Invisible Pathogens
About this lesson
In this lesson, students will have an opportunity to isolate fungal morphospecies by plating ants on agar gel. They will then be able to submit their findings to a scientist and connect their experience to a study of pathogens.
Objectives or Essential Questions:
- Students will be able to identify and explain characteristics of fungi.
- Students will be able to explain the differences between fungal pathogens and other types of pathogens.
- Students will be able to identify common soil fungi based on their appearance.
View the Invisible Pathogens Project on iNaturalist.
Resources
How to participate
- Invisible Pathogens Data Worksheet
- Ruler (mm)
- Fine-tipped sharpie
- Dissection Microscope
- Forceps (featherweight forceps recommended like the ones found here)
- Collection containers with wet cotton balls inside, a different container for every different ant colony. Do not mix species or ants found in different habitats. Each container should hold ants from the same location.
- Rubbing Alcohol
- Lighter
- Rubber gloves
- Parafilm or tape
Materials needed
About the Science
- Ants live in communities just like we do but they don’t get sick as often as we do.
- Ants have ways of coping with harmful microbes (grooming, antimicrobial immune defenses, etc.) that may vary due to environmental changes associated with human activities.
- Fungal pathogens are also expected to change in response to environmental change, particularly changes associated with temperature and humidity.
- Pathogen interactions are key drivers of biological diversity and population structure.
- Understanding how ant-pathogen interactions vary will help researchers better understand how ant populations cope with disease under various and changing environmental conditions.
About the Research
A key step in modern ecology is understanding how pathogenic interactions will change across a rapidly changing environment. Pathogenic interactions are key drivers in population dynamics and biological diversity. Fungi in particular are sensitive to temperature and humidity and thus fungal pathogens may be particularly responsive to environmental change. It is important to understand fungi that cause disease in ants (entomopathogens) because ants play critical ecological roles as seed dispersers, scavengers and soil engineers. Additionally, monitoring the health of ants can serve as a measure of the quality of a given environment.
Ants collected across different habitats will be allowed to walk on Rose Bengal Agar to isolate the fungi associated with them. Researchers will then use molecular techniques to identify the diversity of soil-borne fungi. Like human-associated pathogens, we predict that fungal entomopathogen diversity will fall into specific biogeographic regions that reflect soil and temperature conditions.
The Team
About the Scientist

About the SciArt

About the Artist

Next Generation Science Standards
Science
8.L.1 Understand the hazards caused by agents of diseases that affect living organisms.
8.L.1.1 Summarize the basic characteristics of viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites relating to the spread, treatment and prevention of disease.
ELA
CCSS: College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing:
- Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
Math
8th Grade:
8.EE.4 Perform operations with numbers expressed in scientific notation, including problems where both decimal and scientific notation are used. Use scientific notation and choose units of appropriate size for measurements of very large or very small quantities (e.g., use millimeters per year for seafloor spreading). Interpret scientific notation that has been generated by technology.
Math 1:
NC.M1.F-IF.6 Calculate and interpret the average rate of change over a specified interval for a function presented numerically, graphically, and/or symbolically.