Summer Science - Ants + Colored Sugar Water
How awesome is this photograph?! Intrigued by the way the insects 'turned white' after ingesting spilled milk, Dr. Mohamed Babu and his kiddos decided to set up a two-fold experiment - 1) to see if ants could be turned other colors and why and 2) to find out what color ants are most attracted to. From the photo alone, we thought this would be a fun, hands on way to learn a little about ants this summer!
Supplies You'll Need
- Food coloring
- Sugar water
- Magnifying glasses
- Ants
Create 5 sugar water samples - 1) no color/control, 2) yellow, 3) green, 4) red, and 5) blue. Use droppers to place a sample of each solution on the sidewalk near a flowerbed or anthill. Allow some time to pass then, armed with their magnifying glasses and science notebooks, invite your kiddos to observe and record the activity around the samples. [NOTE: You may wish to observe the samples after several time intervals - i.e. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, etc.] Discuss as a class the results of the experiment.
