Question

• Experiment is do slugs prefer plant based foods or animal protein?

• Think about an experiment you could run to test your hypothesis. What would be the variable(s) in your particular experiment? For each variable that you identify, say whether it would be considered an independent- or dependent variable. Also, say whether it would be considered a quantitative- or qualitative variable. Explain your reasoning for assigning each variable as quantitative or qualitative. Hint: See pp. 2-3 for help on identifying variables.

• Come up with at least three extraneous variables that you would have to control for (i.e. variables that you are not testing for, but could possibly affect the results/interpretation of your experiment). For example, if you hypothesized that slugs are more likely to feed on greasy foods, then think of over variables, besides the food’s greasiness, that might influence your results.

• Come up with a step-by-step (and detailed) procedure for an experiment you could run to test your hypothesis (attach additional sheets if necessary). Make sure you can perform this experiment using only the materials available to you (since this is being made up, you can have whatever materials you want). As part of your procedure, describe how you would control for the variables you listed in question #7. Also describe how you will quantify food consumption by the slugs.

Here are some things to consider when coming up with your procedure:

•Your slug(s) will feed inside the provided plastic container until the next lab meeting.

• Come up with a way on how you can quantify the amount of feeding that takes place. In other words, see if you can come up with a way of making the amount of feeding a quantitative variable.

•Make sure to put enough water to just cover the bottom of your container. Slugs can live only in moist environments.

•Make sure to wear gloves when handling slugs. Then, take off the gloves before you handle anything else. This will prevent slug slime from getting on everything.

Answer 1

Experiment: To identify whether the slugs would eat more plant food or animal food

Materials needed: Slugs ('N' number), plastic container with a division at the end of column (n=2), water, animal and plant based food, weighing machine, protective wear such as gloves/eye wear and aprin.

Experiment design:

Experiment 1: To calculate the amount of feed given to slugs in a plastic contaner, the feed to be provided shall be added in a platic container with water at the bottom for 6 hours before being fed to slugs in a seperate plastic contaner without slugs, so that water weight could be added to the final feed. using a weighing machine. The water weight shall be an independent and quantitative variable in calculation of amount of feed which needs to be taken into account of. Follwing table could be made:

Variables	Day 1	Day 2	….
Total weight of Plant Based Feed weight
Total weight of Animal Based Feed weight

Experiment 2: The calcuated feed from experiment 1 shall be added to each column of the container with slugs so that feed remains seperated with each other. The amount of feed left by slugs( not eaten) can be quantified using a weighing machine, it is a dependent and quantifiable variable. Following table could be made:

Variables	Day 1	Day 2	….
Residual weight of Plant Based Feed weight
Residual weight of Animal Based Feed weight

Experment 3: Calculate the amount of feed eaten by slugs by substracting weight of total feed from experiment 1 with the feed left at the end of day from experiment 2.  The answer to the subtraction would be the feed calculated by slugs. It would be a dependent and quantitative variable as the answer depends on the values of two different experiments.

Variables	Day 1	Day 2	….
Weight of Plant Based Feed eaten by slugs
Weight of Animal Based Feed eaten by slugs

Hypthesis formation: Based on whether plant based feed was eaten more or the animal based feed, the preference of slugs could be experimently verified by taking mean of each feed per day and support to identify the feeding preference.