School of Ants
Public Science | Your Wild Life Projects
Ants are ubiquitous. They are widespread and diverse, yet despite how familiar ants are to us and how often we may encounter them in our daily lives (sometimes more often than we would like), we actually know relatively little about their diversity and distribution, particularly in urban areas. The species we interact with most frequently – those that are commonly found in backyards and on sidewalks, in street medians and on playgrounds – are the very same species we know the least about.
The School of Ants project is a citizen-scientist driven study of the ants that live in urban areas, particularly around homes and schools. Participation is open to anyone interested! The data that is collected by hundreds of citizen scientists is giving us valuable data about the diversity and distribution of ants across the United States.
Project website: schoolofants.org
Your Wild Life blog posts: School of Ants
Resources
- Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Ants of New York City
- Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Ants
- Urban Ant Guide
- Myrmex: A Comic Ant-thology
- Ant Picnic: Students Discover Lesson
Student Lessons
- Invisible Pathogens (Students Discover)
- Ant Picnic (Students Discover
People
- Andrea Lucky, Collaborator (University of Florida)
- Lauren Nichols, Research Technician
- Amy Savage, Collaborator (Rutgers University–Camden)
Project Publications
Vitone, T., Stofer, K. A., Steininger, M.S., Hulcr, J., Dunn, R. and Lucky, A. (2016). ‘School of Ants goes to college: integrating citizen science into the general education classroom increases engagement with science’. JCOM 15 (01), A03. View PDF.
Lucky, A., Savage, A.M. (co-first author), Nichols, L.M., Castracani, C., Shell, L., Grasso, D.A., Mori, A. and Dunn R.R. (2014). Ecologists, educators and writers collaborate with the public to assess backyard diversity in The School of Ants Project. Ecosphere 5(7). View PDF.
