Guiding Questions:
​1. Why might it be interesting to record the size and species of the trees surrounding the colonies?
    It would be interesting because it gives you a better understanding of what the ants interact with and how they interact with them.
2. If you wanted to study the the effect of the tree size on the size of the ant colonies, what would be your dependent variable? Your independent variable?
    The dependent variable would be the ant colony, the independent variable would be the tree size,
3. During the winter months, the snow will often melt off the ant mounds before it melts off the surrounding area. What process gives off the heat that melts the snow?
     My best guess is hibernation.

First, we had to find the three nearest trees to my colony. Then, we decided if the trees were Conifer or Deciduous, and if they were Conifer, we had to decide if they were Larch or Pine. If they were Pine, we would then figure out if they were fir or spruce. We did this for all 3 trees, and got a pine fir, pine spruce and a deciduous tree. Then we measured the circumference of the trees and then the distance from the mound to the trees.
It was an overall fun activity, though it was pretty cold. Anna fell and got dirt all over her pants, but she didn't get hurt so it was pretty funny.

Guding Questions:
1. What are some of the biotic and abiotic factors surrounding the ant colonies?
     There are plenty of little grassy plants, some trees but nothing too close. There are moss on the trees, and then some leafy short plants.
2. Where do the ants get the energy needed to live and thrive?
     The ants get there energy from the leaves of the plants around them. They are primary consumers.
3. What factors would you like to measure next?
     I would like to look at how much rainfall is around the mound and the amount of sunlight that hits the mound.
​

We all went up to the mound and all made a guess at the percentage of of canopy cover, then averaged our guesses and wrote that down, 73%. Then, we did the same with green ground cover, 25%. Then we rated how active the mound seemed from 1-10. We said 4. Then we collected specimens and went back to the classroom.

Today, Gabriela and I went out behind BEC to look for ant hills. We had to use our phones as a GPS to track where ant hill were, then right down the coordinates and whether or not the hill was active. There weren't many actually, we walked for a good five minutes until we found one, and it was near the end of the forest. Mr. Leonard said that it was a pretty unsuccessful trip, and that we should have gone to BR.