Jessica Head Bio 105L Scientific Method Assignment I. Investigation of the effect of sulfur dioxide on soybean reproduction.

Identify the dependent variable, independent variable, and controlled variables. Dependent variables in this investigation are the number of bean pods and number of seeds per pod produced, and the weight of the pods for each plant. The independent variable is the sulfur dioxide exposure. The controlled variables are the simultaneous exposure times (four hours, four groups of six) in the fumigation chamber. The untreated plants are exposed to filtered air in another fumigation chamber. In addition, the water and soil conditions, and the amount of light are controlled to prevent inaccurate results.

Identify the control. The control comes in the form of the untreated plants. These plants must receive the exact same treatment as the untreated plants with the exception of the sulfur dioxide exposure.

What is the difference between controlled variables and the control? Controlled variables are factors that must be controlled or prevented from negatively influencing the results of the experiment, while the control is the unaffected group in your experiment used for comparison and contrast.

If you were doing this experiment, what would your null and alternative hypotheses be? The null hypothesis is that the sulfur dioxide has no effect on reproductive abilities. The alternative hypothesis is that the sulfur dioxide will have a negative effect on reproduction (less seeds, etc.).

What are the treatment levels? 0.6 ppm (parts per million)

Would you do this experiment differently? Why or why not? This experiment seems lacking in detail on the controlled variables. Otherwise I believe the experiment was well planned. The pollution was simulated

accurately down to the ppm, although I wonder if four hours of exposure time is enough to give accurate real world results. It is enough to indicate a correlation or lack of one. II. Designing experiments B.

Observation: During heavy rainfall events, earthworms will emerge from the soil. Alternative hypothesis: Earthworms will emerge from the soil after heavy rainfall events to prevent from drowning because the of the oxygen depletion in the soil. Null hypothesis: Heavy rainfall has no effect on the earthworms emergence from the soil. Experiment: The first step in the experiment would be to collect earthworms found above the soil and then to identify the species of worm displaying this behavior. There are over two thousand species of earthworms; therefore, we must narrow down the options to make our hypothesis testable. To test this hypothesis it is necessary to test the water saturation and the resulting oxygen depletion of the soil. In order to obtain accurate results we simulate the wet and dry soil conditions in a lab to compare them. We must also research our earthworm species to discover their rate of oxygen intake for survival and therefore their tolerance levels to water immersion. The control in this experiment must be an earthworm observed in a simulation of its natural habitat that has not experienced heavy rainfall events. We must compare the oxygen consumption of this unaffected worm to the available oxygen consumption of the affected worm. The oxygen depletion in the soil is the independent variable, and the number of worms displaced by the oxygen depletion is the dependent variable. Controlled variables must be every aspect of the soil content with the exception of the oxygen and water saturation, such as light conditions. The results I expect are that the unaffected earthworms will continue to tunnel into the soil while the earthworms place in water saturated soil will emerge in an effort to prevent water immersion and suffocation.