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Chocolate Trail. Science SIA. By Ho Jia Min (10), Ma Jiebing (18), Sim Yuen Rong Marianne (27). Background understanding of the environment.
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Chocolate Trail Science SIA By Ho Jia Min (10), Ma Jiebing (18), Sim Yuen Rong Marianne (27)
Background understanding of the environment • In the environment which we live in, be it in school, our neighborhoods, or even at our doorsteps, large groups of ants crawling about are a common sight. When we try to search for the source of which the ants are crawling to, we are often able to find bits of food. How are these ants even able to find those food left behind? Hence, we would wonder if it is because of the attractive colours, or the sweet scent of our food that actually attracted them. Many would say it is the scent of course, but does the colour of the food affect the number of ants coming to feed on it? Also, are ants blind? • After research and readings on the net, we found out that most ants have poor-to-mediocre eyesight. According to Jurgen Ziesmann who cites Heinz Penzlin, and Gustav Fischer, ants have 4 different light absorbing pigments while humans only have 3. Scientists feel they can probably see UV light as a color. It is figured that ants can see the different directions of polarization of light as different colors. Most insects like bees and wasps cannot see red light, but ants can. It is likely ants can distinguish the colors, red, orange, and yellow.
Our hypothesis The brighter the colour of the food, the more the number of ants that will be attracted to it.
Materials The materials used in this experiment are: • Different coloured m&m chocolates • Many ants
Procedure • Firstly, we would lay out some M&M's, 2 of a colour, onto a clean and dry surface, near a colony of ants. • There should not be much disturbance around the place which the experiment is conducted. • The number of M&M's of each colour must be equal so that the scent of a certain group of coloured-M&M’s will not be stronger and thus more reliable results can be achieved. • Separate the M&M's into groups, according to their colours. • Next, use a metre ruler to measure the distances between the ants and the different-coloured M&M's and ensure that they are equal. There should not be a colour of the M&M chocolates that are exceptionally nearer to the ants, for it will cause the experiment to be unfair as more ants may crawl to the M&M’s nearer to them. • For 3 minutes, observe the movements made by the ants, whether they crawl towards only a certain coloured group of M&M chocolates or if they crawl in all directions. • Record down the number of ants near each colour for every one minute. Analyze the data collected and see if there is change in the number of ants at each colour group of M&Ms. • Then, repeat the experiment for 3 times and find the average number of ants at each colour of M&M’s for each try. • Finally, analyze the results and see which colour of M&M’s attract the most number of ants • The independent variable, in this experiment, is the number of ants feeding on each colour of M&M’s; the dependent variable is the colour of the M&M’s.
Data Presentation and Analysis It is evident that the red-coloured m&m’s had attracted the most number of ants. There were more ants feeding on the blue-coloured m&m’s compared to the yellow-coloured ones during the first 2 minutes. However, after the 3rd minute, the number of ants feeding of the yellow-coloured m&m’s became more than those feeding on the blue-coloured ones.
Discussion From our results, we can conclude that red is a colour that would attract more ants in comparison to blue and yellow. The reason more ants were feeding on the red-coloured m&m’s was likely because red was a brighter and more attractive colour, thus the ants could take notice of them more easily. The blue and yellow coloured m&m’s did not attract as many ants probably as they were of a less attractive colour. Hence we can also infer that ants are not blind, as they were attracted to a more attractive colour, red, as compared to less attractive colours, blue and yellow. Since we have found out that ants are more likely attracted to red, mesh food covers should not be made in the colour red, or other attractive covers so as to minimize chance of ants feeding on them. Also, from the data collected, we can see that after the 3rd minute, there was a bigger increase in the number of ants coming to feed on the chocolates compared to the 1st and 2nd minutes. It was probably due to the fact some ants had communicated with other ants and informed them of the presence of food, causing more of them to come and feed on the chocolates. This proves that ants do have a way of communication among themselves, just like us, presumably through the use of their antennas.
