This question was based on investigations of the effects of caffeine on memory in bees. Caffeine is often
produced by plants in their nectar, and researchers studied the effect of caffeine on the probability of bees
remembering and, therefore, revisiting a nectar source. Students were presented with a data table indicating
the average probability of bees revisiting caffeinated and caffeine-free (control) nectar sources after 10
minutes and after 24 hours. The data included inferential error bars to compare groups. Students were asked
to construct an appropriate graph based on the data provided. Students were then asked to describe the
effect of caffeine on the short-term (10 minute) and long-term (24 hour) memory of a nectar source. Next,
students were asked to design an experiment using artificial flowers to investigate potential negative effects
of increasing caffeine concentrations in nectar on the number of floral visits by bees. As part of their
experimental design, students were asked to identify the null hypothesis, an appropriate control treatment,
and the predicted results that could be used to reject the null hypothesis. Finally, students were told that
nectar with caffeine often has a lower sugar content than nectar without caffeine, and plants expend less
energy to produce caffeine than to produce sugar. Based on this information, students were asked to propose
one benefit to plants that produce nectar with caffeine and to propose one cost to bees that visit the flowers
of the plants that produce nectar with caffeine.