Worm+Maze+(3rd+Quarter+2010-2011)

Title: ( Noah 4/1/11 ) Worm Maze

Purpose: ( Noah 4/1/11 ) The purpose for the worm lab, is to see if a worm is able to complete a wooden maze in 2 minutes.

Reasearch:

Maze: ( Noah 4/5/11) The maze should be not to big and not to small. The maze should be about 1 to 1.5 feet squared. The base on the maze shold have some moist dirt so that they will not dry out. The maze should have something that they like and dislike to guide them through the maze. You should also keep it dark because worms don't like the light. The maze should not be to complicated, because worms have simple brains which specialize in directing the body and response to light.

Worms Brain Capacity: (Noah 4/5/11) Worms have simple brains which specialize in directing body movement is response to light. To show how simple the brain is, if a worm's brain is removed, changes in its general behavior are hardly noticeable.

Motivators: (Noah 4/5/11) The worms prefer the dark. In the maze they would go to the darkest places. The temperature would also be a motivator. Worms prefer the cold. Food may be a motivator but it depends upon the worm. The texture of the maze has to be moist and not to hard. If it is to hard the will not like it. If it is to moist the worms may die. If you put a worm in the light they crawl towards the shadows. They also don't like the heat. If you put cold in certain places and shade in others they might be able to finish the maze. Few tests proved if you put a worm in a plastic cup they will freak out and move crazily. If you put the worms in the cold, they would walk in circle.

Worm avoidancce: (Noah 4/5/11) The Red Wiggler worm like the dark but don't like the light.They like the tempurature warm but don't like the cold.They like the damp but don't like the dry. They like food that is sweet and sour but they dislike spicy and salt. If a environment is dark,warm ,damp, they will thrive.

Variables:(Brendan 4/5/11) Independent- We are testing how much the worms can travel in 2 minutes. Dependent- We are letting three worms go through the maze to see how long it takes them to get through it. Control- The starting point for each of the worms, the amount of time they traveled.

Hypothesis- (Brendan 4/5/11) We believe that the worms will be able to travel at least half of the maze in two minutes.

Materials: (daniel 3/3/11) I got this information from: worm maze ( 2nd quarter)
 * 3 worms
 * top soil
 * cellophane
 * ice cubes
 * flashlight
 * maze

Procedures: (Tyler 3/3/11) We had people bring in a maze, flash light, and a bag of top soil (we got ours from a soil bag from the store). 1) You will need to spread the dirt out evenly through out the maze. 2) Then you will need to get some water to sprinkle through out the maze. 3) Then we turn on the flash light and shined it in the top of the maze. 4) Then you should get a stop watch and a ruler. 5) Next you will need two or three worms. 6) Then put the worms in and give them five minutes at most to see how far they went. 7) Finally mark the place that the worms stop and measure how far they went and record the data. I got this imformation from past experience on the first worm maze lab earlier this year. Click the link below to see a layout of the Worm Maze.

Table: (Kyle 4\3\11)

Worm Travel


 * || Worm 1 || Worm 2 || Worm 3 ||
 * Length || 9cm || 8cm || 9cm ||
 * Time || 2:00 || 2:00 || 2:00 ||

**Conclusion** (Aaron 4/5/11)
====Our data table shows that it doesn't agree with our hypothesis. Our hypothesis says that we gave the three worms five minutes, but our table shows we only gave them two minutes. What I think we could do better next time is we could not interrupt the worm so much, communicate with our groups better, and make the maze smaller and more simple than it already was.====