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Trail Marking Inquiry

Explore how ants react to disruptions on their foraging trail with soapy water and cinnamon, observe behavior, and report findings. Encourage students to learn about ant trail marking and test conclusions to confirm results.

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Trail Marking Inquiry

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  1. Trail Marking Inquiry

  2. Trail marking inquiry • Hypothesis 1: Wiping a sponge of soapy water across an ant trail will not disrupt theiruse of the trail • Hypothesis 2: Sprinkling cinnamon across an ant trail will not disrupt their use of the trail

  3. Protocol • Locate an ant trail and determine a preferred food (see previous inquiry) • Wipe soapy water laden sponge across a section of the trail • Sprinkle cinnamon across another section of the trail • Observe ant behavior when they come to the section of the trail you altered • Have three groups of students make similar observations

  4. Data collection • Time how long it takes the ants to relocate the trail after encountering each disruption – average the results of the three groups • Do ants go across the disruptions or create a new trail around them? • Describe the search pattern of ants that lose their trail

  5. Reporting findings • Did the test procedures disrupt ants use of their foraging trail? • On average, how long did it take for the ants to relocate their trail? • Describe the search pattern of disoriented ants

  6. Conclusions • Encourage students to suggest how ants mark their trails (visible markers, chemical trail, etc….) • Direct students to observe ants on a trail to see if they can observe trail marking

  7. Testing your conclusion • Establish a feeding trail to the preferred food on a sheet of paper • Using scissors, cut out a section of the trail (do not touch trail and leave a 1” margin on each side of trail) • Now lay the paper across an existing trail • Lay a similar piece of new paper across an existing trail

  8. Confirming your results • Ants should follow the trail on the paper that formerly was a path to the food • Ants should show little interest in the other paper • You can quantify by counting ants on the papers • As always, have several groups repeat the test

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