9.+The+Mealworm+Crawl

=//** The Mealworm Crawl **//=

**Question:** What type of surface can mealworms climb best?

**Materials:**
 * one sheet of construction paper
 * one sheet of loose sleeve paper
 * a bamboo cutting board
 * one plastic sheet protector
 * one metal tray
 * one sheet of wax paper
 * one sheet of newspaper

**Manipulated Variables:**
 * The surface the mealworms will walk on
 * The angle at which they will walk

**Responding Variables:**
 * The mealworms' ability to walk on different surfaces
 * The mealworms' ability to walk at different angles

**Predictions:**  __Sara Belliveau:__   Mealworms will walk best on the bamboo cutting board because they will get a lot of traction. __ Sarah Blackadar: __ Mealworms will walk best on plain paper because it is smooth but provides grip. __Carol Burroughs :__ Mealworms will walk best on newspaper because of its texture. __ Emily Jay: __ Mealworms will walk best on construction paper because its the thickest type of paper.
 * Hypothesis: **
 * Mealworms will be able to crawl on and grip to one surface better than others, both walking and when the surface is at different angles.

**Plan/Procedure:**
 * 1)   Place two meal worms on a sheet of paper
 * 2)   Lift the sheet of paper to a 45 degree angle
 * 3)   Hold at this angle for 10 seconds
 * 4)   Lift the sheet of paper to a 90 degree angle
 * 5)   Hold at this angle for 10 seconds
 * 6)   Turn the sheet of paper over, 180 degrees so that the mealworms are upside down.
 * 7)   Hold at this angle for 10 seconds
 * 8)   Repeat steps 1-7 for all seven types of materials
 * 9)   Record mealworm movement and when/if they fall off the material

**Controlled Variables:**
 * The same mealworms were used on all surfaces
 * The mealworms were placed at the same start line
 * The mealworms were moved at the same angle on each surface at the same time

**Observations, Data, Tables, Graphs:** The following graph shows the angle at which the mealworms feel off the surface. **Conclusion:** We conclued that mealworms are able to stay gripped onto construction paper best as we were able to turn the paper upside down and one did not fall off. The second best surface was newspaper. This could be because these surfaces have fibers that make it much easier for the mealworms to grip onto when walking and when turned at different angles.
 * || Mealworm #1 || Mealworm #2 ||
 * Paper || 90 || 90 ||
 * Newspaper || 90 || 180 ||
 * Construction Paper || 90 || n/a ||
 * Plastic Sheet Protector || 45 || 45 ||
 * Bamboo Cutting Board || 45 || 90 ||
 * Metal tray || 45 || 45 ||
 * Wax Paper || 45 || 90 ||

**Comments:** For our experiement we used a large mealworm and a smaller one. We noticed that in some situations the larger mealworm was able to grip on better than the smaller one, possibly because this mealworm was stronger due to it's size. It would be interesting to see the results if both mealworms were exactly the same size.