Biology Investigation What affects the crawling speed of maggots?

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Biology Investigation

What affects the crawling speed of maggots?

Plan

This is an investigation to find out what affects the crawling speed of maggots, there are lots of different variables which could affect the speed at which a maggot might crawl, we will control one of these conditions and investigate it fully to find out its affect. The variable I have chosen to investigate is the surface area of the maggot. I am going to observe how fast different size maggots can complete a set length, and then attempt to draw a conclusion by using precise measurements and observations.

The key variables I will have to observe for my investigation are of course the size of the maggots and their dimensions. Other variables will have to be kept constant however for it to be a fair and exact experiment, these include:

  • Temperature of the room
  • Dampness
  • Light
  • Length the maggots will crawl
  • Keeping the level of the platform stable

My prediction to the outcome of this experiment is an obvious one, the smaller the maggot is in dimensions, the greater its agility therefore the faster it will crawl. This kind of natural phenomenon is apparent especially in evolution of species.

For example, for a cheetah to be able to survive in the wild, it must be fast so it can catch it’s pray and outrun predators. But this is not the only thing the cheetah needs for survival; it must also have strength (mass) for it to be able to fight other cheetahs for mates or territory. If the cheetah was not large enough it would lose fights and may never produce any cubs and would not be able to fight for territory, if the cheetah did not have sufficient mass or strength, it would not survive and its chain would be broken.

My method for this experiment is as follows:

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  • We will randomly select 10 maggots of varying shapes and sizes, this is to create a large spread of results, which will hopefully give us a better trend
  • Each maggots length and width is measured using the same ruler to keep the investigation fair and precise
  • With these measurements we will be able to accurately work out each maggots surface area to a set number of decimal places
  • After this we will set each maggot a set distance it needs to crawl, this will be done using a mathematical formula
  • Each maggot set distance will be set ...

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*** An interesting report but there are some concerns over the validity of the results. Planning. There needed to have been much more thought put in regarding the control of key variables. Maggots are very sensitive to light and temperature and there seems to be little mention on how these are to be controlled. There is no discussion as to why different sized maggots were timed over different distances and since this is a key variable it seems to make the experiment invalid. Obtaining Evidence Results were recorded clearly but more care was needed in the headings of tables. There was no graph or discussion of results obtained. Evaluation There are few practical suggestions for improving the method. There seems to be little point recording the time in milliseconds when other key variables are not being controlled.