Food Preference Inquiry

1
Food Preference Inquiry
2
Food preference inquiry

• Create your own hypothesis about the food
  preference of ants
• Example When offered cornbread, honey and dead
  mealworms, my ants will feed equally on all three
  food substances

3
Protocol

• Locate an ant feeding trail
• Place a small rectangle of plywood near the trail
• Put equal amounts of the three food substances on
  the plywood
• Come back later in the day to observe
• The same protocol can be used in the classroom in
  an ant farm

4
Data collection

• Record data after ants locate the feeding area
• Count the number of ants visiting each food for a
  ten minute period
• Have three teams of students make similar
  observations
• Have students observe the ants to determine if
  they are all the same

5
Reporting findings

• Have students average the number of ants visiting
  each food substance
• Ask students what the results suggest about their
  hypothesis
• Based on their results, encourage students to
  speculate about what other foods their ants might
  like (students can conduct another inquiry to
  test their theories)

6
Conclusions

• Most ant species will show distinct differences
  in food choice experiments
• Have students observe the ant feeding trails to
  observe their natural food source
• Consider similarities in their natural food and
  the food chosen in the preference test