Trail Marking Inquiry

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Trail Marking Inquiry
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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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