Animal
Behavior Lab
Instructions
How to
perform an
Investigation in
AP Biology:
The Animal
Behavior Lab
Some Background Information
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“Iso” means similar/equal
“Pod” means foot
It has 14 legs.
It has a segmented body.
Also, known as the “Rollie Pollie”,
“Roly-Polie”, and “Sow bugs”
It is not an insect.
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Crustacea ( same class as
Crustaceans like lobster, shrimp,
and crabs.
They breath through gills.
Genus: Armadillidium
Species: vulgare
The Animal Behavior Lab has to
do with Ethology
Ethology – The study of animal behavior
Couple of terms you need to know:
Taxis: animal moves toward or
away from stimulus.
Kinesis: random movement without respect to stimulus.
Just a mental image to help you remember:
When you get in a taxi, do you tell the driver to
take you to a specific place towards somewhere?
Or just drive around to where ever he wants to and
then let you out?
Check for understanding:
• What do each of these mean?
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What is the stimulus?
Which way is negative?
Which way is positive?
What does phototactic mean?
What does chemotactic mean?
What does Geotactic mean?
I am going away from light?
Your hypothesis
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You will need both a null and alternate
Null
Alternate
Sample:
Null: There is no preference difference in
moist and wet environments.
• Pill bugs prefer moist environments
Guided portion of the lab
• 1. Place 15 pillbugs in your choice chamber
gently with a paintbrush.
• 2. Make observations for 10 minutes.
• What do they look like?
• How are they moving within the chamber?
• How are they interacting with each other?
• Remove the pillbugs.
Guided portion of lab cont.
2. Place a moist filter paper on one end of the
choice chamber and a dry filter paper on the
other end of the filter paper.
3. Place 5 pillbugs in each end of the chamber
and 5 in the middle gently with a small paint
brush.
4. At 10 minutes, count the number on each
side. This will have given them enough time
to make a decision.
Collecting Data
• Make a small table similar to the one below.
This was actually a table given for this lab on
the AP Exam. Remember you are using
pillbugs and wet vs. dry.
Analyzing Your Data
• If you look at the flow
chart in your lab station
manual, you will see that
we collected discrete
data. (follow the pink)
• Our tool box will have
consisted of expected
and observed values.
• We will use a bar graph.
• Then we will use the ChiSquare test.
The bar graph
Title:
Y-axis label:
X-axis label:
Independent
Variable:
Dependent
Variable:
.
Methods of Analyzing your Data
You can organize your data for calculating Chi-Square in a table like the
one below. This is an actual sample from the AP Exam 2012.
Now find that Chi-Square value
(critical value) on the Degree of
Freedom chart below. This is the actual
chart available to you on the exam.
• Will you be rejecting the null hypothesis?
For the guided lab:
• You will not be assembling a mini-poster,
however, all of the information must be in
your lab notebook.
• Site references later for your back-ground
information on mini-poster;
• Don’t forget AP Lab Manuals, as a source
Now it’s time to design
your own experiment in Animal Behavior.
Before you get started:
Follow pre-lab design rubric.
• You will need a composition book to record the following: (See
rubric in lab station manual)
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1. Members of your work group
2. Primary question for investigation
3. Background observations and contextual information – support why?
4. Hypotheses and rationale for the investigation
5. Experimental design – strategies/tools for testing hypothesis, using
appropriate controls, and variables
6. Materials required (Make a sticky note shopping list for your lab station)
7. Safety issues
8. Procedure in sufficient detail so that someone could replicate your
results.
AT THIS POINT, YOU MUST GET MY APPROVAL BEFORE BEGINNING
EXPERIMENTATION.
9. Results, including graphs, tables, drawings or diagrams, and statistical
analysis
10.Conclusion and discussion - Was the hypothesis supported? What
additional questions remain for further investigation?
11. References
Example of Mini-Poster
• Mini – Poster Requirements
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• Title
• Abstract – (like NFRSEF abstract from Science Fair)
• Introduction – with primary question, background (like a
review of Lit), and hypothesis (null and alternate, please)
• Methodology – Materials; Design
• Results, including appropriate graphs and descriptive
statistics, tables/charts, and statistical analysis information
(test and interpretation)
• Conclusions: your interpretation of your results based on
your hypotheses, including Reject Null or Fail to reject null,
etc.
• Literature cited.
Evaluation
• You will present your findings during a gallery
walk of your peers.
• All groups will prepare for presentation and
set up meaningful mini-poster.
• Group members will rotate out and visit other
lab stations for presentations.
• This first investigation will be graded by your
group members, your peers, and me!
College Board References
you must be included in all
investigative labs:
• AP Dirty Dozen number 12 – this is located in
the large notebook for your lab station
• AP Investigation number 11 – this is located in
the 2 green notebooks for your lab station.
• All of your references need to be in APA
format.