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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.

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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 were the mealworms eating?
  2. 2. What did both kinds of insect leave behind as they grew?
  3. 3. What had appeared in the mealworm tank by week 13?
  4. 4. Why are the young stick insects called nymphs rather than larvae?
2.A dragonfly nymph lives under water and the adult flies. Which kind of life cycle does it have?
  • A.Incomplete: egg, nymph, adult
  • B.Complete: egg, larva, pupa, adult
  • C.It has no life cycle
3.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
4.A maggot is the larva of which insect?
  • A.A fly
  • B.A cricket
  • C.A grasshopper
5.Why does a larva eat so much?
  • A.It is about to lay eggs
  • B.It must grow and store food before it becomes a pupa
  • C.It needs to grow wings straight away
6.What do complete and incomplete life cycles have in common?
  • A.Both have a pupa
  • B.Both have a nymph
  • C.Both start with an egg and end with an adult that can make young
7.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

LessonPrint · 3-LS1-1 · Set 18 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Mealworms and Stick Insects

Set 18. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Bran. 2. Shed skins. 3. Black adult beetles. 4. They are already shaped like the adults and simply grow, with no pupa stage.
  2. 2.Incomplete: egg, nymph, adult
  3. 3.It looks completely different and has no wings
  4. 4.A fly
  5. 5.It must grow and store food before it becomes a pupa
  6. 6.Both start with an egg and end with an adult that can make young
  7. 7.It sheds its skin several times, looking more like the adult each time

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