We are the Social Insect Lab
We are students and researchers at the University of Arizona who use social insect colonies, including ants and bees, to understand complex social systems. Our work helps us understand problem solving in engineered systems, biological networks, and human societies.
We use social insect colonies to understand collective behaviors: what group organization and individual behaviors enable effective problem solving, task allocation, search, and decisions? Understanding how collective patterns emerge from individual behaviors enables us to design better computing, improve human society, and gives insight into broad principles of biology. Photo by Alex Wild
People of any age learn best when they can actively engage with topics, and do their own problem-solving. Thus, we support K-12 teachers who want kids to experience how science works first-hand. Our genuine research projects on insect behavior can be used with any age group and integrate reading, writing, and math (graphs and fractions) as well as AZ science standards.
Science is not about particular topics; it is an approach that enables genuine discoveries and objective insights even against our preconceived notions. In this, it not only shows the beauty and complexity of the world we live in, but also is the only way to solve problems to which the solutions are not immediately intuitive. This is the superpower of the scientific method, and too few people are actually taught how it achieves this.
Teaching kids the power of science!
In the Cricket Project, students and teachers can experience how science works first-hand, by studying questions such as ‘Do crickets have individual personalities?’. We provide local teachers with mentoring, an approach and all the materials needed to design their own science projects.
