Worm Races
WARNING! You must always
arrange for the students to wash their hands after handling
worms.
Objectives:
Students use measurement of length and time to
"race" mealworms across the desk. Groups of students
conduct trials that measure a fixed distance race by time. Then
the same groups measure a fixed time race by distance.
Materials:
- Rulers, yardsticks tape measures, anything
that can measure feet and inches.
- A clock
- Mealworms
- Journals to record data
Procedure:
- Groups of students are given one mealworm
each.
- Put tables or desks together so that there
is a track where the worm is likely to crawl along an
edge between the two. Each worm has to have his own track
of a foot or two.
- All the racetracks have to be the same
distance. Have the students measure other groups' tracks
to be sure they are all the same. Or ask the students to
agree that all the same desks arranged at the same angle
must create the same length of track .
- Start the race with the minute hand at 12
so that students can use it to count the seconds skip
counting by fives.. Each group must record the winning
time. It may take two or three minutes for the worms to
travel a foot or so..
- Each group measures how far their worm
traveled when the winning worm crossed the finish line.
- Use the measurements to graph the distance
traveled by the different worms over the same amount of
time. Students copy the graph in their journals.
Now have a timed race. Students mark the
starting spot of a worm, (with a piece of tape) and measure and
record the distance traveled in one minute. Again have each group
report their distance to compose a second graph that the class
can copy.
Close:
The races will never occur the same way twice.
Ask students to look for patterns in the two different graphs.
Look for similarities. Look also for simple explanations and
descriptive conclusions. Biologists and zoologists use
measurement of both time, distance and many other factors when
studying animals in zoos and in the wild.
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