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Take an Ant to Lunch (Grade 2)

Master Teacher

Cam T. Szakovits

Overview

This lesson will allow students to expand their knowledge of ants. By creating a model, students will recognize that all insects have physical similarities and classify ants as insects. The concept that animals have basic needs will be related to a food preference activity performed in the ants' natural environment.

SC Math/Science Standards Met

Science Achievement Standards:

Area I: A:1, 2, & 4
Area I: B-1
Area II: A-1-b
Area II: A-1-a

Math Achievement Standards:
Strand I: A-1
Strand II: B-2
Strand II: D-2
Strand VI: B-2

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

construct a model of an ant
classify ants as insects
gather data in order to create a pictograph of ant food preferences

Materials

Activity 1: Ant Model

Per person:

paper body parts of an ant
six pipe cleaner pieces (legs)
two pieces of dried macaroni (mandibles)
two pipe cleaner pieces (antennae)
paper work mat

Activity 2: Food Preference

Per group:

plastic baggie with one cube each of cheese, apple, ham, and raw potato
data collection sheet on clipboard
pencils
Optional: magnifying lenses (2 or 3)

Per class:

ant picture cards
scissors/masking tape
pictograph poster graph
chart paper
markers

Vocabulary

prefer
antennae
abdomen
preference
foraging
mandible
head
colony, colonies
communication
thorax
anthill
behavior

ITV Series

Backyard Science, Lesson 1, "Ants"

Previewing Activity

Introduce the lesson by reading Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsberg. Focus on vocabulary, as needed. Engage students in a discussion about what they know about ants. Show the overhead of mixed-up body parts. Ask students to help you put it together correctly.

Focus for Viewing 1

To give students a responsibility while viewing, ask them to watch how the ants' bodies are put together.

Viewing Activity 1

Distribute the the "Build an Ant Work Mat" and the "Paper Ant Body Parts." Start at the beginning of the video and pause every time the name of a body part is on the screen. Identify the body part orally and match it with the material (paper shapes, pipe cleaner pieces, etc.) that represents it. Have students arrange their materials to correctly assemble the ant's anatomy. Discuss and add mandibles (dried elbow macaroni pieces) last. Rewind and watch the body part segment again so students can check their models. Discuss the fact that these special body parts make the ant an insect.

Focus for Viewing 2

Remind students that ants use their mandibles when foraging for food. Ask them if they know what ants eat and how they get their food. Introduce the word foraging and ask them to look for examples of foraging behaviors in the video.

Viewing Activity 2

Start the video where it was last stopped. Watch the foraging segment. Stop when ant eggs are shown on screen, since this segment is beyond the scope of this lesson.

Post-Viewing Activity

1. Review lesson objectives and talk about images shown on the video. Share personal experiences of ants invading a picnic and ask students if they know why ants are attracted to our picnics. Pose a theoretical question: "What foods do ants prefer and why?" Announce that we are going to go outside and observe ants having a "picnic."

2. Divide students into cooperative groups. Each group should elect a leader, a "getter," a recorder, and a responder/speaker. (This can be done informally by choice or by drawing straws, etc.) The "getter" in each group goes to the materials center and gets one data collection sheet on a clipboard, a pencil, and a plastic baggie containing a 1/2-inch cube of each of the following items: cheese, apple, ham, and raw potato.

Students will make quick predictions as to which foods they think the ants will prefer. Note and tally their predictions. All groups proceed outside to a designated area with several ant colonies present. (Mark pre-chosen ant colonies with small orange survey flags, if preferred.) Safety rules and respect for the ants and their homes should be discussed before assigning the groups to their colonies. Instruct students to place their four cubes of food around the chosen anthill in an equidistant pattern, as shown on the data collection sheet (Activity Sheet 5). Their assignment will be to note on the sheet how many "hits," or visits, from an ant (or ants) each food gets. (Discuss the connection of the word hits to visiting an Internet site.) The notation will be accomplished by drawing a black dot to represent an ant on the picture of the food cube as designated on the data collection sheet. The recorder of the group will draw the dots. The leader will insure as much accuracy as possible while the other members of the group observe and report.

