1. Table 1. Condition of each caterpillar on each day
The Effect of Caffeine on the Growth Rate of the Painted Lady Butterfly
S.A.P
S.A.P
Table 1. Condition of each caterpillar on each day
Introduction
Control
Treatment C1 17 T1 16 C2
Dead T2 20 C3 14 T3 C4 T4 C5 T5 C6 T6 C7 T7 C8 T8 C9 T9
C10
T10
C11
T11
C12
T12 15
In humans Caffeine acts a stimulus to our central nervous system which boosts energy and alertness. We wanted to see if this chemical affects the growth of caterpillars. We decided to use the caterpillars as our model organism because they have a short life span, they can be raised easily, and they go through different growth stages. Our null hypothesis is that there will not be a difference in the growth of caterpillars if we add caffeine in their food. The alternative hypothesis is that there will be a difference in the growth of the caterpillars if we add caffeine in their food. Our prediction for this experiment is that there will be a difference in the growth rate between our control and treatment group.
RESULTS
CONCLUSIONS
Control caterpillars took an average of 17 days to pupate. Treatment caterpillars took an average of 16.7 days to pupate. (Table 1) The caterpillars with caffeine in their food seemed to pupate quicker. However, our T-Test P value was 0.61, which means the difference was not significant.
The results show that we failed to reject our null hypothesis. This does not meet our prediction that there would be a difference between the control and treatment groups. We believe that there was no difference because the caffeine didn’t boost the metabolism of the caterpillars. Caffeine has a different effect in humans than in caterpillars.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
1. Collect 24 painted lady caterpillars.
2.Make a control and treatment group with 12 caterpillars in each group.
3.Mix caffeine (2ml of 200 mg/ml) into the treatment’s food (8g) and water(2ml) into the control’s group food(8g).
4.Put caterpillars into containers.
5.Record condition of caterpillars daily.
Control: Treatment:
Average: T-Test :0.61 Average:16.7
Variance: Variance:2.6