Question

1. a) You are interested in whether birds in your backyard prefer certain colors of seeds. Normally you feed the birds black sunflower seeds. You put out piles of 100 red seeds, 100 green seeds, 100 yellow seeds, and 100 black sunflower seeds. After two days you count the remaining seeds. What are your experimental treatments? What is your control? What are your independent and dependent variables?
2. B) How could you provide replication in this experiment? Why do you need to do so?

Answer 1

You would like to see the preference of bird over different color seeds; the control for this experimental condition would be normal sunflower seed (black seed), independent variable is the number of seed, which is same in all case, and the dependent variable is the color of seed (coat or shell color).

Control: Black color sunflower seed

Independence variable: Number of seed

Dependent variable: Color of seeds

Initially color would be the factor for preference but when you repeat similar condition for some more time then you observe the exact result, as black color is the normal seed (sunflower) for birds so definitely they will show more preference over other seeds, but after first experience they may also consider the taste and nutrition values of the other seeds also, so it is pertinent to replicate this experiment for the reproducibility of the result. So you need to provide such conditions with some minor changes at a time like number of seeds in each group etc.