Haley Wall
10-20-13
Period E
Abstract The purpose of the Sow bug lab was to determine if the Sow bugs had a preference of leaves to eat. A brief description of the procedure is that the leaves were put in a Petri dish full of sand and sow bugs. Then there were recordings of how much of each leaf the Sow bugs had eaten each day. Observations on what the Sow bugs had eaten, and how they were acting were recorded everyday. The Sow bugs preferred the Hickory leaf above all leaves involved in this experiment.
Introduction
Some background information on Sow bugs is that Sow bugs feed on decomposing organic material. Such as: mulch and grass clippings. The Sow bugs enjoy tender foliage, stems, along with roots of young garden vegetable transplants, seedlings, and bedding plants. A Sow bug’s diet also includes fungi, algae, moss, and bark. The hypothesis is: Sow bugs prefer the Hickory leaf. The prediction is: If Sow bugs prefer the Hickory leaves, then there will be a higher percent consumed value for the Hickory leaves when compared to the percent consumed values for the other three leaves. The reason for the hypothesis is that the Hickory seemed like it fits the Sow bugs diet better than the other three leaves involved in this experiment.
Procedure
The materials list is: sand, four Sow bugs, Hickory leaf, American Beech leaf, Red Oak leaf, Maple leaf, large Petri dish, four different colored sharpies, white out, scissors, eight by eight millimeter graph paper, and a water dropper.
1. Cut the Hickory, American Beech, Red Oak, and Maple leaves each into an eight by eight millimeter square using the graph box.
2. Put white out in the top right corner of each leaf.
3. Put a different color dot in each white out dot using the sharpies.
4. Fill the Petri dish with six millimeters of sand.
5. Put forty drops of water in the sand.
6. Place the leaves in the