Graph for Exploring DNA Damage: What Effect Do Ultraviolet Rays Have on Yeast Colony Growth? project

[sciencestudent84]

Help please! I am finished with this project but do not know what kind of graph I should use for my results. My results are percentages of how many yeast colonies had died.

[Quark2]

I'm not sure I have enough information about your project to give you a definite answer, but it seems as though the amount of ultraviolet radiation (or its frequency or wavelength, I'm not sure how you are measuring exposure) is your independent variable (what you're changing) and the number of yeast colonies still alive is your dependent variable (what changes as a result of your independent variable). Since in science, we usually graph the independent variable on the x-axis and the dependent variable on the y-axis, perhaps you can graph the amount of ultraviolet radiation on the x-axis, and the percent of yeast colonies still alive on the y-axis. This should give you a graph with a negative slope, assuming that less colonies are alive as it is exposed to more ultraviolet radiation.