I need help on my experiment!?

Question

I am running an experiment to determine the effect of temperature on the eating habits of a certain snail species.The first time I ran the experiment,I found that increases in temperature increases the amount of food the snails consume.The second time,food intake decreases with higher temperatures.Can you please help me identify 2 steps that I could take to resolve the disagreement of the 2 runs?! :D

Answer 1

Well, I would (and I know you don't want to hear this) rerun the experiment making sure there is nothing else that may be effecting the snails eating other than the temperature. This run should agree with one of the other runs you have already done. It would give you even stronger push toward one answer or the other if you repearted it yet again as your second step. That's going to be the best for you to do and this is what I have to do when my lab experiements don't work either.

Answer 2

First of all, if your second trial is supposed to support the first one, you should practice them in same temperatures. If you're trying different temperatures, especially if the temperatures are relatively higher in the second trial, it is expected to find lower food intake since every organism's metabolic rate decreases after a certain temperature. Try to make the temperatures equal in both trials as well as the other conditions such as light, humidity etc.

Answer 3

snail =)