Environmental Needs Of Earthworms

BACKGROUND

The environment provides an organism with everything it needs in order to live. Every type of organism has a different set of specific needs. For example, you can easily see how your needs are different from those of a goldfish or a tree. Despite these differences, however, all organisms have certain needs in common. Water, a source of energy, living space and a suitable climate are requirements of all living things. The type of environment in which a particular species lives is its habitat. In this lab you will explore the preferred habitat of earthworms, a type of annelid.

OBJECTIVES

To study what environmental conditions earthworms need

MATERIALS (per pair of students)

PROCEDURES

  1. Write a hypothesis about the type of environment that earthworms need and prefer to live in.
  2. Carefully line a shoebox with aluminum foil
  3. Tape two paper towels side by side without touching each other (leaving about one cm between them) to the inside bottom of the shoebox. Place a strip of masking tape between the two paper towels.
  4. Moisten one of the paper towels with water. (try dabbing a wet paper towel to the side that you want moistened)
  5. Place five earthworms on the masking tape between the two paper towels. Place the lid on the shoebox. Caution: Handle live animals with care and respect.
  6. Leave the shoebox undisturbed for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes has passed, remove the lid, quickly count the number of earthworms on the moist paper, on the tape and on the dry paper. This is trial 1, record your results in Table 1 in the OBSERVATIONS section.
  7. Gently slide the earthworms back onto the masking tape, and repeat steps 5 and 6 two more times, writing your observations by trial 2 and 3.
  8. Average the results in each column and write the averages in the last row of the data table.
  9. Remove the paper towels that are in the box . Soak one in ice cold water and the other in hot water. Quickly place the two towels on either side of the masking tape.
  10. Place five earthworms on the masking tape between the two paper towels.
  11. Leave the shoebox undisturbed for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, remove the half lid. Quickly count the number of earthworms on the warm half, on the masking tape and on the cool half of the box. Record your results in Table 2 of the observations section.
  12. Gently slide the earthworms back onto the masking tape and repeat steps 10 and 11 two more times.
  13. Average the results in each column and write the averages in the last row of the data table.
  14. Remove the heating pad after gathering your data. cut here
  15. Cut the shoebox lid in half across the width, and cover half of the shoebox with one of the pieces. The cut should be directly over the masking tape in the shoebox.
  16. Place five earthworms on the masking tape between the two paper towels.
  17. Leave the shoebox undisturbed for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, remove the half lid. Quickly count the number of earthworms on the dark half, on the masking tape and on the light half of the box. Record your results in Table 3 of the observations section.
  18. Gently slide the earthworms back onto the masking tape and repeat steps 16 and 17 two more times.
  19. Average the results in each column and write the averages in the last row of the data table.

OBSERVATIONS

Table1 

Trial                   Moist Paper     Masking Tape    Dry Paper


1


2


3


Average



Table2


Trial                   Warm Side       Masking Tape    Cool Side


1


2


3


Average



Table 3


Trial                   Dark Side       Masking Tape    Light Side
 

1


2


3


Average

HYPOTHESIS

QUESTIONS

1.Were to able to confirm your hypothesis? Explain why or why not?

2.Why did you use five earthworms instead of one?

3.Why did you perform three trials instead of one?

4.Write a statement about the habitat preference of earthworms based on your experiments

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