Heat v.s. Cold
Goal: We wanted to evaluate whether mealworms prefer being warm or cold.
Materials: paper plates, hair dryer (hot and cold air)
Hypothesis: The heat will make them move faster. They will change colour with the heat. With the cold it will make them slow and they will try and avoid the spot where we are projecting the air.
Procedure: We placed all of the mealworms on one side of the box. We then turned a hair dryer on high on the bottom of the box until it got very warm. We then opened the box to see what had happened due to the warmth. We then moved the worms to the opposite side of the box and blasted the cold air on the bottom of the box. We waited a few minutes and then opened the box to see what had happened.
Observations: We noticed instantly that when the hot air was introduced the mealworms would flip over onto their backs or would move very quickly around the plate. However, we noticed that when the cold air was introduced the mealworms stopped moving, and simply curled up into a ball.
Results: The heat made them flip over on the backs and move a lot, the cold made them scrunch up in a ball and not move at all. However, upon researching further we discovered that these types of beetles are accustomed to warmer climates, which explains why they did not like the cold, however, we believe that they flipped onto their backs because the hot surface was simply too hot for them.
Independent Variables: Temperature of air from hair dryer, amount of air from hair dryer, and material used for surface used for experiment.
Dependent Variable: Reaction of the mealworm