Materials
The materials that we used during this project includes:
Item Quantity Purpose
Mustard Powder ¼ per. Gallon Irritate the worms
Water 3 gallons (1 per sample) To help create the solution
Rulers 4 per experiment To mark the area
Thermometer 1 To take the temperature
Tweezers 2 To pick up the worms
Strainer 2 To strain the water after spraying the worms
Bowl 1 To contain the captured worms
Spray Bottle 2 To spray the worms
Data Sheet 1 To collect data
Tablet/Phone 1 To collect data
Worm ID Guide 1 per person To identity the worms
Hand shovel 1 To pick the dirt
Funnel 1 To put mustard powder into water.
Flags 4 To mark down every 10 meters out of the 30 meters
Transect Line 1 To set out the 30 meters we need to do for our samples
Procedures
3 people will have different jobs in this example. Person 1 will focus on procedures 1,3,4, and 7. Person 2 will focus on procedures 2,6, and 11 while person 3 will focus on procedure 5. But the whole group will all focus on Procedures 8,9,10, and 12 The procedures below is the format you will be following
1. Person 1: makes the solution by mixing 1 cup of mustard powder into a gallon of water.
2. Person 2: Start with setting up the transect line 30 meters. For every 10 meters, place a flag to mark 3 sampling locations.
3. Person 1: Lay the 4 rulers down on the ground creating a square.
4. Person 1: Make sure to take the soil temperature and air temperature with the thermometer in C.
5. Person 3: Shake the solution before pouring it in the sampling square.
6. Person 2: Set a 10 minute Timer.
7. Person 1: Then pour the solution into the sampling square.
8. Person 1,2,3: Then start looking for worms that come out of the soil due to the mustard powder. The mustard powder irritates the worms skin and forces is to come out the soil.
9. Person 1,2,3: Capture the worms then spray them with the water bottle provided, and keep repeating until the timer stops.
10. Person 1,2,3: Once the timer stops count the amount and worms and determine what type worm it is. The bigger worms, 15 cms long usually and have a reddish-brown in color they are anecic. The medium worms, usually less than 15 cms long, and also have reddish-brown in color are epigeic and the small ones that are pale in color are the Endogeic.
11. Person 2: Right after that you take your phone and go to epicollect and fill out our Epicollect “ASM SU19 Worms”.
Here are some of the epicollect example of what we did with the sampling square.
The Material We Used For The Field And To Catch Worm
The Materials We Used For The Mustard Powder Solution
The Transect Line We Used To Help Set Up Our Sampling Square
