Activity overview

Run the activity

1.Begin to discuss the question Who Is..? by introducing Adam Hart as a scientist and asking children what they think he did. Working in a small group or pair, can they look for clues about him in the photographs. These prompts may help you:

• Do you think he does his work now or did he live and work in the past? 
• Is there anything in the photographs which gives you a clue about the type of science he is involved in?
• Adam Hart is interested in studying insects. What do you find interesting about insects?

2. Share your ideas with the class. Did everyone agree?

3. Read the Background Science (you could do this as a class) to find out more about his life.

Background science

Professor Adam Hart is an author, presenter and entomologist (which means he studies insects). Adam has always been fascinated by animals and so chose to take zoology at university. His research now focuses on social insects. These are insects who live in colonies and work together as a group, sharing food and jobs. He has travelled the world (he is looking for animal trails in South Africa in the photo), and he has become an expert in the behaviour of ants, bees and wasps. These insects interact frequently and rely on each other a bit like people do (although they are different in many ways too). One of the reasons Adam particularly likes studying social insects (including the leaf cutter ants in the photo) is because they are unselfish and hard working. Their behaviour is always for the greater good of the colony rather than the individual. Professor Adam Hart regularly presents documentaries for the BBC, including ‘Planet Ants: Life Inside the Colony’ and the children’s series, ‘Life on Planet Ant’.

Insects are invertebrates (animals without a backbone) and there are 27,000 species in the UK. They can be recognised because they typically have 6 legs, 3 body parts (head, thorax and abdomen) and a pair of antennae for sensing. Their lifecycle usually includes a larva stage (and often a pupa stage too).

Ants are insects that build their homes underground. They are omnivores, eating both meat and plants. Ants are social insects as they have a colony structure. There are different sized ants who do different jobs, but they all work together to keep the colony alive. The queen ant lays the eggs. The workers build and maintain the nest, forage for food and care for the young. The soldier ants have the job of guarding the colony. They have powerful mandibles (jaws) which work like pincers to fight off any predators.

Watch out for 

Some children use the term ‘insect’ to cover all minibeasts. Insects are a group of invertebrates which children can identify by noticing their three body parts and six legs. Commonly found minibeasts that are not insects include snails, slugs, woodlice, spiders and worms.

Take it further

Watch

Learn more about Adam Hart and how he began studying insects in this film. See ants close-up in this film. Watch this film about the lifecycle of the ant.   

Activities

Working with a partner, can children write an answer to the question, Who is Adam Hart? An extra challenge could be to use less than 25 words (and more than 10).

Children can investigate the local area on the hunt for different invertebrates. CLEAPSS offer useful guidance about how to organise minibeast hunts. (Most schools are members of CLEAPSS so check with your school office.) Children could use soft, dry paintbrushes and small Petri dishes to collect invertebrates or, you may have pooters in your school that they can use. This spotter sheet or this dial are useful resources to help identify what is found. Children can observe, draw pictures or take photographs of each animal.

As they grow in confidence, children could use this branching key to identify which invertebrates are insects or they could create their own classification key or branching database.

Older children could take part in OPAL’s citizen science bugs count survey.  

Using their research skills, children could find out more about ants and write an informative report or produce a poster. This is a useful starting point.

Find out about other diverse scientists, in science-related jobs, using A Scientist Just Like Me resource. 

Linked Explorify activities- our recommendations: 

Legs Eleven can be used to discuss what an insect is. Get your class thinking and talking about the question What if there were no insects? The Odd One Out Friend’s of Flowers can be used to help create a branching database for invertebrates.