Setting Up for the Official Start!

Time to officially start the experiment. During this meeting, the trial box was more dry so I was able to complete my set up for the trial run. I placed one male and female inside the box. They are the grown up type (and possibly not virgins anymore). I used filter paper to serve as their food area and the poked holes on the box lid will provide them with enough air. After setting up my trial experiment, I moved onto setting up boxes for the actual experiment. For those boxes, the set up has to be the same so that the environment will act as a control instead of variable. I put in about 382.3g of dirt in every box, with each box weighing approximately 67g (without lid) and 95g (with lid) and poured in 200mL of distilled water. I also prepared labels and data tables for each of these boxes to keep track. If all goes well (especially the trial box), I will just have to put in the different experimental groups of pill bugs in the boxes and then the experiment will begin!

The trial box looks like:

The pill bug (male) on the filter paper is trying to get food!

Pre-experimental Trial!

After planning the experiment, I prepared a trial set up to test if my setting would work for the actual experiment. I used a small food container half filled with dirt, along with a pair of egg container for a shadowed area. In order for the dirt to be moist, I poured 300mL of water but after a while, the egg container softens and is soaked with water. Too wet, opps! For next week, Mr. Calos will bring in more of the same materials so I can set up for my real experiment. Meanwhile, I have to wait until the test box dries so I can put in two bugs from the colony tank. Also, my meeting time changed to Thursday due to a different spring semester schedule. I will work independently on the experiment every Tuesday.