Lab #9: Woolybooger Competition
Problem: Explain how competition affects what organisms survive in an environment.

Research: On a distant planet, there are Woolyboogers. Each Woolybooger is similar except for their mouths. Some have a clothespin mouth, some have a tweezer mouth, some have a spoon mouth, and some have a chopstick mouth. Every Woolybooger eats beans.

Hypothesis: write in an if…then…format

Materials: beans, tray, clothespins, plastic spoons, tweezers, chopsticks

Method:


Ideally, you might be able to complete this lab with a couple of friends or family members, but if not, try each type of mouth yourself.

Your objective is to pick up at least 20 beans. If you do not get 20 beans at the end of the time, you die.

Find a tray (a paper plate would work, too) and place some dried beans in it (around 50). Find the different mouths of the Woolyboogers you'll use.
Start with one minute on the clock. Pick up as many beans as possible with either a clothespin, plastic spoon, tweezers, or chopsticks. Record in your data chart. Reduce the time to 45 seconds, 30 seconds, and finally, 15 seconds. Remember, if you don't get 20 beans, you don't survive, so you won't continue in the experiment.
Record all data for each time in the results.
Trade your "mouths" (use a different utensil to pick up the beans). Repeat the experiment until you have tried every type of mouth.
Results: (Create a data table like the one below for each round if you are doing this experiment with multiple people. If it's only you, there will be only one data table.)

Round # _____

TYPE OF WOOLYBOOGER

# OF BEANS 1 MINUTE

# OF BEANS 45 SEC.

# OF BEANS 30 SEC.

# OF BEANS 15 SEC.

CHOPSTICKS
TWEEZERS
CLOTHESPIN
SPOON
Discussion/Analysis:

Which type of Woolybooger survived the best? Explain why.
What could the other Woolyboogers do to survive better?
What happens to organisms that cannot compete as well with other organisms in the wild?
Give two examples of competition that occurs in real life.
Conclusion: What is the answer to the problem question? Was your hypothesis correct? Were there sources of error? What could be done differently next time? What did you learn?