Discussion A few research questions we have come up with after this experiment are: What kind of scents are ants more likely attracted to? Do ants have noses to help them smell? How does an ant sting? Do ants have a sense of touch? What are the uses of an insect’s antenna? Do all insects get attracted to brighter colours like ants?
Personal Reflections Ho Jia Min: This SIA has been a eye opening experience and I had many take-aways from it. For example, I realized that ants aren't entirely blind. This project gave us a chance to look at our environment and ponder about things we had not thought about before. I got to admit that catching ants is definitely not an easy task. Although we were all very afraid of ants, we still persevered. We thought of many interesting ways to attract and catch the ants for our experiment, and in the end, we succeeded. Although the environment is all around us, we could never really understand it as few of us would really take time out to observe the nature. This SIA allowed me to get closer to the environment and understand it a little better. In the process of catching ants, we also had fun, though we were all itching after the experiment.One major difficulty is that because it was drizzling that time, almost all the ants had gone "home", thus it was very difficult for us to find them. We tried catching the ants one by one but we realized it would not work because they are very scared of us humans. Even though we tried putting water around to prevent them from escaping, some ants were so brave, they actually went "swimming" and drowned.I am happy because I had more or less overcome my phobia of ants after so much interaction with them during the experiment. They are very interesting creatures, like butterflies, which prefer brighter colours.
Personal Reflections Ma Jiebing: This project was really a fruitful and productive one. Through our experiment, I found out many things that I had never known. For example, when we first planned our experiment, I had never expected that the red-coloured m&m's would attract more ants than the other coloured m&m's. I had thought that ants were blind and could only sense things around them with their antennas. My group members and I had fun during this project catching the ants and conducting the experiment, and at the same time learning many things. It was satisfying when we find out interesting things ourselves, and it would be completely different if we were given the information directly by our teachers. The project also instills curiosity in us, students, about the environment we live in.However, during the completion of this SIA, we also encountered some difficulties. It was not easy for us to get ants for our experiment especially when all of us do have at least a slight fear for them. We had not thought about how we were to get the ants when we planned our project, which caused us to have problems during the experiment. Nonetheless, we worked together as a team and managed to catch sufficient ants, at the same time trying our best not to hurt them. Time management was another a problem because we had many other projects to be done, too, and also our co-curricular activities. We were very lucky we managed to get an extension, which greatly minimized our burden, and allowed us to produce a report of better quality.
Personal Reflections Sim Yuen Rong Marianne: This science SIA made me learn more about those small living creatures in our environment and the environment itself. I wasn't really afraid of ants before doing this experiment, therefore I did not object to us carrying out this experiment. However after conducting this experiment, I realized that although ants may be small, they can be frightening too! Just like us human beings, those ants would fight for themselves and scramble around at a quick pace when they felt provoked as we tried catching them. Those ants would stay still to act dead even when we put the M&M's to lure them for our experiment. They would not move an inch, which was a problem that we faced. As they were all still and not moving, we could not conduct our experiment.Another problem that we faced was that there was rain on the day we conducted our experiment. The ants were probably frightened by the rain and thunder as they quickly scrambled back to their "homes". As there weren't many ants around after it started raining, we could not conduct our experiment as we did not have a sufficient number of ants.The last problem we faced was that we used the wrong method to catch the ants for our project, which wasted a lot of time. Our initial method was to catch the ants one by one and put them beside the m&m's. However, when we tried that method for a few times, we
Personal Reflections realized it would not work out. Thus we thought of another method which was much easier and efficient. We decided to place the 3 different coloured M&M's on the ground a distance away from the ant "home". Then, we would quietly wait for the ants to approach the different coloured M&M's. That was how we were able to conduct our experiment successfully and arrive with the results for our experiment.Something I found interesting throughout the experiment was that the route the ants take when going to another spot to get food and the route where they return back to their "homes" is always the same one. This was the first time I have observed ants for such a long time and tried to understand their behaviours. This experiment have made me grow more interest in the living things around me and the environment that I have never taken a close look at.
Bibliography • Wikipedia. (May 2012). Ant – Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 5 June 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant
