The fall colors are vibrant and winter is just around the corner. For many of us, this means that our backyards, parks, trails, and other favorite stomping grounds are about to get soaked by rain and snow. Don't let the weather disrupt your educational expeditions; bring the study of the outdoors into your home by setting up an Uncle Milton 50th Anniversary Ant Farm!
One of the Classic Science Toys
At a family picnic on the Fourth of July in 1956, Milton Levine noticed a colony of ants marching and foraging for food. This gave him the idea to build an ant habitat that would allow children to watch the industrious little creatures up-close. Although he didn't know it at the time, Milton Levine had created one of the world's first "nature toys". Twenty million ant farms later, Levine's innovation has inspired many a child and is considered an American classic.
A Myrmecologist Without a Formicarium is Like a Baseball Player Without a Bat
People who study the behavior of ants are known as myrmecologists and the technical term for an ant farm is "formicarium". When you set up an ant farm, you become an amateur myrmecologist and create an educational experience that can last a lifetime for your children.
Ants are social insects that live in communities called a colony. When you set up an ant farm for a child, you are setting the stage for learning and scientific observation. Over the course of weeks and months, the colony will display a number of ant behaviors such as tunneling, mound building, feeding, and the construction of underground caverns in the sand. Some ants can even lift 50 times their weight while working on the daily business of the colony.
If you are a mom, dad, or teacher, the process of setting up and maintaining an ant farm will provide you with a number of learning opportunities. A single ant farm can provide lessons on habitats, communities, responsibility, patience, problem solving, endurance, effort, cooperation, and social networks.... The list of learning topics that can be generated from a single ant farm is almost endless.
Getting an ant farm is simple. Just drop by the Trailmix.Net store and place an order.
Helpful Tips for Setting Up and Maintaining Your Ant Farm
- Preparing Your Ant Farm: Never pack the sand into the ant farm, this can cause spreading of the side plates which may result in an ant escape.
- When Your Ants Arrive: Ants are amazingly nimble. When your ants get delivered, make sure you let them cool off in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. This slows down their metabolism so that you can easily transfer them into the ant farm.
- Maintaining Your Ant Farm: Keep the temperature of your ant farm tightly regulated by keeping it in a safe place away from direct sunlight, heating ducts, etc.
Join the other twenty million people who have brought the study of the outdoors inside with an Uncle Milton ant Farm. While you are there, check out the other Biology Toys in the Trailmix.Net store.
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