Ants at the Picnic
Jasmine Ochoa, Victoria Acosta, Taryn Shoemake, Abby Navarro
Houston We Have A Problem
Will an ants receptors most likely be triggered by the strong odor released by the cheese, or will they go for the bread or candy?
Hypothesis:
If the ants are given the chance to choose between the candy, carb, cheese, or water, more will choose the cheese because of its strong, pungent odor. Therefor after 10 minutes all of the ants should be in the petri dish containing the cheese slice.
Setting:
Indoors, within a container with greased sides to prevent the ants from escaping.
Materials:
- 4 petri dishes
- 30 ants
- large, closed containers
- tweezers
- 1 oz of water
- 3 jolly ranchers
- 1 cheese slice
- 3 cheezits
Control Group
The petri dish containing the water will be the control. Water is tasteless and odorless.
Constant Variables
- LIght
- Temperature
- Amount of ants
Manipulated Variables
- 3 Jolly Ranchers
- 3 cheezits
- 1 Cheese Slice
Range
The range is 10 minutes. Within those ten minutes, we will collect data after every minute.
Procedure
- Gather materials
- Place the cheese, 8 crushed cheddar bunnies, 3 jolly ranchers, and water in separate petri dishes
- Grease the sides of the larger container
- Place the dishes within the larger container
- Once the petri dishes are in place, place the ants within the larger container
- Observe the ant's behavior every minute
Data Chart
Conclusion
We reject the null hypothesis. Instead of the ants going to the cheese dish, they stayed stuck in the candy dish.
Degrees of freedom: 3
The Chi-Square results: 4.25<7.81