The Creepy, Crawly, Life Cycle

On Wednesday, we were visited by some very creepy, crawly friends: mealworm beetles! We were exploring the life cycle, and got to learn all about the stages of life a mealworm beetle goes through. Here is what we learned:

We got to view each one of the stages in real life! Mrs Rodriguez brought in mealworm beetles in various stages of life. Their habitat was not the most pleasant, so we did a little "house cleaning." Here are some pictures!

 Learning about the life stages.

 Observing the mealworms.

 More observations.

 Getting a closer look.

 Beginning to separate the adult beetles from the larva 

and pupa staged beetles.

 Look at all those mealworms!

 Still separating... it wasn't as easy as it looks.

A clean, fresh environment for the larva.

I am also happy to report that, despite being totally grossed out at first, EVERY S.T.E.M. Club member touched the mealworms! 

Way to go, everybody! See you next week!