Individual Research
As part of the Formicarium project, we were divided into small groups of two or three people and given the opportunity to design and carry out our own research project related to the ant colony. Each group developed a unique research question, conducted experiments or observations, and presented their findings in the form of a scientific poster.
This assignment was designed to help us experience the full process of scientific research, from forming a question to presenting results. It encouraged us to take initiative, apply our biological knowledge in a practical context and think independently. Working in small teams allowed us to share ideas, divide tasks and learn from each other, while developing our research and communication skills.
Taking part in our own inquiry made the learning experience much more personal and meaningful. It provided insight into the challenges and rewards of scientific work, demonstrating how much thought, patience and precision real research requires. For many of us, it sparked a new interest in biology, showing us how engaging and creative science can be.
On this page, you’ll find the posters we created – each one reflecting our ideas, efforts and curiosity.
One of the first difficulties we encountered was choosing a suitable research topic. We wanted something meaningful and biologically relevant, but it also needed to be realistic in terms of experimentation and data collection. Additionally, we aimed to explore a question that hadn’t already been done by others in our group or class. A second challenge was the limited number of ants we could test. Due to the structure of our observation setup, it wasn’t feasible to track large numbers of ants simultaneously without losing accuracy. Testing too many individuals at once would have made it difficult to collect clean, comparable data. By focusing on just a few ants per condition, we were able to observe their behavior more precisely and reduce sources of error.
Another point worth noting is the use of chalk barriers. These are commonly applied in ant experiments because ants tend to avoid chalk or lime-based substances. However, it’s important to understand how sensitive ants are to this material. If applied too heavily or carelessly, it can affect their behavior or even cause stress. We had to be very cautious when drawing the barriers to avoid unintended influence on the results.
We worked in pairs, beginning with the planning and construction of two mazes. An improvement for next time would be to construct both mazes using Plexiglas. This would ensure that the two mazes are identical in material, with the only difference being the complexity of the paths.
Additionally, at the beginning for our research, we wanted to mark the ants . We consulted a scientific paper that described how to mark ants . Following a similar method, we attempted to mark our ants with acrylic paint. Unfortunately, it was not very effective, so we would try a different technique in the future.
But overall, it was a very interesting experience to do such a project.
We worked on our research question in a group of three. Finding a research question that the previous generation hadn't used and that was interesting wasn't easy. First, we wrote down some ideas, and then we decided together which question to use. We then started planning and conducting some research. Once we had a plan, we conducted the experiment. We are glad that we did the experiment early on, so that we wouldn't be under too much pressure. We encountered some problems during the experiment, but we managed to find a solution for each one. The first problem we encountered was printing the maze. There were some issues with the printer and it took a long time to finish printing the maze. The second problem was that the ants took much longer than we expected. This is why we decided to help the ants by pushing them with a brush down if they climbed up the walls. This led to another problem. Some of the ants bit in the bristles of the brush and wouldn't let go. Additionally, the talk did not stop the ants from climbing out of the first container. To keep the ants trapped, we switched containers. The second container had steeper, smoother walls. The ants couldn't climb out of this one. Overall, the experiment was a success.
In order to find a research question that suited us, we read a lot of papers until we found something suitable. When we started our experiment, we quickly realized that we wanted to adjust our original research question. This caused us to lose time and we ended up feeling a little stressed towards the end of the project. Nevertheless, we managed to carry out our experiment successfully and are now able to present it to you here. If we should do this project once again we would start before, so we could run more trials and obtain more data to compare and analyze. We would try to plant more than one plant at time and try to create an ambient with similiar conditions as the one in the rain forests (temperature, humidity, tropical plants). We would inform us better on the ants cutting patterns and film them more often. Another intersting aspect, on which we didn't focus, is the production of jasmonate ( "a repellant for the ants") that is produced by the harvested plants. The relationship between the foraged plants and Atta sexdens is an important topic, that deserve more research.
​We encountered several challenges during the execution of the experiment, many of which could have been avoided with more thorough preparation. In hindsight, it became clear that better planning, especially in terms of materials, timing, and procedural clarity, would have significantly improved the efficiency and reliability of our results. A more structured approach from the outset might also have helped us respond more effectively to unforeseen difficulties.