For the first action project in my STEAM course called population, we will be diving into animal taxonomy, specifically one of my choices. I decided to study and learn more about black ants. In doing this, I will be looking at their taxonomy chart and I will be making statements using set theory, a language used to describe groups in a mathematical way. I wanted to choose an ant because I wanted to learn something new about ants knowing they’re everywhere and we never stop and observe their habitat or daily obstacles. On this FE I unfortunately was not able to find any ants but I did venture out into the reptile section thinking they would be hanging out there. Unfortunately i was not able to find any at the zoo but I did search up some videos to get close up observation of my own.
The organism that I picked was Lasius niger or commonly known as the Black ants. Black ants are the most harmless common ants as they are all around you, just very tiny. Although the habitat of the black ants can be a wide range of places, they are usually found in garden species, dry areas, and wet areas. A black ant’s diet can consist of several things such as fruit, leftovers, seeds, and other small insects. Black ants are harmless to humans but when it comes to taking care of their territory they can bite but might not do much harm.
Taxonomy order of Black ants
TAXONOMY LEVEL
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CLASSIFICATION OF YOUR ORGANISM
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PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THIS CLASSIFICATION
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Kingdom
| Animalia | multicellular, heterotrophs |
Phylum
| Arthropoda | exoskeleton, invertebrate |
Class
| Insecta | three body part, compound eyes |
Order
| Hymenoptera | herbivorous, wings |
Family
| Formicidae | 6 legs, stinger |
Genus
| Lasius | rainbow ant native to Australia, feed on sweet food |
Species
| niger | nest builders, colored appearance |
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| GA, Ant Taxonomy, 2017 |
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| “North American Ants.” North American Ants, 5 Aug. 2017
Venn diagram comparison
I was pared up with 2 classmates to compare there organism characteristics which was a meerkat and a african lion. By doing this we all got together to give each other traits of our animal for the venn diagram.When you think about meerkats, Black Ants, and African lions you might not be able to make a comparison from the top of your head knowing they are all distinctively different. One thing they all had in common was the kingdom which was Animalia and they can all sexual reproduce. African lions and meerkat both have sharp teeth small ears and have fur, unlike the black ant. Overall I observed that the African lion and the meerkat had more similarities than black Ant which made sense knowing I was comparing different sets of class.
Set theory statements
These statements represent mathematical statements that describe the population of black ants.
M= meerkat, B= Black ant, A= African lion
In conclusion, this action project has allowed me to analyze an organism better by doing physical observations, comparisons to other kingdoms, and understanding the mathematical language using set theory. My taxonomy chart was the task that I was most impressed with. The black ant taxonomy chart was impressive because it was the hardest task for me because of all the really long definitions insects have. Learning set theory was like a fun game of speaking in secret code strangely. Throughout the unit, I felt confident which was new to me because math is not my strongest subject but I really pulled through this AP where I understood everything that was going on in class without feeling overwhelmed. Last but not least this AP was a fun way to learn about different organism in their natural habitat.
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Works Cited:
“North American Ants.” – North American Ants, 5 Aug. 2017, www.myrmecos.net/north-american-ants/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.
“Small black ant videos, photos and facts.” Arkive, www.arkive.org/small-black-ant/lasius-niger/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.
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