Scientific Method Practice: Pasteur’s Anthrax Study
Learning Style Tips:
For visual learners, draw the steps of the experiment.
For auditory learners, read the text aloud to yourself, stop at each sentence, and explain
it.
For kinesthetic learners, stand up and use gestures to act out the experiment.
Directions: Many significant problems in science
have been solved using the scientific method. The
following describes one such problem. Read the
description and answer the questions that follow.
Anthrax is a severe, contagious disease of animals and
people. Animals with anthrax usually die suddenly. Robert
Koch discovered a bacterium responsible for anthrax.
When outside a living body, anthrax bacteria form spores, reproductive cells that can
exist for long periods of time with no food or water. Spores can be killed only by
burning. If any animal with anthrax did not die, it never caught anthrax again. If a mild
form of anthrax had existed, it could have been deliberately given to an animal as a
vaccine to make the animal immune. However, a mild form of anthrax did not exist.
Louis Pasteur had an idea for immunizing animals from anthrax. He collected some
anthrax bacteria from infected animals. He then heated the bacteria to weaken, but
not kill them. In 1881, Pasteur inoculated half a herd of sheep with the anthrax
bacteria he had weakened. After a period of time, he inoculated the whole herd with
full-strength anthrax bacteria. The animals that had not previously received the
weakened form of anthrax became ill and died. Those that had previously received the
weakened anthrax bacteria remained healthy.
1. Animals that died of anthrax were burned before they were buried. Why do you
think this was done?
Animals that died of anthrax were burned before being buried to kill the bacteria and
prevent the disease from spreading. Anthrax bacteria can survive in the soil for a long
time, so burning helps stop the infection from spreading to other animals or people.
2. For Pasteur’s experiment, identify the following:
a. Independent variable : Whether the sheep were inoculated with the weakened anthrax bacteria
or not.
b. Dependent variable The health outcome of the sheep (whether they became ill or remained
healthy after exposure to full-strength anthrax).
c. Control variable(s)
The species of animal used (all sheep).
• The environment in which the sheep were kept.
• The dose and timing of the full-strength anthrax bacteria given to all sheep.
• The health status of the sheep before the experiment.
3. Complete these three hypotheses that Pasteur made:
a. If burning kills anthrax bacteria, then
a. If burning kills anthrax bacteria, then it will stop the disease from
spreading.
b. If an animal that survives anthrax can never get it again, then .If an animal
that survives anthrax can never get it again, then it will be immune to future
anthrax infections.
4. If full-strength bacteria either kill an animal or make it immune, then If full-
strength bacteria either kill an animal or make it immune, then animals that
survive will not get sick from anthrax again.
5. What conclusions did Pasteur come to as a result of his experiment?
The animals that had not previously received the weakened form of anthrax
became ill and died. Those that had previously received the weakened anthrax
bacteria remained healthy.
6. Let us assume that Pasteur wanted to conduct a new experiment to be more
certain of his findings. Design a new experiment using the same variables.
1. **Objective**: Confirm if weakened anthrax bacteria protect animals from full-
strength anthrax.
Groups:
- Group A: Given weakened anthrax.
- Group B: Given a placebo (saltwater).
- Group C: Given a different weakened version of anthrax.
Procedure:
- Step 1: Inject Group A with weakened anthrax, Group B with placebo, and Group
C with the different version.
- Step 2: After some time, expose all groups to full-strength anthrax.
- Step 3: Check which animals stay healthy and which get sick.
Variables:
- Independent Variable: Type of injection (weakened anthrax, placebo, or different
version).
- Dependent Variable: Health of the animals (sick or healthy).
- Control Variable: Same type of animals and conditions.
. Expected Results:
- Group A should stay healthy.
- Group B should get sick.
- Group C helps test if other weakened versions work too.
Analyzing and Interpreting Graphs
Directions: This graph has two vertical axes, one for the rabbits and one for
the foxes. It shows how the population of foxes and rabbits have changed in
one area. Each population was measured at the middle of every year. Using
this information, answer the following questions:
1. Which animal is the predator? Which animal is the prey? What does that mean?
The predator is the3 fox and the prey is the rabbit that means that the fox hunts
the rabbit
2. How many rabbits were there in 1989? 180
3. How many foxes were there in 1993? 280
4. In which year were there the most foxes? In which year were there the most
rabbits? The most rabbits were in 2001 with 600 and the most foxes were in
1996 with 400
5. During 1996, the rabbit population was almost totally wiped out. Explain why.
(Make sure to reference specific data points from the graph.) because that was
the year the population for the foxes were the highest at 400 foxes so the they
most likely hunted the rabbits which caused there population to be almost at 0
6. Between 1998 and 2001, the rabbit population increased significantly. Explain
why. (Make sure to reference specific data points from the graph.)
Because in that year foxes were completely gone which cause the population of
rabbits to increase fast since there was to predators to get rid of them
