Name: Megan Clarke

Date: November 6, 2015

Biology 12 Unit 1 Assignment 2: Scientific Method Virtual Lab

Instructions:
Please complete the Scientific Method Virtual Lab.
External Link:
http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs_2K8/labs/BL_01/index.html
Read the information and procedures provided in the lab and complete both the table and journal
questions (provided below). Please note you should be answering your questions in detail, by
providing support in the form of data values (external or from the lab) and scientific
information/research to explain your statements.
Table/Graph Section:
Table 1: European Corn Borer vs Four Varieties of Corn
Corn Variety
Golden Crop
Golden Crop
Super
Harvest
BT 456
BT 123
BT 123

Level of ECB
Infestation
None
Low
High
None
Low
High

Growing Pot
1 Yield
181.6
177.9
125.5

Growing Pot
2 Yield
182.8
171.2
129.0

Growing
Pot 3 Yield
189.8
170.6
130.0

Average
Yield
184.7
173.2
128.1

190.0
164.0
155.1

183.2
162.6
163.0

184.8
168.3
163.9

186.0
164.9
160.6

Journal Questions:
1. Describe the effects of the ECB infestations you used. Were all corn varieties equally
effective at controlling the ECB? How do you know? The effects of the ECB

infestations varied a lot, but they all reduced the amount of kernels in
the yield. Not all varieties were equally effective, because the average
yield differed from each seed variety.
2. If there was no ECB infestation in a certain year, would a farmer gain or lose financially
by planting Bt corn? Explain why? If there was no ECB infestation, one of the

two BT varieties (BT 123) would not give a very good yield, whereas the
other BT variety (BT 456) would give a very good return.
3. What might happen if Bt corn affects non-target organisms such as beneficial insects or
harmless insects? If Bt corn were to affect other non-targeted insects, it

would cause a decrease in those insect population. That, in turn, could

have serious consequences in the food chain.
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If
ECB became resistant to Bt, then over several generations there will be
more survivors, and those survivors will be highly resistant to Bt. If
scientists try to then develop even more powerful plants, they might
have a bad effect on an even wider selection of insects, and still, there
would be ECB survivors.

4. What might happen if ECB became resistant to Bt?

5. Discuss possible benefits and drawbacks of a transgenic organism such as Bt corn?

The benefits of transgenic corn are: a) the farmer wouldnt have to pay
for pesticides; b) the farmers yield would increase; and c) the farmer
would be in a better financial position. The problems with transgenic
corn are that pest insects would become resistant to it over time, causing
more problems to the corn so the yield would decrease.
6. A farmer planted a field of Bt 123 corn and wants to estimate the yield in terms of
bushels per acre. He counts 22 ears in 1/1000 of an acre. He determines that each ear
has about 700 kernels on average. He also knows that a bushel contains about 90,000
kernels on average. What is the farmer's estimate of yield in bushels/acre? The farmer

can expect approximately 171.1 bushels/acre.

Virtual Lab: Dependent and Independent Variables
Worksheet
1. ECB refers to:
a. A genetically engineered plant that is resistant to insect pests
b. Edible corn byproducts
c. An insect pest that reduces corn yield
d. European corn borer
e. c and d
2. How many days are required for a corn seed to become a mature plant with maximum
weight kernels ready to be harvested?
a. about 23
b. about 65
c. about 140
d. about 180

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3. BT Corn refers to corn that:

a. Has been infested with insect pests
b. Has been infected with bacteria
c. Is resistant to ECB
d. Is not affected by pesticides
4. BT is:
a.
b.
c.
d.

A stomach poison produced by bacteria

A genetically engineered corn product
A bacterium carried by the European corn borer
A bacterium that has a gene for producing Cry proteins

5. Creation of BT corn requires genetic material from all of the following except:
a. European corn borer
b. Bacillus thuringiensis
c. a corn plant
d. all of the above contribute genetic material to the production of BT corn

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Table 1: Average Yield for each seed variety at no, low, and high infestation levels
Seed Variety
BT 123

BT 456

Golden

Super Harvest

Level of
ECB
Infestation
None

Pot 1
Yield

Pot 2
Yield

Pot 3
Yield

Average
Yield

160.1

164.8

164.2

163.0

Low

164.0

162.6

168.3

164.9

High

155.1

163.0

163.9

160.6

None

190.0

183.2

184.8

186.0

Low

178.8

172.6

179.6

177.0

High

157.3

157.0

159.0

157.7

None

181.6

182.8

189.8

184.7

Low

177.9

171.2

170.6

173.2

High

135.4

139.6

138.3

137.7

None

164.1

164.3

161.9

163.4

Low

159.1

155.0

157.5

157.2

High

125.5

129.0

130.0

128.1

Table 2: % Reduction in yield for each seed variety at high levels of infestation
(transfer data on average yield with no infestation and high infestation from Table 1 to Table 2)
Seed Variety
BT 123

Avg. Yield with

No Infestation
163.0

Avg. Yield with

High Infestation
160.0

% Reduction
In Yield
1.8%

BT 456

186.0

157.7

15.2%

Golden

184.7

137.7

25.4%

Super Harvest

163.4

128.1

21.6%

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6. For each seed variety, why did you need to collect data from 3 pots for each infestation
level to obtain reliable data? 3 pots were collected for each infestation level to

give more reliable data. The bigger the sample size, the more reliable the
data. Averaging several data points is more accurate than just one
random data point.

7. Which seed variety has the highest yield under conditions of no infestation? The

variety BT456 had the highest yield when there were no ECB.

8. Which transgenic seed variety was most resistant to the ECB at high infestation levels?

BT123 is most resistant at high infestation levels.

9. Which non-transgenic seed variety was most resistant to the ECB at high infestation
levels? Of the non-transgenic varieties, Golden was the most resistant at

high infestation levels.

10. Compare the yield of Super Harvest seeds and BT 123 seeds under conditions of no
infestation. Is there any difference in the avg. yield? There is only a very small

difference; Super Harvests yield is only 0.4 g higher than BT 123.

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11. If you compared one pot of Super Harvest and one pot of BT 123 with no infestation,
would you expect the yield of each pot to be within 0.5g? Explain your answer. I

would not expect the yield of each pot to be within 0.5 g because, for
example within the samples collected for BT 123, one pot was 160.1
whereas the next pot of the same variety was 164.8 clearly a
difference greater than 0.5.

12. A farmer decides to plant 90% of one field with BT 123 seeds and the remaining 10% of
the field with a different seed variety. He hopes this will slow the evolutionary development
of BT resistant insects. Which seed variety should he use the 10% of his field that is not
planted with BT 123 seeds? Explain your answer.

I think the farmer should plant BT 456 because not only does it do best of
all the 4 varieties we studied under conditions of no infestation, but if it
became high infestation, then the farmer would still have a fairly high
yield. It would decrease by only 15% as compared to decreases of 21% and
25% for the two other varieties he could choose.

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