Reacting to light
Goal: We wanted to see whether mealworms like the light or dark better.
Materials: 2 paper plates, flashlight
Hypothesis: We believe they will shy away from the light and not be active because we think that they like the dark more than the light. They may react poorly and freak out when the light is placed on them. We believe that they will move faster when they are allowed to be left in the dark.
Procedure: We placed the mealworms on the paper plate away from the bran. Next, we covered the paper plate to block the light but left enough of a gap so we could peer in through the side of the plates to see what they do if the area is darkened. We then uncovered the mealworms and shone the flashlight on them for one minute to see what happened. We then covered the box for another minute and recorded the results of them away from the light. To ensure our results, we covered half of the paper plate so one side remained in the light while the other side was darkened, we then placed all of the mealworms in the light to figure out whether or not the mealworms would move away from the light, we then shone the flashlight on the uncovered side of the plate for five minutes.
Observations:
They stopped moving when the light was shone and turned over onto their back or remained still. We recovered them for sixty seconds and noticed that they were very active once again and crawling through the bran. In our second round, we noticed that after two minutes the mealworms started to move more, and after another minute, Melanie Jr. and Rachel Jr. had started to move towards the dark. When we checked on the mealworms 5 minutes later there were none left in the light.
Results:
Mealworms do not like the light, and will try to hide if/when they are exposed to it. When mealworms are placed in an area with a lot of light, they tend to remain still but will slowly attempt to move to an area that is darker.
Independent Variables:
Type of light (natural/indoor), and amount of darkness.
Dependent Variables:
Reaction of mealworms