Model for a Lab Report
Question
• Does the temperature affect the speed at
which a cricket chirps?
Background Information
• Only male crickets chirp in order to attract females and to act
as a warning to other male crickets to stay out of their
territory.
• Crickets chirp primarily at night because they are nocturnal
insects, but sometimes eat in the daytime.
• Male crickets rub their wings, not their legs, to chirp. The
underside of a male cricket's wing is rough and the top side is
contoured differently. When rubbed together, they make a
chirping sound.
• Crickets will not chirp if the temperature is below 40 degrees
Fahrenheit (°F) or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (°F) because
they cannot survive at these temperatures.
• Crickets have a higher metabolism and are more active at
warmer temperatures.
Hypothesis
If _{manipulated variable}_, than __{responding
variable}, because __{background
knowledge}__.
• If the temperature was increased, than the
cricket would chirp faster because they are
more active and have faster metabolism in
warm weather.
Materials
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50 common house crickets
2 empty 10 gallon aquarium tank
Pet heat rock
Thermometer
Ice cubes
Sealable plastic food bags
Tape recorder
Paper and pencil
Procedure
Obtain 50 common household crickets.
1. Place 25 crickets in one aquarium and 25 crickets in
the other with food and water in the exact same
conditions.
2. Place a thermometer in the containers with the
crickets.
3. Raise the temperature of one aquarium by placing a
heat rock in the container for one hour. Record the
temperature and tape record sounds for 10 minutes.
Determine chirps/minute and record data.
4. Lower the temperature in the other container by
placing sealable plastic food bags filled with ice cubes
into the container for one hour. Record the temperature
and tape record sounds for 10 minutes. Determine
chirps/minute and record data.
Data Table
Figure out the average Number of Chirps
Graph
• What kind of graph would best suit this data?
• Would you use each data point or the
average?
• What would a good title for the graph be?
• What label would you put on the x axis?
• What label would you put on the y axis?
Conclusion
Needs all 5 bullets to be complete
• Answer the investigative question.
1. Temperature does affect the speed at which a
cricket chirps.
• Was the hypothesis supported
by the data?
2. My hypothesis was supported
by my data.
What was the data? Give the high and low numbers. You would
also add any other observations, such as mortality rate, color
change, activity levels, etc.
• 3.
• At warm temperatures the average chirps per
minute was 197.
• At cool temperatures the average chirps per
minute was 119.
• Also at the cool temperatures the crickets
stopped eating and moving around.
• There was a high mortality rate. 5 crickets died in
the cool temperatures and 6 died in the warm
temperatures.
• Explain what your data means.
• 4.
• This means that when temperatures are
higher than the crickets will chirp faster. As it
gets colder their chirps slow down possibly
due to a lower metabolism and activity level.
There was also some mortality, but not a
significant difference between the two
temperatures.
Validity factors/Considerations
• 5.
• Next time I would consider doing the experiment
with a different species of crickets to see if
temperature also affects them. I also wonder if
other factors such as the food available may have
an affect.
• I would also use more specific temperatures.
• Since I had a high mortality rate, I would also use
larger containers and have fresh water available
daily.
Lab write ups are easy when you
follow the rubric!