Some potential inquiry extensions of the termite activity.
| Question . | Experiment . | Notes . |
|---|---|---|
| Do soldier termites also follow ink trails? | Repeat experiments with a group of soldiers. | Soldiers follow odor trails well, often more persistently and reliably than workers. |
| How long before a trail evaporates? | Use lines traced at different times with the same pen. | Many factors affect evaporation rates. Runcie (1987) also has reported that Reticulitermes produce different trails persisting from 15 minutes to a year. |
| Do trails encode directional information? | Cut a section of paper with an actively followed trail, reverse it, reconnect it, add termites. | To date, little evidence for trail directionality has been discovered. |
| How tight an angle can a termite follow successfully? | Test termites on connected lines, varying the angle between them. | Termites often overshoot trails that require an acute-angle turn. |
| Do termites habituate to ink lines over time? Or does ink just “get old”? | When termite wanders, move it to a newly drawn line. Does it begin to follow again? | Accurate dating of ink is an important topic in crime cases involving things like ransom notes (see Cantu et al., 2004; Weyermann et al., 2007). |
| What concentration of PE makes the best trail? | Introduce PE as “invisible ink” (see Figure 1). Develop an operational definition of trail following (e.g., must follow for at least 10 cm). | Additional science skills (performing math conversions, micropipetting, making serial dilutions, etc.) will be reinforced in this extension. |
| Question . | Experiment . | Notes . |
|---|---|---|
| Do soldier termites also follow ink trails? | Repeat experiments with a group of soldiers. | Soldiers follow odor trails well, often more persistently and reliably than workers. |
| How long before a trail evaporates? | Use lines traced at different times with the same pen. | Many factors affect evaporation rates. Runcie (1987) also has reported that Reticulitermes produce different trails persisting from 15 minutes to a year. |
| Do trails encode directional information? | Cut a section of paper with an actively followed trail, reverse it, reconnect it, add termites. | To date, little evidence for trail directionality has been discovered. |
| How tight an angle can a termite follow successfully? | Test termites on connected lines, varying the angle between them. | Termites often overshoot trails that require an acute-angle turn. |
| Do termites habituate to ink lines over time? Or does ink just “get old”? | When termite wanders, move it to a newly drawn line. Does it begin to follow again? | Accurate dating of ink is an important topic in crime cases involving things like ransom notes (see Cantu et al., 2004; Weyermann et al., 2007). |
| What concentration of PE makes the best trail? | Introduce PE as “invisible ink” (see Figure 1). Develop an operational definition of trail following (e.g., must follow for at least 10 cm). | Additional science skills (performing math conversions, micropipetting, making serial dilutions, etc.) will be reinforced in this extension. |