Meal Worm Practical

STAGE 1

Observation

Texture	Hard and smooth skin
Color	Brown with strips
Shape	Cylindrical
Smell	No smell
Sound	Only the sound of them walking
Others	Has 6 legs

Q1 How does it respond to touch?

Q2 Can it survive in water?

Q3 Does in respond to light?

Q4 How does it communicate?

Q5 How large can it grow?

Q6 What is its most ideal habitat?

STAGE 2

Aim: To find if mealworms like black or white surfaces.

Hypothesis: The mealworms will move to the black side of the surface.

Materials:

1.     Black and white sheet.

2.     Spoon

3.     Paper Weight

4.     Stopwatch

Procedures:

1.     Put some paper weight on the 4 corners of the sheet

2.     Take a five mealworms on the spoon.

3.     Place the mealworms on the middle of the black and white sheet.

4.     Observe over a time frame of 40 seconds.

5.     Observe where the mealworms move towards

6.     Record your observations

Independent Variable: The position of the mealworms at the start of the experiment

Dependent Variable: The number of mealworms on each side of the surface at the end of the experiment

Constant: Number of variables, Time taken.

Observation

Try	Black	White
1	2	3
2	0	5
3	2	3

Few of the mealworms turned toward the white side even when they are facing the black side.

The mealworms on the white move faster than the mealworms on the left.

The mealworms prefer the white surface compared to the black surface as most of the mealworms move towards the white side of the sheet.

Assumptions:

This is the reaction of all mealworms.

Reliability of the data:

The consistency of the experiment.

STAGE 3/  STAGE 4

Touch

Aim: To find out how do the mealworms react to different types of touches.

Hypothesis: The mealworms react instantly and the same way to all types of touches.

Materials:

1.    Soft brush

2.    Cotton bud

3.    Disposable dropper

4.    Stopwatch

Procedures:

1.    Gently touch the mealworms with the materials provided.

2.    Record the time taken to react to the material using the stopwatch

3.    Record the observations of the mealworms

4.    Repeat the steps for the other materials

Observation

Material	Reaction	Time taken(s)
Soft brush	Tries to get away from the brush	10
	Tries to get away from the brush	5
	Tries to get away	7
Cotton bud	Moves its legs	11
	Stays still but moves its legs	7
	Moves its legs	5
Disposable dropper	Moved	20
	No reaction	8
	No reaction	8

Independent variable:

The material used to touch the meal worm .

Dependent variable:

How the mealworm reacted to each material.

The way the mealworm was touched

Constant:

The part of the mealworm touched

It responded to the soft brush and the cotton bud but had the least response to the dropper. Therefore we can interpret that the mealworms do not react the same way to all the touches and take different amount of time to react.

Assumptions:

The way the mealworms used in our experiment is how all mealworms will react.

Reliability:

The consistency of the data collected for every time it was tested.

Light

Aim:

To find out whether how the mealworms react to light.

Hypothesis:

They prefer light places

Materials:

1.    Box

2.    Torch

3.    Stopwatch

Procedure:

1.    Place 5 mealworms in the box

2.    Shine the torch

3.    Observe how the mealworm reacts to the light

4.    Record your observations

Observation:

Light/Dark	Tries	Reaction	Time Taken
Light	1	1 mealworm crawled away from the light	30
	2	They tart moving faster 1 crawled away. They become more active	30
	3	1 crawled away.	30

Independent Variable:

The amount of light.

Dependent Variable:

The reaction of the mealworm.

Constant:

The number of mealworms.

The torch used.

The mealworms started becoming more active under light as compared to darkness. Therefore the meal worms tend to prefer dark places compared to light places.

Assumptions:

The way these mealworms reacted is how all mealworms would react.

Reliability:

The consistency of the data.