Sugar, Sugar
By: Blayne Childers, Luke Wimmer, and Lindsey Wimmer
Problem
Are sugar ants more attracted to coke, syrup, or chocolate?
Null Hypothesis
If we take 12 sugar ants and put them in simulation of 3 connected Petri Dishes they will distribute evenly among the coke, syrup, and chocolate; therefore, there should be 4 ants at each substance.
The Manipulated Variable
Sugary substances that are placed in the dishes.
3 Constant Factors
The 3 constant factors used in this experiment are coke, syrup, and chocolate.
Coke
Coke is a carbonated soda that contains 44 grams of sugar. We will be placing a soaked cotton swab into the dish.
Aunt Jemima Syrup
Contains 25 grams of sugar, will be placing a drop of syrup in the dish.
Hershey's Chocolate-Kiss
2.6 grams per hershey, will be melting and placing a drop of chocolate into the dish.
Materials
1. Coke
2. Hershey's Kiss
3. Syrup
4. Dropper
5. Petri Dishes
6. Ants
7. Plastic Tubes (Hold the ants)
Procedure
Manipulated variable - Take drops of each substance and place it into each dish. Take observations, and see which substances the ants are attracted to.
Control procedure - Air, and surroundings are not changed. Lighting is the same. No temperature change.
Manipulated and Controlled Data
Manipulated (timed every 30 seconds) Coke, Syrup, Chocolate
(5,5,2) (5,5,2,) (5,5,2) (4,5,3) (4,6,2)
Controlled (timed every 30 seconds) Dish 1, Dish 2, Dish 3
(3,5,5) (2,4,6) (2,4,6) (3,4,5) (3,4,5) (5,3,4)
Observation
12 ants were all put into the center of the three petri dishes. Very quickly, the ants separated between the three. Within the first minute the ants split mainly between the syrup and the coke with 5 and 4. The chocolate had the lowest amount containing two ants. Surprisingly at the end of the three minutes, syrup (although coke had the most concentrated amount of sugar) with held the most ants (6).
Chi-Squared Results
P= .525625
Failed to reject our null hypothesis.
Conclusion
The Null Hypothesis was failed to be rejected. Our assumption that the majority of the ants would choose coke was also rejected. The sugar concentrate was not a huge factor. A way to better our lab is to use things not so sticky (syrup, candy) in order to get better results, and better petri dishes to contain ants.