Description
- Title: The Evolution of Agriculture in Ants
- Air Date: December 10, 2015
- Series: Smithsonian Science How webcasts, which are designed to connect natural history science and research to upper-elementary and middle-school students.
This video features Dr. Ted Schultz, an entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History. Learn about the creatures that are responsible for processing more vegetation than any animal on earth, the leaf-cutter ants. Take a journey with Ted to meet the leaf-cutters in his laboratory and witness their remarkable farming abilities. Think about how their agricultural systems compare to ours. Find out more about how entomologists like Ted are piecing together the evolutionary history of farming in ants.
Teaching Resources
Ants - Social Insects and Farmers
National Middle School Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
Life Science
MS-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- MS-LS1-4: Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.
MS-LS2 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- MS-LS2-1: Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
MS-LS4 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
- MS-LS4-2: Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.
- MS-LS4-4: Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals' probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
