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Experiment Synthesis Essay

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The purpose of this experiment was to find out if artificial, chemical fertilizers would affect the growth and behavior of the organisms that came in contact with them. It was the goal of the experiment to determine if there was any adverse reactions since it had been observed that chemical pesticides could harm organisms they were not meant to effect. The experiment was designed to see if in some chemical fertilizers there would be unforeseen negative effects on the selected organisms throughout separate periods of their development. Before the experiment research was done to see if other experiments of the same nature had been conducted to help determine a hypothesis and procedural plan. In "Varying Responses of Insect Herbivores to Altered …show more content…

A groups of extras was also kept so that multiple developmental trials could be ran even as specimens died off. Then the liquid fertilizers that had been selected were mixed with the caterpillar’s food, at first the experiment attempted to make this daises, the Painted Lady caterpillar’s natural food, but due to the time of year it was determined best to use the food the company of the kit had provided. The caterpillar groups were kept in separate cups along with their food. The larvae were measured daily with the gram scale. The caterpillars had to be kept within their cups to be weighed so a system was devised for determining the average weight of each individual caterpillar. The caterpillars were taken from the cups that contained their food so the weight of the food would not be a factor. The weight of an empty cup was taken and then subtracted from the cup with the caterpillars the caterpillars had been moved into. The total obtained from subtracting the weight of the cup was then divided by the amount of caterpillars in the cup. The number of caterpillars in the groups varied upon occasions as caterpillars would die, this way as the numbers of specimens lowered the equation could be used. This process was repeated daily while observing the actions of the caterpillars to see if their behaviors would change. Once the caterpillars had pupated it was no longer possible to take their weights since they could not be moved too much. The pupas were then moved into the mesh container the kit company had provided. Once they their behaviors were observed and they were fed orange slices daily until they

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