Wanderer

Reminds me of our roads and highways. We all have our favorite shortcuts to drive from one place to another, whether we choose the highway or the back roads. Seems the ants have developed a few main “roads” and have created little shortcuts to connect parallel tunnels. I don’t watch them often enough to notice if they use some tunnel-ways more than others.

There is now one continuous tunnel running from one end of the front floor of the habitat to the other, and in the back side, there is another running parallel to that one, though not yet all the way across. The ants have about two inches to chew through before they meet with the far left floor tunnel. When they do reach the far side of the habitat’s floor on the back side, there will already be six short perpendicular connector shortcuts. They’ve already "planned" ahead for that somehow! Amazing. How do they do that?? I don’t know how well the pictures will show you this marvelous architecture, or even if some readers come here have access to the pictures.

Interesting FYI: Here’s something interesting about one ant species, the Argentine Ants. If you live in North Carolina, you may have seen them. They are very tiny, 1/16th of an inch long, and dark brown. Their antennae have 12 segments, if you happen to catch an ant and want to count antennae segments to make sure! You might even have stepped on one of these non-native ants. They came to our country about a hundred years ago from Argentina aboard a coffee shipment to New Orleans.

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Reflection: do they know where they are going, these little ants who scurry about in their blue gel home? If they were still living in the earth, as God would have them, would they know then where they were going? They do their work dutifully, without question, without complaint. They don’t seem to complain when others are sluggish, and they don’t fight amongst themselves.

Frankly, I don't know where I am going, in the big picture of life. I just try to go in the right direction. I don't know where what I am doing will take me, but I am willing to go where I am called to go. I just need to listen very carefully. For the directions. One day at a time.

Consider Proverbs 6:6-8.

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

Then, metaphorically speaking, what I am doing now is storing provisions in the summer. Provisions meaning the things I need inside, in my heart, my mind, my soul, to prepare for the fall harvest, the start of school. Teachers must do more than prepare their lesson plans and classrooms. They need to prepare their hearts and minds as well, and so the need for some time off, alone and with their families and friends. They need time to regroup, reflect, and reorganize. I went by my school this week and found teachers in their classrooms already, putting up the bulletin boards, making plans for the year, and reorganizing their planning files. There is much to do in the weeks to come, but for now, for just one more day, I want to watch my ants, play with my dogs, watch a good movie, stroll through the woods, and of course, I admit, shop for clothes and school supplies. I am storing up provisions of rest, reflection, and restoration so that in the fall, and the winter, and the early spring, I won't lose my focus.

I've got to remember to keep my eyes on the One Creator so the fires of famine will not consume me. Like the little ant, we just keep moving forward, and do what we have to dol We step out of the way of those moving faster, and take care of the very young, the sick, and the dying. Some of us will look for a way out, while others keep digging.

Sometimes we don't know where we are going on this earth, but we know that there's always one more tunnel to dig. 

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                  My Recommended Websites to Visit

http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/thomas/classPet/1998/antfarm/ant_teacher.htm  Here is a classroom lesson designed for 3rd and 4th grades, but easily modified and extended for other grades. There is a link to the corresponding student page as well. Great lessons that connects science with math, reading, and language arts. Daily student observations and recording of data are essential as they watch how ants respond to a change in heat. This is one I would like to try this year.

http://nasaexplores.nasa.gov/show2_5_8a.php?id=02-034&gl=58.  Teachers will love this page which includes the article about using animals in the space program with lesson plans, teacher pages, and students pages.

http://www.wgby.org/edu/lessonplans/ntti/1999/amazingant.html  Another lesson plan for teachers of grades 2-4 using books, The Magic School Bus: Gets Ants in its Pants video. Music, art, poetry, science integration. Many activities.

http://www.hunkinsexperiments.com/pages/ants.htm  How to make an ant farm with anillustration. This design requires adult supervision; probably for adults or older students. Uses two pieces of glass and putty. Permission to link granted.

http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/bi/1998/ants/antfarm.html  Another ‘how to make an ant farm’ idea using 2 sheets ofPlexiglas and modeling clay. Sounds easy. Haven’t tried this one either, but keeping all these ideas for future use.

http://www.eduplace.com/author/vanallsburg/  Here you can review any of Chris Van Allsburg's books, but for this reference, I want to point out the connection to his book, Two Bad Ants. Read his biography, an interview with the author, and for teachers, making connections with other stories through art, creative writing, science and social studies.

http://www.ncsu.edu/news/press_releases/03_07/185.htm  NCCSU News Release about the Argentine Ant, how they came to live in NC, why they may exhibit different behaviors in the US than in their native land of South America, and theories on why they haven’t moved further north in our country.

Tomorrow, I'll have some relevant NASA Ants in Space sites that I have discovered. Too much to put here with all the lesson plans. Come back again! Thanks for visiting. Bea

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