Trail Marking Inquiry Trail marking inquiry Hypothesis 1

Trail Marking Inquiry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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