The organism I want to study is the common dandelion (Taraxacum)
I noticed that one half of my front yard has all the flowering dandelions and the other half does not have any flowering, only the leaves. My front yard wraps around the yard, the one half is facing North West and the other half is facing North East. The NW side has no flowering dandelions whereas the NE side has all the flowering dandelions.
I hypothesize that the amount of sun that the dandelions get during the day and at specific times of the day, determines whether or not the plants are flowering. The NE side of the yard gets much more sun than the NW since my house shades the NW side most of the day.
Response variable: flowering vs. non-flowering dandelion plants
Predictor variable: the amount of sun (photosynthesis) determines if the plant is flowering or not. More sun = flowers, and less sun = no flowers.
Hi Helen,
Interesting idea for an experiment! Have you considered how you will measure the amount of sun received by each side?
There may be other variables that impact whether the plants are flowering, such as soil conditions. Are the plants all at the same level of maturity? (Is it possible that the plants on the NW side are younger and haven’t flowered yet?) The NE side might have drier soil due to receiving more sun and the drier soil could be what the dandelions prefer (confounding variable).
Good luck with your experiment. You have a clear piece and pattern and your prediction is falsifiable, so you should get an interesting result.