Awesome Aggregations

Insects are a natural choice for studying behavioral ecology in the classroom--they are easy to obtain, maintain, and manipulate. Unlike competition and predation, however, the concept of group living does not translate well to small-scale experiments involving only a few individuals. How can inquir...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Science teacher (National Science Teachers Association) Vol. 73; no. 2; pp. 44 - 50
Main Authors Constible, Juanita, Lee, Richard E., Jr
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon National Science Teachers Association 01.02.2006
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Animal behavior
Behavioral Science Research
Biology
Butterflies & moths
Ecology
Entomology
High School Students
Hypothesis Testing
Inquiry
Overwintering
Science Activities
Science Instruction
Secondary School Science
Teaching Methods
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ISSN0036-8555
1943-4871

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Summary:Insects are a natural choice for studying behavioral ecology in the classroom--they are easy to obtain, maintain, and manipulate. Unlike competition and predation, however, the concept of group living does not translate well to small-scale experiments involving only a few individuals. How can inquiry be used to examine why animals live in groups? The answer is to use models, which are more feasible than working with hundreds of test subjects. This article describes a Standards-based directed inquiry into overwintering biology and behavioral ecology titled "Awesome Aggregations" that high school students can carry out with models of monarch butterflies to examine their adaptive value. (Contains 5 figures.)
Bibliography:SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0036-8555
1943-4871