Can bees distinguish shapes inquiry

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Can bees distinguish shapes inquiry
What is adaptive advantage shape discrimination?
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Hypotheses

• Bees cannot distinguish between solid shapes
• Bees cannot distinguish between solid shapes
  broken lines

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Protocol

• Same as for colors, but place dish of 25 sugar
  water on shape you wish to test. Conduct
  separate test for solid and broken patterns.
• Then test one solid shape among broken patterns
• Conclude by testing one broken pattern among
  solid shapes

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Data collection

• Before collecting data, clean the glass plate and
  all dishes to be certain that scent is not a
  factor
• Return the shape grid and empty dishes to the
  original location rearrange position of syrup
  filled dish
• Count the bees that land on each shape for 5
  minutes
• Have students repeat the experiment 3 for each
  shape they want to test

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Reporting findings

• Plot results for each trial as a histogram
• Ask students what the results suggest about their
  hypothesis
• Encourage students to speculate about why honey
  bees do not need shape vision that equals human
  acuity. How do honey bees compensate?

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Conclusions

• Bees cannot distinguish between similar-sized
  shapes if they are all solid or all made of
  broken lines
• Bees can distinguish between solid and broken
  patterns
• Bees have less visual acuity than humans for
  recognizing shapes, but they exceed human acuity
  in detecting motion, polarized light and
  ultraviolet light