A previous group of students wanted to investigate the factorsthat contribute to female fecundity (total number of eggs a femalelays).  They wondered if the female’s body weight mightplay a role.  The students collected and weighed 15newly-emerged virgin female bean beetles.  Each femalewas mated and given plenty of black-eyed peas on which to layeggs.  Each day the students checked the beans for eggs,counted the number of eggs, and gave the female freshbeans.  When the female died, the students added up thetotal number of eggs each female laid.
- What is the independent variable?  What are thepotential values for this variable? What is the dependentvariable?  What are the potential values for thisvariable?
- What are the study subjects?  Be specific!
- What might be the researchers’ hypothesis?
- What type of scientific study did the researchers conduct?
- If this study is an experiment, what are thetreatments?  Label the treatments as either experimentalor control.
- What was the sample size of this study?
- List three potentially confounding variables that were orshould have been controlled in this study.
