Squirm
How many worms are there in a square metre of soil? Does the amount vary for different types of soil?
Be careful when digging - spades may not look sharp but they can cause serious damage! Place the spade onto the soil and press it down with your foot. DO NOT stab it downwards or you could chop off your toes! Make sure you wash your hands after the investigation.
PLAN
Measure out a square metre of soil.
Dig it up.
Count the worms.
Where will you dig?
Will you need permission?
How could you make the digging easier?
I WILL NEED
Spade.
Metre rule (or similar measuring device).
Pencil & paper.
I MAY NEED
A garden sieve could be useful.
FAIR TEST
How deep will you dig?
PREDICTION
How many worms do you think you will find? Do you know anything about worms?
PRACTICAL ACTIVITY
Give a clear step-by-step explanation of what you did.
What did you observe?
Can you explain this?
Did you encounter any problems?
What did you do to overcome these?
COLLECT
DATA
Will you take account of different sizes of worms?
Will you count worms that get chopped in half?
ANALYSE
DATA
Do different types of soil contain different numbers of worms? Can you explain this?
PRESENT
FINDINGS
What is the best way to show what you did?
You could show the locations where you dug on a simple map.
You could keep some soil samples.
If you took note of different sizes of worms, you might want to draw a bar-chart for each sample of soil.
EVALUATE
INVESTIGATION
If someone else was going to carry out this investigation, what tips or advice would you give them? If you were going to do this investigation again, what would you do to improve it?
If you have carried out this investigation, click the icon to send in your results to Brainboxx and we may publish your work on the website. It is best to e-mail the results of your investigation or you may need to send them by post. Make sure you get permission from a teacher, parent or other adult before you get in touch.
WORMS
MORE WORMS
WORMERY
EVEN MORE WORMS!
HERMAN the SQUIRMIN' WORM