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Mealworms and Stick Insects is a free printable Grade 3 science worksheet on using an insect log to compare complete and incomplete metamorphosis, aligned to NGSS performance expectation 3-LS1-1. It prints 7 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 13 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Mealworms and Stick Insects

3-LS1-1

NameDate

Read the record, then answer the questions.

1.Read the record, then answer the questions.

Mealworms and Stick Insects

A log the class kept of two insect tanks, checked every Monday for sixteen weeks. MEALWORM TANK Week 1: small brown larvae, called mealworms, eating bran Week 6: larvae longer; empty skins where they had shed Week 10: some larvae still and pale, curled up as pupae, not eating Week 13: black adult beetles; no pupae left STICK INSECT TANK Week 1: tiny nymphs, shaped like the adults, eating privet leaves Week 8: nymphs much longer; shed skins on the leaves Week 16: adult stick insects laying eggs; no pupa seen at any point

  1. 1. What did both kinds of insect leave behind as they grew?
  2. 2. What had appeared in the mealworm tank by week 13?
  3. 3. Why were both tanks checked on the same day each week?
  4. 4. What will hatch from the stick insects' eggs?
2.What does a nymph do as it grows?
  • A.It spins a chrysalis
  • B.It stays the same size
  • C.It sheds its skin several times, looking more like the adult each time
3.A maggot is the larva of which insect?
  • A.A fly
  • B.A grasshopper
  • C.A cricket
4.How is a caterpillar different from the butterfly it becomes?
  • A.It is exactly the same, only smaller
  • B.It looks completely different and has no wings
  • C.It has more wings
5.What happens inside a pupa?
  • A.The larva's body is rebuilt into the adult's
  • B.It sleeps and stays the same
  • C.It lays eggs
6.In a complete life cycle, which stage comes between the larva and the adult?
  • A.The pupa
  • B.The egg
  • C.The nymph
7.Why does a larva eat so much?
  • A.It is about to lay eggs
  • B.It needs to grow wings straight away
  • C.It must grow and store food before it becomes a pupa

LessonPrint · 3-LS1-1 · Set 13 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Mealworms and Stick Insects

Set 13. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Shed skins. 2. Black adult beetles. 3. So the changes in the two tanks could be compared week by week. 4. Tiny nymphs shaped like the adults.
  2. 2.It sheds its skin several times, looking more like the adult each time
  3. 3.A fly
  4. 4.It looks completely different and has no wings
  5. 5.The larva's body is rebuilt into the adult's
  6. 6.The pupa
  7. 7.It must grow and store food before it becomes a pupa

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to 3-LS1-1 of the Next Generation Science Standards.