Peppers Lab

Guiding Question: What are the variations between peppers and how do variations affect the pepper?

Hypothesis: I believe that the number of seeds affects the size of the pepper and variations that occur.

Variables:

Controlled Population: The peppers are the controlled population in this experiment

Exploration:

Materials:

4 or more peppers

Rulers

Notebook/paper

Procedure:

1.      Take 4-5 peppers that are different

2.      Measure them and record their size in circumference and length (cm)

3.      Observe them and record their shape

4.      Open the peppers and then count the number of seeds each of the peppers has

Tables:

Size

Pepper	circumference	Length
1	25.5cm	13cm
2	23cm	10.5cm
3	19.5cm	12.5cm
4	24 cm	5.5cm
5	23 cm	11.5cm

Weight

Peppers	Weight
1	155 grams
2	115 g
3	105 g
4	92 g
5	127.5 g

Number of seeds

Peppers	Number of seeds
1	103 seeds
2	50 seeds
3	0 seeds/ infertile wrinkled
4	16 seeds
5	34 seeds

Graph:

Record and Analyze (observations):

Pepper 1: is the biggest of the 5 peppers in size, mass and shape.

Pepper 2: is quite big and has a long-like shape.

Pepper 3: is the second longest in length but it’s quite thin, it was also wrinkled and infertile.

Pepper 4: was small and round like a ball tomato, it had brown fungus-like stuff in side.

Pepper 5: was third largest in length and also had brown fungus-like inside.

Analysis of Data:

The patterns that occur among these peppers is that in general when a pepper is bigger and has a higher mass it has more seeds, if the differences among the masses of the peppers are small then there could be a different outcome. I think this data shows accuracy but there could have been but one of the peppers was infertile and that affected the lab and investigation otherwise I believe the data was valid

Conclusion:

The goal was to find the variations and each pepper has many different variations no one pepper is the same. While conducting this lab I found many variations among the peppers some in circumference, length, mass and the numbers of seeds they have. But these small variations do not affect the pepper that much, the biggest variation is the number of seeds and mass of the pepper, we found out that if the mass is greater in average there are more seeds. My hypothesis was that the mass affects the seeds and that’s what happens. I learned that in average the mass affects the seeds each pepper has, meaning that if the pepper is larger it has more seeds, which means there’s a bigger chance of the pepper creating other peppers through its seeds.

Further Inquiry:

I think this data I got was valid since I measured the data specifically for each peppers and used 5 peppers which gave a wider variety of information I could use, also the infertile pepper affects the outcome of the lab. This lab could have been improved if there were even more peppers we were using to test because then you could get a clearer picture than with the information we used, the results were affected by the peppers we got. If think of a new lab similar to this one the hypothesis would be “How does the mass affect the number of seeds in a pepper in a large population?”

Tortoise Lab

Data Analysis:
The reason only the short-necked tortoises are affected because the environment changes and the bushes and trees grow so the Short necks can't reach them, this does not affect the Long-necked tortoises since they can still reach the bushes and trees which is there food. After the 3 generations have passed and we come to the newest generation you can see a drastic change among the numbers of Tortoises in the Area, the short-necked tortoises who have the dominant trait have drastically decreased in numbers, while the long-necked tortoises which have a recessive trait have grown population wise. Even though the short neck trait is dominant the environment has changed in a way that is not good for the tortoises and many of them have died out, while the Long necks were not affected they started mating among each other and produced pure bread long necks.

Conclusion:
As we look through the generations, and have a tortoise with a dominant you would expect that you in an ideal situation as generations pass you would have a lot more of dominant trait tortoises, but in this example that wasn't the case since the environment changed in a way that does not suit the tortoises and the recessive trait ones had an advantage and therefore thrived. So we can conclude that the environment around a specie affects whether it will survive or not, because if the surroundings changed drastically and the creature doesn't have enough time to evolve it can die out. Through this we can also make the conclusion why evolving through generation to generation happens so the creature enables further survival.

Reflection on Unit

After finishing the sexual education unit, I think everybody in the class learned a lot of new things they never new about, but most importantly about safety. I liked this unit since it did not have an exact outline but we covered everything that we needed to and even went further. This is one of those "giggly" topics so I believe everyone enjoyed in and had a couple laughs and giggles across the way.

During this unit I learned a lot of new things I never new and it was very successful. I learned about all the reproductive organs and how they work, to create new humans. I also learned the whole process of pregnancy and how and embryo grows into a fetus and later becomes a new born baby. I think the most important part was the protection and this is were everyone learned the most, we learned about contraception methods, STI's what there effects were but more importantly how to stop them from getting to you.

All in all this was one of the best units this year since it was every fun for everyone but at the same time it wasn't wasting time it was very educational, and I believe it will stay longer in our mines because of the interesting ways the information released.