1. 75 termites
2. 19 milliliters of distilled water
3. 120 grams of silica dust
4. 1 Block of douglass fir
5. Small container for habitat
Set up:
1. Measure a suitable amount of water & silica dust.
2. Ready small container.
3. Enter silica dust within container.
4. Spread the distilled water about the silica dust to moisturize
in the container.
5. Place douglass fir block inside container.
6. Finally enter the termites in their small habitat.
7. Record and observe in time intervals.
Entry: 8/18/10 - Experiment begun! Materials include 75 termites, consisting of
worteer termites and regular termites, ranging about 1 millimeter. The termites use vibrations with their body to communicate. Some termites have darker heads & pincers while others don't.
Entry: 8/23/10 - Termites complete tunnel system with an entrance and exit. No reaction to the wood other than inspection, possibly leaving pheromones to later relocate.
Entry: 8/30/10 - Carved tunnels more refined and organized, partial consumption of the wood.
Entry: 9/8/10 - Termite experiment has been tampered with, tunnels & homes collapsed or destroyed. Trapped termites buried alive, many of them dead but mostly still alive. Silica dust homes restructured because of sabotage.
Entry: 10/12/10 - The experiment obviously tampered with a second time, once restructuring homes destroyed. Parts of dust has been dried out of moisture and seems void of life because of unintentional human interaction.
Human interaction was the cause of the demise toward the termite habitat and the population impacting the termites severely. Attempts for them to rebuild their homes and limit casualties but failed because of a second tempering occurred, voiding the container of life in the end.
I think the termite unit very informative to the dangers that termites pose, considering they can collapse houses in about a year costing millions of dollars in property damage. I quite enjoyed from the unit and learned quite a bit, my favorite part would be in creating the website to best represent our knowledge. The least favorite part was discovering how humans have severely impacted the experiment.