Students will continue recording until a signal from you is given signifying that time is up. (Ten minutes is the suggested time frame. You may need more or less time depending on the activity of the anthills chosen.) After returning to the classroom, the responder/speaker will give you the total number of "hits" each of their groups' foods received and you will tally all the totals together from all groups.

3. A prepared pictograph chart (Activity Sheet 3) will be displayed and the teacher will use pre-printed 3x3-inch cards with five ants printed on each card (see Activity Sheet 4) to make a pictorial representation of the tallied totals for each food.

Students will count by fives to total each column. (For any total not a multiple of five, the teacher will simply cut out the needed numbers of ants from an extra card to make the correct total.) Upon completing the chart, lead the class into a discussion of the results and how their predictions turned out. Some thought- provoking questions such as the following should be used.

Why do you think the ants liked the __________ best?
Did the ants "hit" all the foods but
prefer one food over the others?
How did the ants find out about the
foods?
Were the ants communicating in some way?
Why didn't the ants carry the food like they do in cartoons?
Did the ants seem to eat the food or carry it back to the anthill? If so, how did they do it?
If you were an ant, which food would you prefer?
What was it about the _________ that made the ants prefer it?

Relate the ant experience to human experiences. Discuss human food preferences; social eating behaviors; how humans get their food (example: Do people forage?); and how the anthill colony corresponds to our social framework. Compare what we have discovered about ants to other insects we know. Pose questions for further exploration and ask students to suggest ways our investigation could be altered to achieve different results. Remind students that we should "think like scientists" and realize that questioning our findings and repeating our experiment under different conditions (i.e., cold weather, rain, different species of ants, etc.) is the kind of thing scientists do.

Action Plan

1. Students will write summaries of what they learned by collecting data on the food preference activity, submitting their observations and findings to the Young Entomologists' Society for publication.

Web site: The Minibeast World of Insects and Spiders (sponsored by the Young Entomologists' Society). This site records students' "hit" number. Relate to previous discussion of "hits" on the food cube.

2. Write stories or informative articles on insects and spiders and have them published in Insect World or Y.E.S. Quarterly (send manuscripts by mail to Young Entomologists' Society, 6907 West Grand River Avenue, Lansing, MI 48906-9131, or email YESbugs@aol.com).

To type a story or an article to send to Y.E.S. for publication:

Go to The Minibeast World of Insects and Spiders
Click on the icon to enter the Web site and go to the main menu.
Click on the "Youth Center" icon.
Click on "Innovative Projects and Activities on Minibeasts."
Go to "Language Arts" projects and activities and click on "email."
Type your story or informative article. Send to Y.E.S. by clicking on "Send now." (YESbugs@aol.com)

Extensions

1. Technology: Gander Academy's Creepy Crawlies Theme Page Instruct children to go to "My Arthropod Gallery." Here they can view an insect collection with photos and descriptions written by a young student. Students will be asked to note their "hit" number.

Utilize drawing, writing, and publishing software to create a class book of ant stories.

2. Language Arts: Write an "ant experience" story told from the ant's point of view. Refer to Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg.

Share the poem "Watching Things" by Marci Ridlan.

3. Music and Math: Learn and sing the counting song, "The Ants Go Marching In." Review skip counting and/or multiplication skills.

4. Social Studies: Construct models of an anthill and a human neighborhood. Display side by side and create a Venn diagram showing likenesses and differences.

5. Art: Draw a cross-section view of an anthill, including tunnels and rooms. Press fingertips on an ink pad, then on the drawing of the anthill. Add body parts (antennae, legs, etc.) with an ink pen.

Make an "Ant Hat." See Activity Sheet 6 for instructions.

6. Optional Assessment:

Re-distribute the work mats and body part pieces. Have students glue the pieces to the work mat. Assess knowledge gained according to the accuracy of the completed model.