Performance Expectation 1:

Worm Box Population

(Weeks)

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
10	8	7	7	7	7	7	7

(Worm Population)

Growth rate is the rate of change in the number of organisms living in a population. To solve for the growth rate you do change over time or rise over run. You divide the bottom into the top. The concept of growth rate is used by many different professions. It is used when people study a population and want to see how much the species population is changing.

For our Worm Box the growth rate between weeks 1-3 was around 8 worms.  The way I got this was I took the population number by week and added them up got 25 then divided it by three.

For our Worm Box the growth rate for weeks 5-7 was exactly 7 worms.  The way I got this was I took the population number by week added them up got 24 and the divided it by three.

Our graph over the 8 week period was Logistic growth. It shows this because it grows rapidly at first then slowly begins to level off. The reason it grew rapidly at first was we were given worms who were already healthy so they stayed at a population of 10 throughout the week. But since we did not have successful living conditions they began to die off and stay at a population of 7.

Our box’s environment held 7 worms for the entire period of the project. This was our carrying capacity for the habitat we made. Since our strategy was not very successful our carrying capacity is much lower than other peoples. Therefore, our box reached carrying capacity but was much lower than others.

Evidence Matters

Why does evidence matter? Evidence matters because without it you don’t have an answer to anything. Evidence also supports your claim. Evidence for our worm box is important because without it we wouldn’t know the type of growth it has or what its carrying capacity is.  Evidence of how the worms grew is important because without it we couldn’t calculate the growth rate, or the carrying capacity because we wouldn’t have the information necessary for them.  Evidence is the most important asset to any answer there is in science in general without it we wouldn’t know anything. This project helps us recognize that evidence is not just an asset for our worm box project, but also is an asset to societies questions today.  Today evidence contributes to society because without it there would be no proof of anything. If we did not look at evidence there would be no cures for diseases. From cops to scientists evidence shows the difference between what they say happened compared to what actually did happen. When scientists make claims to prove their theory is true evidence is there to back it up. This is why evidence does matter.

Performance Expectation 2:

Our worm box design was not successful. The goal of this project was to try to reproduce worms from our starting 10 worms. At the end of our 8 week period we had a total of seven worms. Our starting 10 dropped to seven because our box’s environment was not a great habitat for worm reproduction. Our biggest challenges was bringing our population higher. We tried multiple things like changing the food we fed them, changing the habitat, food schedule, but yet we could not be successful and find a solution. Our worm box design was not successful.

Things we could’ve done Differently

For our worm box, we failed miserably.  Our worms didn’t reproduce, as a matter of fact they died more than they reproduced for many reasons.  If we did a few things differently our worm box might have succeeded.  A few of which are paying more attention to them, give them different food, fixing their bedding, fresh water everyday and care about the worm box more in general.One of the main things we could’ve done differently was we could have payed attention to them more.  We rarely checked on them and when we did we saw the worms alive and figured they were doing fine.  We should have seen how they were living, whether or not it was suitable to sustain life.  Thats one main thing we could have done very differently.

Another thing we could’ve done was to give them different food every time we saw that they weren’t eating what we put in there in the first place.  When we saw that they still had the apple we figured its fine they still have food they don’t need food yet. Another thing we could’ve done differently was fix their environment, because it was a dry and a nasty environment.  That was one reason they didn’t reproduce.  It was more of a place to just try and survive with what they had.  Another thing we could’ve done differently was just care about the worm box in general.  We just didn’t take the project seriously at all and it was well presented.  If it was our dog or child we wouldn’t have done this and we would have actually cared, but we just didn’t take it seriously and the phrase you get out what you put in is quite relevant.

                                                    List of Tips

• In order to succeed in the worm box project we recommend that you actually take the project seriously, it doesn’t work if you just sit down and do nothing.
• Another thing you should do is feed the worms different food,not the same food,because if they don’t eat the food you put in there first in all likelihood they don’t like it.  
• A major and very essential thing you need to do is to check up on them every day or every other day to see what they have done; if they have eaten the food you put in or drank all their water.
• Something else that you should do is keep their environment soft and a little bit moist, if it isn’t a little bit moist and soft they won’t reproduce but instead just try to survive.  
• PAY ATTENTION to how the worms react to things you put into their environment; food, bedding, etc.
• Do not lose the lid on your box,the worms will escape and you will have to get your box refilled.

Performance Expectation 3

The worm box that will support 1000 worms will be 60 cm in length, 30 cm  in height and 15 cm in width.  We will have a feeding hole on top and little holes on the lid as well.  We will have the fruit fly trap on top as well so that way fruit flies can’t get into the box and take it over.

 The box is 60 cm in length, 30 cm in height, and 15 cm in width, this size box is suitable for a population of 1000 worms. For our soil we recommend that we just buy garden soil because it holds moisture better than any other soil.  You should give the worms 3 apple cores since there is a total of 1000 worms now, and fill up the box every other week, and give them fresh water every day or every other day.