Bill E. Clark has hired you and your team to recommend whether to pursue his unconventional solution to world hunger. Dr. Matthews, his lead scientist, has asked your team to identify questions that you will need to answer in order to begin to determine whether the earthworm could be improved so it can, in turn, improve the soil.

Team Question Formation

1. Meet with your team.
   
   
   • Start by asking yourselves what exactly you have been asked to do. Review the emails from Bill Clark and Dr. Matthews as needed.
     
     
   • For ease of information exchange and project management, identify one person to be a team leader for this task. Picking a team leader now may help your team work more smoothly. (You can appoint a different leader for each task or keep the same leader throughout, depending on what your team decides). For additional guidance on how to work well in teams, refer to the materials related to Teamwork in the General Skills Resources in the left menu.
     
     
2. Using the Research Status Template attached to Dr. Matthews' email, identify questions your team will need to research in order to recommend whether to develop a superworm.
   
   
1. Before you get started, you might want to view some general video about earthworms--showing what they look like, how they move, and a little bit of introduction to what they do for soil-- to jump-start your thinking about what you know and what you need to know about earthworms. Click the link to see a video of an earthworm. Ignore the talk about it just being "an intestine"-- there's much more to the earthworm!  Refer to the Resources section (above) for more video resources.
   
   
2. Download the Research Status Template attached to Dr. Matthews' email. Be sure that everyone on the team has the document before you begin.
   
   
3. Only one template will be submitted to the mentor for feedback, so determine who will be responsible for filling in the team's answers.
   
   
4. Begin filling in the "What You Know" section by collecting information provided by Bill Clark and Dr. Matthews in their initial emails to you. Also, if you have ever seen worms, list any information you might already know, even if it feels simple to you. For example, you might know that worms move--even something that simple will assist in completing the Template.
   
   
5. At the same time, fill in items under the heading "What You Need to Know." Write these items in the form of a question. For example, rather than writing, "Earthworm's benefit to the soil" you might write, "What do earthworms do now that is beneficial to the soil?" Items in "What You Know" might help you form questions that need to be answered. If you know that earthworms move, for example, you might ask "How do earthworms move?"
   
   
6. Use the list of potential changes that Dr. Matthews provided to come up with additional questions. For example, Dr. Matthews suggested that "we can make a bigger earthworm. " If you do not know what difference that would make, then add a question such as "Why would making an earthworm bigger help the soil?"
   
   
3. Submit the Research Status Template to the mentor for feedback.

Getting started

• Do develop a plan for undertaking this task that team members agree with.
  
  
• Do thoroughly review the materials you have been provided (e.g., emails, step-by-step instructions, templates) to familiarize yourself with the task and to ensure that you are using everything provided to you.
  

• Don't try to answer Bill's overarching questions in the first task. Instead, follow Dr. Matthews' first steps to start to approach the problem. Though it may be tempting to answer the "million dollar question" right off the bat, it is important to start with the basics, especially when working with a team.
  

Completing the Research Status Template

• Do use each item you know about the earthworm to form questions that need to be answered. If you know that earthworms move, for example, you might ask how they move; if earthworms live in soil, you might ask why they live there or if they live anywhere else.
  
  
• Don't get so broad in your questions that you go beyond the scope of the problem you need to solve. You can always go looking for answers to questions you're just curious about, but with limited time, and with a team effort, you need to use this list to be efficient in your research. For each question, ask yourself whether the answer will help you solve Bill Clark's main problem. If it doesn't, then get rid of it or put it in a “parking lot” of issues to be considered at another time.
  
  
• Don't get bogged down by concerns about how changes to the worm will actually happen. Do not worry about the technical issues yet; if the superworm project moves forward, trust that there will be a way to make it happen. Right now, you need to focus on generating ideas.
  

Meeting with your team

• Do share what you know about earthworms with your team, regardless of how simple it may seem.
  
  
• Do present and receive any differences of opinion or perspective as new information and without being offended if someone offers a different perspective.
  

• Don't let your anxiety about the judgment of your peers or superiors keep you from participating in the discussion. The best ideas are formed when everyone contributes, and the conversation will be better and more productive if you share your thoughts. You are getting familiar with this information as a team, so even if you aren't sure of what you have to share, say it, so everyone can hear your perspective.
  
  
• Do collect questions as they arise to ask the mentor.
  
  

Beyond the resources listed here, use the General Skills Resources in the left menu to get your group work off to a good start. Since this is your first task and you are just starting to work as a team, the Teamwork links may be especially helpful.

Because your task is to generate questions about earthworms, you should not need to refer to earthworm-specific resources beyond the videos listed below. You are encouraged to complete this activity based only on the videos, the emails you have read so far, and any personal knowledge of earthworms you may have.

Video Resources

• A Lively Earthworm - This video from YouTube shows a nice, big example of Lumbricus terrestris, moving around on a man's arm. Ignore the talk about it just being "an intestine"-- there's much more to the earthworm!  
  
  
• Decomposers - This video segment from Interactive NOVA: "Earth" describes the role of decomposers in the environment. Fast forward about halfway through to see the earthworm-- "perhaps the king of the decomposers"-- doing its work. (Note: You don't need to register to view; just click on "Take a Test Drive." Use the progress bar to fast-forward, and be sure to click "on" to read the captions.)
  
  
• Earthworm "Hearts" - Earthworms are built rather differently than humans are. For example, they have five pairs of "hearts," or aortic arches. You can see them beating, one after another, in this video. The order of “squeezing” of the aortic arches contributes to the efficiency of this circulatory system.
  
  Here's what you'll see in the video: You are looking at the worm from its left side, with the head off the screen to the left. The aortic arches are the narrow bands in the lower-right portion of the image. Beginning at the head end (left) and proceeding to the right, the aortic arches darken as they fill with blood and become light again as the blood is squeezed out of them. They pump blood down into a blood vessel near the bottom (ventral) surface of the worm. From there, the blood flows toward the tail end. It eventually returns by way of another blood vessel lying near the top (dorsal) surface of the worm—ready to be pumped back down to the ventral blood vessel and on toward the tail end. (Note: If you make the video window smaller, you can see this text at the same time that you view the video.)



• Wowed by Worms - This video, from PBS's The Shape of Life series, shows a researcher and students from Colgate University searching for two different species of annelids.  The first is a marine annelid; the second is Lumbricus terrestris.