Name: ______________________________________
Date: _____________ Period: _______ Seat #: _____
How We Study Behavior:
Design Your Own Experiment!
Purpose:
Today you will be designing and conducting a behavioral experiment using termites. You will
make a hypothesis, design an experimental procedure, and collect quantitative data. Then you
will make conclusions based on your data and share them with the class.
Background Information:
Termites use chemical compounds called pheromones to communicate with each other. One of
the chemical components of their pheromones produces the same scent as ink from a ballpoint
pen. This means that termites will follow an ink path as though it were created by a colony mate.
Goal:
You will test termites’ ability to follow different types of lines. These could be curved, sharply
angled, thin or thick, dashed, etc. Be creative!
Materials:
Live worker termites
Paper
Bic pens
Paintbrushes
Decide with your group members on answers for the following questions.
1. What question will you be investigating?
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2. Write a hypothesis to answer your question.
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3. Make specific predictions. What experimental results will you see if your hypothesis is
correct?
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4. Write an experimental procedure (following the scientific method). List each step.
Remember that you will take quantitative data, and you will test multiple termites. Draw
your ink paths on separate paper with a Bic pen. Check with Ms. Young before starting
your experiment.
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5. Record your data. Which paths do the termites follow? Put your data into a data table
(remember the example from lecture). Also write down qualitative observations of what
you see the termites do.
6. Explain what your data means. Was your hypothesis correct?
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