this would be when a bird picks the bugs and dead skin off an animal, they're both benefitting from this.. The commensalism relationship is when one animal benefits from it but the other is unaffected from it, for example when an animal kills its prey and doesn't finish it and another animal follows it and eats the remains. Parasitism relationships is when a parasite lives off the host, an example of this would be when a tick lives off a dog, by sucking its blood.

This is a picture of when we finished playing the card game. All the situations matched with the relationship they belong in.

First Impressions

Well when i first found out we were dissecting frogs i got hype ! because i always wanted to dissect a frog ! i couldnt wait i was so excited. first we just cut it open and looked at what it had inside. we discovered that our frog turned out to be a female cause it had eggs inside. then the next day we got to take out all its organs. the heart, the liver, the stomach, the small and large intestines and the eggs of course. then we ended up throwing it away, which i found cruel ! we should of at least given it a burial lol. But anyway i had fun being the surgeon :] cutting it open and seeing whats inside. i had classmates who were helping, like the assistant and the navigator who was in charge of telling what to do and cut. overall it was an awesome experience :D