Exploration #7: Apples or Berries?
Times Repeated: Left both the candy and the apple in the boxes for a week
Hypothesis:
If we give them the choice between an apple or blackberry, then they will choose the blackberry.
Reasoning:
Since we know that mealworms eat apples and that apples are sweet they will probably like them more than the blackberry. Blackberries do not have a peel like an apple does but they do have a thin outer coating. So it may be difficult for the mealworms to eat it.
Materials:
Procedure:
1. Place the blackberry in one area of the box.
2. Place the apples in another area of the box
3. Observe whether more of the blackberry or the apple are eaten over the course of a week.
Observations:
We observed that most of the apple was eaten leaving only the peel. The blackberry was not touched at all. In doing further research on the various fruits we discovered that blackberries were a fruit that was highly acidic, where as an apple has a very low acidity. With this information it is safe to conclude that the blackberry was too acidic for the mealworms to digest. One other conclusion that can be drawn is that the structure of the berry made it harder to get at, whereas we prepared the apple as so the flesh was exposed for the meal worms to easily eat.
Variables:
Blackerry on one side
Apple on the other side
Results:
The worms preferred eating the apple rather than the blackberry. We know this because the blackberry was not touched while the apple was almost gone.
Hypothesis:
If we give them the choice between an apple or blackberry, then they will choose the blackberry.
Reasoning:
Since we know that mealworms eat apples and that apples are sweet they will probably like them more than the blackberry. Blackberries do not have a peel like an apple does but they do have a thin outer coating. So it may be difficult for the mealworms to eat it.
Materials:
- a blackberry
- apple pieces
- mealworms
- box habitat
Procedure:
1. Place the blackberry in one area of the box.
2. Place the apples in another area of the box
3. Observe whether more of the blackberry or the apple are eaten over the course of a week.
Observations:
We observed that most of the apple was eaten leaving only the peel. The blackberry was not touched at all. In doing further research on the various fruits we discovered that blackberries were a fruit that was highly acidic, where as an apple has a very low acidity. With this information it is safe to conclude that the blackberry was too acidic for the mealworms to digest. One other conclusion that can be drawn is that the structure of the berry made it harder to get at, whereas we prepared the apple as so the flesh was exposed for the meal worms to easily eat.
Variables:
Blackerry on one side
Apple on the other side
Results:
The worms preferred eating the apple rather than the blackberry. We know this because the blackberry was not touched while the apple was almost gone.