Experiments Coming Along... and a hike in the morning.

Today was a early morning we got up at 5:15am  we went for a hike. We drove for about 2 hours to a building where we meet our guide. Our guide 's name was Freddy he showed us a very neat bug called the penut head (it looked like what it was called). He went and lead us to a lot of places to go see for exapmle we went to see a sulfur hot spring at first the smell made you not want to get in, after once you get used to the smell it was fun. It was also cool, the water was in different places like puddles almost but split up by rocks and each one had different tempatures. The lighter ones were warm and the darker ones where cold, to me I liked the cold water but after a while I went in the warm water and it felt very nice. We headed back and saw a stick bug it was very cool to see one. After that  we went to a water fall and we went and swam in the water which was very cold. After we swam a little while we went back to a building to eat lunch. 

We came back and some of us showered, then we went to go work on our experiments, my group is called (Z.E.E.N). My group is testing to see if vibrations will make them work harder and remove the dirt from the fungus garden. Our hypothesis was that 400 bpm would work the most and get them to work faster and today we did one trial and it worked so things are looking bright.

BY: Nick Moffett












Hello, parents, grandparents, extended family, and friends; I would like to let you know this trip has so far been an enjoyable experience, with much to offer, and I am here to fill you in on a research project everyone has been doing. For this project we were divided into groups; my group, The Unkowns, is working on testing soldier leafcutters with and without their antenae to see how they react. So far they have reacted more with their antenae, bitting at each other, and then walking away. However, when they do not have their antanae they do not react at all. Without their antenae they slowly decrease in activity and do not have an reacting senses; it looks like they realise they are walking on something but do not know if it is actually there. From that point, my group agreed that we should run more studies, using normally agressive, dangerous, and strong bitting ants (they can bite right through the tip of your finger and nail), now turned passive, we decided to see if they would still bite. The group gave the job to me, I first let the ant crawl on my clothing to see if it would bit then eventually moving to my hand (video found below), the ant never bit me. I found this facinating, I hope you do as well.           

By: Harrison Kraft 




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