Lily investigated ladybugs in her mother's garden using the scientific method. She observed that the ladybugs were eating tiny green bugs on the roses, not the roses themselves. Through research, Lily learned interesting facts about ladybugs and their role as beneficial predators in gardens. She discovered ladybugs were sent to space on a NASA mission to study their predator-prey interactions in zero gravity. The experiment found that ladybugs caught and ate all the aphids in space, supporting the hypothesis.

1. Lily’s Ladybugs
by Ms. Gullstrand

2. Lily was learning about the Scientific
Method in her 4th grade science class.
Science was not her favorite
subject, but she was a VERY curious
person.

3. Lily learned that the first step in the
Scientific Method was to ask a question.

4. Lily’s teacher asked her to think of something
that she would like to investigate.
 What does it mean to investigate something? Tell
me about a time that you investigated
something.

5.  Lily had noticed that there were a lot of red lady
bugs with black spots on her mother’s rose bush
at home.

6.  Lily thought that the ladybugs were eating the
roses and she thought that her mom would be
very upset about that! Maybe this would be a
good thing to investigate!

7.  When she got home from school that day, Lily told her
mom that the ladybugs were eating her roses.
 Lily’s mom laughed gently and she suggested that Lily go
outside to observe the lady bugs with a magnifying glass.
 What are some other words or phrases to describe an
observation?

8.  Lily was surprised to see that the ladybugs were not
eating the roses. During her investigation, she discovered
that the ladybugs were eating the tiny green bugs that
were clinging to the stems of the roses.
 What does clinging mean in this story? Context clue: look
at the words that come before and after clinging!

9.  When Lily went back into her house, she told her
mom about her observations.
 The second step in the Scientific Method is
research. Lily’s mom helped her to find more
information about ladybugs

10.  Lily found out several interesting things about ladybugs:
 The scientific name for ladybug is Coccinellidae.
 Ladybugs are a type of beetle. They are called Lady
Beetles or Lady Birds in England!

11. Ladybugs live for 2-3 years .
Ladybugs are .3 to .4 inches long.
Size relative to a paper clip:
(Ladybug, 2013)

12. Lily learned about the life cycle of the
ladybug:

13.  Ladybugs are omnivores. This means that they eat plants
and animals.
 What are some other types of omnivores?

14.  Gardeners love to have ladybugs around. Most types of
ladybugs eat small bugs that are harmful to plants and
crops.
 There are only two types of ladybugs that eat plants. The
Mexican bean beetle and the squash beetle are destructive
path that prey upon crops.
Mexican Bean Beetle

15.  Ladybugs do not taste very good. Ladybugs
secrete a fluid from their leg joints which gives
them a foul taste. Their bright color and bad
taste keep them safe from predators like birds
(Ladybug, 2013).
 Name some other prey-predator relationships.

16.  It was time for Lily to design an experiment and
formulate a hypothesis about ladybugs.
 What experiments would you conduct to find out
more about ladybugs?

17.  Lily could not think of a good experiment for
ladybugs. She wondered if the ladybugs would
leave if her mom’s rose bush was cut down.
 Lily knew that her mom would never agree to
that!

18.  Lily continued her ladybug research. She learned that
in 1999, four ladybugs were sent into space on a NASA
space shuttle.
nasa.gov
 Ladybugs and their main food, aphids, were sent to a zero-
gravity environment to study how to aphids could get away
from the ladybugs without being able to jump using gravity.

19.  The third step in the Scientific Method is to form
a hypothesis. A hypothesis is an educated guess
about what will happen in an experiment.

20. The lead scientist in this study, astronaut Eileen
Collins, hypothesized that more aphids would be
eaten in space than on Earth.
(Eileen Collins, 2013)
What is your hypothesis for this experiment?

21.  The fourth step in the Scientific Method is to conduct an
experiment.
 The astronauts took a small container with four
ladybugs, leaves, and aphids onto the Space Shuttle.
 The scientists knew that on Earth, ladybugs will climb up a
plant stalk to capture aphids, and the aphids will use
gravity to assist them to fall off of the leaf to escape from
the ladybug.

22.  The scientists wondered how these defense
mechanisms would work in the absence of
gravity. They also wondered what would happen
to the relationship between predator and prey.
 What are some other examples of defense
mechanisms in prey/predator relationships?

23.  The fifth step in the Scientific Method is the
analysis of data generated from the experiment.
There were no aphids left at the end of the
experiment, but all of the ladybugs survived
(Enchanted Learning, 2013).

24.  The final step in the Scientific Method is to decide
whether or not the investigator’s hypothesis is true or
false.
 Dr. Collins was correct! Her hypothesis statement was
TRUE!

25. Ladybugs do very well in space!

26. Resources
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 Eileen Collins. (2013). Retrieved from National Aeronautics and Space
Administration: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/collins.html
 Enchanted Learning. (2013). Retrieved from Ladybugs:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/insects/Ladybug.shtml
 Ladybug. (2013). Retrieved from National Geographic:
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/ladybug/
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