Suitable For
Grade 8
Difficulty
2
Time Required
Months
Supervision
Advised
What’s it about?
A complete life cycle of a mealworm takes six months. Mealworms are actually the larva stage of the Darkling Beetle. The adult meal worm is a nocturnal beetle that is approximately one inch in length and dark brown or black in colour with a hard outer shell. In this science experiment, study the four phases of a mealworm’s life over six months:
Topics covered
Meal worms
What will I need?
- LARGE CONTAINER
- MEALWORMS
- CARDBOARD
- OATMEAL OR BRAN
- RUBBER BANDS
- APPLE
- MESH CLOTH
Procedure (Method)
Unfortunately, this section is only available in the e-book version of the project.
How does it work?
Unfortunately, this section is only available in the e-book version of the project.
Over the next six months you will witness the four phases of a mealworm’s life. First, the mealworms will develop into pupae. When this happens, move the pupae into another similar container with food at the bottom and covered with mesh cloth, otherwise they might be eaten by the remaining mealworms. The pupae will then hatch into beetles in the new container and at this time they can be placed back into the original container. The adult beetles will lay small eggs that will hatch into mealworms again.
Like the sound of it?
Why not check out the full worksheet in one of our popular e-books?
This particular science project can be found in any of the following Experiland e-books:
Experiland e-books contain detailed steps, including illustrations, to complete the science projects from start to finish.
