Parrott-LRQ

__ Research Topic- __Competition between red worms and night crawlers in vermiculture.

Preliminary Research Ideas:

1.) Entity to study- Red worms and night crawlers

2.) What can I manipulate or change? - Amount of food -Temperature -Amount of light -Type of food

3.) What effects can I look for? -number of worms that survive -amount of eggs -growth of worms

4.) What knowledge, tools, and skills will I need to do the project? -I will need to know how to properly take care of the worms. For example, I will need to know the desired amount of food and temperature of each worm. - I will need to have separate containers so that the differences can be seen more easily
 * Research Design Table-Experimental design type **

Changing the ratio of each type of worm in each container || ** Background Questions ** -What has been studied about vermiculture? - How fast does each worm reproduce? -How much does each worm eat daily? -What are the different growing rates of each worm? || __Quantitative-__ Number of red worms and night crawlers that were able to survive. __Qualitative-__ Health of each type of worm || ** Constants ** -Same amount of food in each container (That's fine, you'll need to defend why that is keeping this a constant in your intro!) -Same temperature -Same amount of soil in each container -Same type of food in each container (Do they eat the same type of food?) Yes they eat the same type of food || Exp. Group 1- Double the amount of night crawlers than red worms Exp. Group 2- Double the amount of red worm than night crawlers Exp. Group 3- A container filled with the same number of red worms and night crawlers but half the amount of food then the control group. || What are the correct conditions needed for both types of worms to grow and reproduce successfully? If they differ greatly, you might want to separate these into two different questions. But if they are similar, than you can keep the question combined. **And actually, since your research is about their reproduction, you probably need a whole question related to that.**
 * ** Independent Variable **
 * ** Dependent Variable **
 * ** Experimental Groups and Control Groups ** || Control Group- same amount of each type of worms in one container
 * Library Research Questions- for competition of red worms and roundworms **
 * Entity- **Red worms vs. night crawlers
 * Entity- **Red worms vs. night crawlers

How does each worm compete against one another for food and space when they are placed in the same small area? In addition, what happens to the worms while competing for limited food and space? Does the different ratios of worms have different effects on each of the worms? What do you mean by "how"? what resources are they competing for? What happens when they compete? Make this question a bit more clear.
 * Independent Variable- **

Involved with this research question you'll need to determine the ratio levels for your experimental groups. A high ratio, medium and low. Get this wrong and you'll get no data!

What are the best ways to measure health of the worms and survival rate? Be sure to research both qual & quantitative. You'll also need a scientific way to determine "dead" worms, silly but true!
 * Dependent Variable- **

Does the ratio of the different types of worms have an effect on the other worms survival rate?
 * Connections- **

Some basic question you may already know the answer to: Do red worms and night crawlers naturally cohabitate? Is there known competition between these organisms?

Looks like a good start. Make corrections and then I'll check it again.

Not officially approved yet, still a few changes to make!