6 replies to this topic

[Kalidas]

So as many of you know I am a preschool teacher. Well this week me and the other teachers I work with are doing a whole week of ant activities.

The first activity (I did group 1 Monday and Group 2 today) were taught about the life cycle of ants and made a hypothesis about food. I gave the ants some orange pieces and some cut up meal worms(from my personal stock for my own colony) and they had to guess what the ants would like MORE (of course they will eat both, but what will be the more popular food?

The guesses would pretty split with a slight majority to worms. So far (as of yesterday) the worms are the clear winner they already ate yesterday's worms and barely touched the orange(though they were eating it this morning, but not nearly as many as the worms)

The next two activities will be looking at ant intelligence. We will impede their trail with a blockage and see what they do about it.

Then Friday is the big day where I will bring in my Camponotus again. So far it's a hit the kids are loving it so much. One little girl got a HUGE smile and her eyes sparkled when I told them that ant societies are all female(not entirely but this is mostly true). She looked very happy to know that ants are a society of just girls.

[Kalidas]

So update. Today instead of the other activity we decided to do something else. We revisited the kids hypothesis and saw what the ants liked more and looked to see who was right. The ants vastly preferred the worms (I think because the ants are getting plenty of sugar from the tree they are nesting under and don't need more sugar but protein is probably more rare).

I then went over the anatomy of an ant and explained how they eat and feed each other. I told the kids they have two stomachs their regular tummy, and their sharing tummy(better term than social stomach for 3 and 4 year olds) and explained trophillaxis.

One of the boys totally got it, he said "Teacher the ants share the food like this" he then closed his eyes and made a sound and movement like he was pretending to vomit, which was pretty dang close to what they do.

So real glad to see the kids not only learning but actually getting it.

[OhNoNotAgain]

This is awesome. I’ve been kicking around taking ants into a grade school and suggesting similar experiments, but as I’m not the teacher and they managed to mostly kill a house plant, I’m a little more hesitant now 🤣

[Kalidas]

This is awesome. I’ve been kicking around taking ants into a grade school and suggesting similar experiments, but as I’m not the teacher and they managed to mostly kill a house plant, I’m a little more hesitant now

Currently I am actually only a long term sub in this classroom, but I am going in to apply full time this week. If I get it I actually want to set up an easy ant colony in the class next year as like a classroom pet.

[FSTP]

that is really cool. When I was telling my 6 year old niece about how they eat and feed each other I pretty much used the same anology you did and she loved it. She thought it is really cute how they feed each other and share.

Edited by FSTP, December 2 2019 - 3:53 PM.

[B_rad0806]

Wow, this really puts a smile on my face. More kids should have the opportunity to experience this 

[Kalidas]

Thanks for the replies and kind words everyone. It was a resounding success and the kids were still talking about it and excited about it even after Thanksgiving break.

Had a few parents "thank" me for their kids new found obsession with ants lol.

So yeah like I said wouldn't mind trying to set up a classroom ant colony as a kind of "classroom pet" just gotta figure out the best colony to do so.

Honestly my heart goes to leaf cutters (lol yup) those awesome gardens they make would be so fun for the kids to watch grow, plus not having to hold onto insects to feed the ants is a big benefit(plus not having to kill said bugs in front of the kids), their activities are just so exciting to observe, plus they are very active during the day a must have for a classroom ant colony.

A classroom would be a surprisingly good room to have leaf cutters in, you have to keep a classroom at a nice room temp of around 76-78 degrees all year long and the leaf cutters would love that. But I also know how complex they are...