6.+Hot+or+Cold?

//** Hot or Cold? **// **Question:** Do mealworms prefer hot or cold?

**Materials:** - 250 ml of boiling water - 250 ml of frozen water - a small shoebox

**Manipulated Variables:** There are none.

**Responding Variables:**  The mealworms’ decision of temperature zone The mealworms will show a clear preference for one of the temperatures and this will be observed by where the mealworms gravitate to.
 * Hypothesis: **

Sarah Blackadar: I predict that the mealworms will be attracted to the hot water because they enjoy being warm. Sara Belliveau: I predict that the mealworms will be attracted to the hot water because they enjoy being warm. Carol Burroughs: I predict that the mealworms will be attracted to the hot water because they enjoy being warm. Emily Jay: I predict that the mealworms will be attracted to the hot water because it is warm.
 * Predictions:**

**Plan/Procedure:**
 * 1)  Place one glass of hot boiling water in one corner of a shoebox
 * 2)  Place one bottle of frozen water in the opposite corner of a shoebox
 * 3)  Put 2 mealworms in the middle of the box, an equal distance from both glasses.
 * 4)  Observe for 1 minute where the mealworms go and whether they are attracted to one temperature more than another.
 * 5)  Repeat 2 more times with 2 different sets of mealworms.

**Controlled Variables:** - The temperature of the glasses of water - The distance from each glass in the box - Where the mealworms are placed - The size of the shoebox

**Observations, Data, Tables, Graphs:**
 * **Trial** ||  **Observation**  ||
 * 1 ||  One mealworm did not move and the other mealworm went directly to the cold glass and crawled around the edge of the glass.  ||
 * 2 ||  Same as trial 1.  ||
 * 3 ||  One meal worm did not move and the other avoided both glasses and crawled around the perimeter of the shoebox.  ||

**Conclusion:** All mealworms seemed to avoid the hot water glass. Only 2 mealworms went directly to the freezing glass and the other 2 mealworms were indifferent and stayed put where they were placed at the beginning of the experiment. The only conclusion we can gather from this is that the meal worms are fairly indifferent about cold but prefer to avoid hot temperatures.

**Comments:** There were two mealworms that did not move during our experiment. For the past few days most of our worms have been very inactive and therefore we are attributing their lack of movement to this reason.