Fruit Fly Internet Questions
schmied/reid©2000
Drosophila melanogaster Name __________
aka The Infamous Fruit Fly Period ____
Student #___
Answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper using complete, quality, correct sentences ,and properly formatted figures. (100 pts)
1. Completely explain, in your own words, why Drosophila are commonly used for studies by scientists. (10 pts)
2. Draw, title, and label a small 1/2 page figure showing the life cycle of Drosophila melanogaster. Show all stages. (10 pts) {Use figures format!}
3. Draw , title, and label a small 1/2 page figure showing the life cycle of Eisenia foetida the true red wiggler. Show all stages. (10 pts) {Use figures format!}
4. Think about all the information that you have learned about both organisms and their life cycles. Think about your own life cycle. Tell me which organism, Drosophilia melanogaster, or Eisenia foetida you believe to be more primative (more ancient or evolved earliest). Explain your reasoning. (10 pts) (Remember this is Science so you must give a scienctific answer based upon how scientists think!)
5. Explain why Drosophila melanogaster's development takes longer at cooler temperatures than at warmer temperatures. (Hint: think about what happens at the atomic/molecular level when temperature rises or falls) (10 pts)
6. Why doesn't a female Drosophila melanogaster need to mate repeatedly? (10 pts)
7. How many eggs can a single 3 mm long female Drosophila melanogaster lay and how long does it take the eggs to hatch at normal room temperature? (10 pts)
8. Say one female Drosophila melanogaster was fertilized by one male and she laid the normal amount of eggs and they all hatched. Then let's say exactly half of larva grew up to be adult females and half to be adult males. Finally each male fertilized one female and these female laid the normal amount of eggs which all hatched too. How many total eggs would these second generation females lay? Show and explain all work (10pts)
9. Tell two major discoveries that scientists have made using Drosophila melanogaster as a study organism. (10 pts)
10. One way to compare how primative creatures are is to find out how many genes one organism has versus another organism. Let's try it! How many times more genes do humans have than yeast? How many times more genes do humans have than Drosophila melangaster? Show all work.... (10pts total)
Extra Credit: The research information that you have just read was gathered from Internet sites. The internet has many outstanding sites for science. If you would like to do some extra credit, go the Links section on the Science Seven homepage (http://sjhweb.nsd.org/scienceseven) and write up a review of one of the sites there. Use this format:
1. Url (http: // ------ ) 2. Name of Site
3. Review - in this section explain what the site is all about in a 6Traits paragraph)
4. Opinion - in this section tell the following: a. What's the best part of this site? b. What's the worst part of this site. c. Would you recommend this site to a fellow seventh/eighth grader? (tell why or why not!)
The amount of credit awarded will vary between 10-30pts, depending upon the effort demonstrated.
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©2000 John Schmied and Mike Reid