Discussion Outline

Day 1

1. Student responses to question of "What do you know about ants?"
   
   
   • ants bite
     
   • ants live in the ground
   • they fight with each other
   • the bigger ants win fights between two ants
   • they come in different colors
   • ants walk in long lines following each other
   • they can pick up things bigger than themselves
   
   
   
2. Possible incorrect answers will be:
   
   
   • All ants live in the ground
   • All ants will fight with ants from different ant hills
   • Ants eat the same things
   • Ants live in the little mounds they build
   
   
   
3. Possible responses to question: "What would you like to know about ants?"
   
   
   • Do ants eat their dead?
   • How do they know to follow each other in lines?
   • Do ants communicate?
   • What do ants see with their eyes?
   • What are the different types of ants?
   • Do ants have sex?
   
   
   
4. Students should not be corrected or directed to give specific answers during any part of this activity. It is purely for interest development and to get the students thinking a little bit about the lesson to come. They will be making observations outside, and they need to start thinking about physical and behavioral aspects of ants.
   
   
   
5. Before going outside on Day 1:
   
   • Assign students into groups structured to include a highly motivated or high achieving student, a medium motivation or achieving student, and a low motivation or achieving student.
     
     
   • Instruct them to write the following statements off the board and into their journal.
     
     • Not all ants are the same!
     • Not all ants behave the same way!
     
     
   • Tell students that they are doing observations to familiarize themselves with ant behavior and structure and that the best way to get them familiar with ants is to spend time watching them.
     
     
     
6. When you actually go outside, some of the students will be confused as to what they are supposed to do. They should be able to begin looking at physical characteristics such as color, number of legs, size, parts of the body (head, thorax, gastor). If they need more direction because they can't begin to see physical characteristics, you could ask:
   
   "Do ants look like people?"
   Student's response: "No".
   Teacher: "What do ants have that people have?"
   Student: "Legs".
   Teacher: "Do ants and people have the same number of legs?"
   Student: "No"
   Teacher: "Well, write down on your observation sheet how many legs there are on an ant and anything else you see that is similar or different from people. Then keep going and start writing down what the ant is doing while you are watching her."
   Student: "Her?"
   
   
   
7. You should now walk away to another group. If a student asks how long he should make observations, your reply would be, "Make as many observations as possible before the end of the hour."
   

Science Education Connection Department of Biochemistry The University of Arizona Tuesday, April 29, 1997 warder@u.arizona.edu http://biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/lessons/shindelman/ All contents copyright © 1997. All rights reserved.