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The Behavior of Ants
By David Shindelman
A Lesson for Middle
School Classrooms
Lesson Goals
The primary goal of this lesson is for students to be able to use the
steps of the Scientific Method to independently develop and test their
own ideas through experimentation with ants. To accomplish this goal,
students take part in a four-part study of the behavior of ants.
Main Objectives
The main objectives of this activity are that students will be able
to:
- Use each step of the scientific method to answer a scientific question
that they pose.
- Determine that hypotheses are useful whether they turn out to be
true or not, since they may inspire other investigations.
- Demonstrate an understanding that the same data can lead to different
interpretations and conclusions and that different interpretations
and conclusions are not necessarily wrong, but can be useful in developing
other scientific questions.
- Design experiments where students understand and control variables,
and which include experimental controls.
- Understand that organisms interact in a variety of ways which can
be beneficial or detrimental to either or both organisms.
- Collect data in an honest, accurate, and clear fashion as is practiced
in the scientific community.
- Find sources of information from a variety of conventional and modern
databases.
- Analyze their data sets using simple statistical tools and organize
their data in tables and graphs.
- Present their findings orally and visually in a clear, concise manner.
- Learn aspects of ant behavior and anatomy.
- Observe and understand predator/prey interactions.
- See that environmental conditions affect ants physiologically.
- Understand the trophic interactions of ants.
- Cooperate with other students in completing the activity.
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