All Science Fair Projects

Doyle, Humanities University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

---

Mealworms Galore!

---

The Color Preference of Mealworms Given Blue, Red, Yellow, and Green By Keara MacDermid and Lauren Horn

By: Keara MacDermid =)

Introduction

My partner and I conducted this experiment because we thought it would be a fun and interesting experience to learn about the color preference of a mealworm. We enjoyed the time we spent on the experiment because it was lots of fun. A few times we had some funny experiences with the mealworms like once a mealworm jumped out of its container at us then we started to laugh. These are a few reasons why we conducted this experiment. We hoped to learn about mealworms and what their color preference was. We did. We learned a lot about mealworms and their color preference. We thought that the mealworms would go to a certain color several times and that would be its favorite color. We also wanted to find out if mealworms had a color preference at all.

Materials and Procedure

1. 1-topless container 2. Scotch tape 3. 4 strips of color paper (red, blue, yellow, green) 4. 3-5 Mealworms 1. Cut strips of colored paper (blue, green, yellow, red) to fit one quarter of the container. 2. Tape the colored paper to the inside of the container side by side. 3. Place mealworms exactly in the center of the container. 4. Observe which color the mealworm is facing. Take worm out after 30sec. Record results of which color the mealworm touches first.

Data Tables and Graphs

Conclusion

The purpose of the experiment was to find out what the color preference of mealworms was. The colors that were available to the mealworm were Blue, Red, Green, and Yellow. Also the purpose of the experiment was to learn about mealworms. We found that the preference color of mealworms was mostly blue. The percentage was 49% blue, 23% Green, 22% Yellow, and 13% Red. I thought that blue would be the color preference, and my partner thought green was going to be the top pick. We also found out that a mealworm usually went to a certain color several times in a row, then went to another color than back to the first color. My hypothesis was that a mealworms would prefer one color over that outhe three. I thought that they would go to blue because mealworms live in the ground and blue is the closes color to dirt color and blue is my favorite color. My hypothesis was supported by the data. The mealworms chose blue almost half the time. Also they went back to blue after trying the other colors. Mealworms like to live in darkness and underground I think that blue is the darkest color that absorbs the most light and they headed for darkness. All of the colors however were lighter than white paper, so they headed to any color rather than be on the white. Since blue was the darkest they went to it mostly. If I had a chance to redo this experiment I would do more that 30 trials and choose other colors both lighter and darker. I would also use a lot more mealworms.

Science Work Pages