First day of data collection!

First day of data collection!

Today we did our first round of data collection! We started the class with a discussion of where our experiment is headed and we were already able to observe some things and we were able to solidify a care guide to continue our experimental design. Today’s main points included 1)  Update on quarter schedule 2) Data collection 3) Data Analysis and bug collection  4) Care guide and methods.

5/3 Class Schedule:

Time	Activity
9:00AM	Meet at Briggs Hall classroom
9:05AM	Debrief and discuss our class objectives for today
9:20AM	Discuss methods we will use for bug care
9:35AM	Collected data on survival
10:00	One group broke off to collect more boxelder bugs, and the rest of class stayed to change water and food. Also had someone do data analysis and another person started a care guide.
11:45AM	Groups returned, replaced bugs and made sure bugs were all set.
12:30PM	Wrapping up and setting an agenda for next meeting.

Updates to quarter schedule:

We discussed that we only have four weeks plus one Wednesday (to be exact) left of the quarter. Our papers will be due June 5 during class, so it is important to start sooner rather than later. We also discussed that while in some ways we have advanced in our experiment, by having an experiment running, we skipped a few steps in our timeline. With that being said, we will not be having a poster session next Wednesday.

Data Collection:

The class did the first round of data collection. The variables we chose to count today were: number of female alive, number of female dead, number female dead, number male dead, number of eggs present, whether their liquid was tilted in the container or not, and the total number of bugs in each container.

Data Analysis and Bug Collection:

The class split into 2 groups. One small group went out to collect more boxelder bugs because we were unable to collect a sufficient number on wednesday. The rest of the class stayed to work on our methods of feeding and watering as well as data analysis. For our data analysis we were actually able to observe that all of the boxelder bugs treated with antibiotics on a synthetic diet died, and only 11% on the boxelder diet lived.

(survival data collected and filtered on R to show percentage of bugs that lived)

Care Guide and Methods

The class discussed how often we would be feeding and giving water to the bugs. We decided that water would be checked and replaced every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As for food, we will be checking and replacing it once a week, and it’s okay if there is excess food. We will be collecting survival data every class meeting time. A care guide was made in order to have a consistent outline of our feeding and watering methods. Some reiterations and changes are: 

• 1.5 ml of each liquid treatment (for soapberry)

• We will assume any dead bugs found are replaced (instead of quantifying it) and put a note if you are unable to replace them. 

• Change the dosage of antibiotics in boxelder because all are dying: 1/10 of original dosage

• There was a change from bottle caps to small feeding containers (displayed in the picture below)

  
  

List of things to get (with permission):

• 1000uL tips

• Larger vials for antibiotics and water 

• Heating  pads 

  
  

Docs to Create: 

• Sign up sheet for monday watering groups (Monday Colony Maintenance )

• Variable treatment doc (potentially during next class)

Agenda for Next Meeting(5/8)

Time	Activity
9:00AM	Meet at Briggs Hall and discuss the agenda for today
9:15AM	One group starts survival data collection and another group starts boldness tests
10:30AM	Discuss response varibles and discuss the timeline of experiment with groups and then as a whole
11:30AM	Check water, food, make sure all bugs are good:)
12:15PM	Clean up
12:30PM	Wrapping up and setting an agenda for the next meeting