Sierra's+Project

Title. Which Flower Could It Bee? Introduction. It’s more interesting to watch bees than you may think. They always look so busy, buzzing from one vibrant flower to another. One day I was sitting outside trying to think of ideas for my eighth grade science project. I thought about doing an experiment on animals, people, plants, and many other things but nothing really appealed to me. Then I noticed some bees on a flower bush, flying around. “I wonder why so many bees are on one bush and none on another?” Then I realized that that could be my science project! I thought it would be interesting to see which flower bees like the best. I wanted to know what made the bees like certain flowers. Was it the smell, the size, or the color? In my final science project for eighth grade I decided I wanted to do my experiment on the bees in my yard and their favorite flowers. I. Hypothesis. My hypothesis was that the most bees would be attracted to the tulips. I thought that because they are bright yellow, which would probably attract the bees. Also, they have the second strongest smell out of the flowers I used in my experiment. I knew that bees love sweet smells, which also leads me to believe that they will love the tulips. I figured that the bright color would attract the bees. The tulips are also decent sized, which would make them a good landing place for the bees. That’s why I predicted that the bees would be most attracted to the tulips out of all the flowers in my yard. II. Materials and Methods. I went outside during a sunny and warm day. I watched three random flowers per plant species. For five minutes per flower species, I record how many bees I saw go to those flowers. Then I will moved on to the next type of flower. I did this for each different flower type and made sure that the weather stayed consistent for each visit. I did three trials for each flower, once at 10 in the morning, again at 1 pm, and once more at 4 pm, therefore ensuring that my data was reasonable. I then recorded my results and analyzed them. Then, based on how many visits each flower species gets, I made my conclusion about which flower attracts the most bees. III. Results. My data shows that the bees liked the Pink Virburnum the best with 68 total bees during the three trials. They liked the tulips and plum tree blossoms second best, with a tie of 41 bees each. Next, they liked the Cornell pink azaleas, and after that the daffodils. They liked the violets the least. Therefore I conclude that the Pink Virburnum is the most attractive flower to the bees, out of the ones located in my yard. My work was valid because I had three sucessful trails per flower species. My data for each trail was consistant and there were no errors in my project. It went just as I planned it. IV. Conclusion Therefore I conclude that the Pink Virburnum is the most attractive flower to the bees, out of the ones located in my yard. It got 27 more bees than the runners up, the tulips and plum tree blossoms. The bee's probably liked the Pink Virburnum flower best because it is large and very fragrant. I was surprised by my results, though. I expected the bright flowers to have more bees than the light colored flowers, like the Pink Virburnum My work was valid because I had three sucessful trails per flower species. My data for each trial was consistent and there were no errors in my project. It went just as I planned. Therefore, I can confidently say that the bees liked the Pink Virburnum the best. V. Explanation I think that they liked the Pink Virburum the best because of its very strong smell. I can smell it from the other side of the yard, so they probably can too. The flowers form was a bunch of tiny flowers clumped into a ball like structure. Perhaps that had to do with the outcome, also. I was surprised that they liked the violets the least because during my research I read that bees love dark hues. The violets had the darkest hue out of all the flowers that I used in the experiment. That is my explanation on the outcome of my experiment.