{"id":1044,"date":"2010-01-28T10:33:46","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T17:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2016-01-04T19:45:38","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T02:45:38","slug":"worm-juice-written-by-carlie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/worm-juice-written-by-carlie\/","title":{"rendered":"“Worm Juice” (written by Carlie)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday the 6th<\/sup> of December, Natalie and I had to dissect worms for a science experiment.\u00a0 We started setting up at about 3:00 o\u2019clock, when Dad was hanging upside down<\/p>\n

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doing back exercises and Mom and Beth were getting ready to take the dog for a walk.\u00a0 Natalie and I had to find the dissection kit before we could start, so we went downstairs to the room where we keep the science supplies.\u00a0 I got down all the boxes that had supplies in them and looked in them before handing them down to Natalie, to see if there was anything we needed inside.\u00a0 Finally when the last box we looked in had what we needed, I put all the boxes, in which we had found two spiders, back on the shelf.<\/p>\n

We set down some news paper on the table in case we splattered any \u201cworm juice\u201d.\u00a0 Then, we put the dissection boards down and got our worms.\u00a0 Since we bought them in dirt we rinsed them off in some water before setting them on the boards.\u00a0 This action did not do much to slow them down.\u00a0 They kept crawling to the edge and under the boards; which wasn\u2019t much of a problem until we started dissection.\u00a0 Before starting the actual dissection, we felt their setae on the outside bottom edge of the worm.\u00a0 The setae are hooks that anchor down one end of the worm while the other moves back or forward.\u00a0 This is how the worm moves.<\/p>\n

The next step was to pin the worm down by both ends.\u00a0 Natalie managed to do this while the worm was wiggling, but I was less successful.\u00a0 In the end it was fine that I couldn\u2019t get it to hold still while alive, because Natalie\u2019s worm was wiggling despite its restraints, and because of that, beginning to tear a hole in itself.\u00a0 Dad said that we would put them in rubbing alcohol to suffocate them, so they would be easier to dissect.<\/p>\n

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After that, it was much easier to pin the ends down, we did this with the top side of the worms up.\u00a0 Next, we used small scissors to cut the skin from about an inch behind the clitellum all the way to the anterior end.\u00a0 The clitellum is a barrel-shaped swelling that usually starts at the thirty-second segment and covers all segments up to thirty-seven.\u00a0 This structure aids in reproduction, and helps distinguish the head form the tail.\u00a0 We were able to do as the book said and not cut any organs in the process.<\/p>\n

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The inside of the worm looked a lot like the inside of a fish to me.\u00a0 After making the cut, we cut the septa that connected the intestine to the inside of the skin and once they were free, pinned the skin down away from the intestine.<\/p>\n

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The first organ we were supposed to identify was the pharynx.\u00a0 That is what the worm uses to suck in the dirt that it gets its food from.\u00a0 Next we were to find the esophagus.\u00a0 The esophagus was covered in small yellow sacks which turned out to be the seminal vesicles.\u00a0 We also had to find the crop, the gizzard, and the intestine.<\/p>\n

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The crop was behind the esophagus and behind the crop, looking like a larger version of the crop, was the gizzard.\u00a0 The intestine was the yellowish brown tube like thing that ran along the rest of the worm.\u00a0 After finding the main organs we had to find some smaller organs that were underneath some we had already looked at.\u00a0 To see these, we had to cut out the larger ones that were on top of them.\u00a0 The first things I took off were the small yellow sacks that were on top of the esophagus.\u00a0 I think these were the seminal receptacles.\u00a0 I used tweezers to remove these, then the esophagus.\u00a0 Underneath and in between where the seminal receptacles and esophagus were was where the seminal vesicles were.\u00a0 These were a little more difficult to see.\u00a0 Next, I cut about two more inches of skin towards the posterior end.\u00a0 I did my best to remove the intestine without tearing the septa.\u00a0 I was supposed to find the nephridia \u2013which function as kidneys and are located in every segment of the worm– and I thought I had for a moment, but I am pretty sure now that it was actually the ventral nerve cord.<\/p>\n

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I took out all my pins and threw the worm away.\u00a0 While Natalie finished her dissection, I washed my tools and when she was done I washed the ones she brought.\u00a0 Natalie said she would put everything away.\u00a0 We spent about an hour and a half over all, including the washing up.\u00a0 When we were done, dinner was ready and the rest of the evening was very relaxing.\u00a0 It was a first time experience for me, to have names of organs and substances going through my head and my knowing what so much of it was used for inside the animal.\u00a0 Natalie and I are next going to be studying, and probably dissecting a crayfish, but we might get a lobster instead!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday the 6th of December, Natalie and I had to dissect worms for a science experiment.\u00a0 We started setting up at about 3:00 o\u2019clock, when Dad was hanging upside down doing back exercises and Mom and Beth were getting ready to take the dog for a walk.\u00a0 Natalie and I had to find the dissection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,104],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}