Duncan Colquhoun 4.19.10
Chemistry Current Event
ACROBATIC ANTS
There are ten thousand to fourteen thousand ant species in the world. How many do you think are capable of leaping, jumping, or hopping or can produce a fatal bight? The answer is three. There are only three species of ants that are capable of getting into the air by jumping. One of which is the Jack jumper ant, which is native to Australia and jumps when agitated. It has highly toxic venom, which allows it to prey on insects as large as wasps. Another acrobatic ant is the Jerdon’s Jumping Ant. This ant uses jumping as a normal way of transportation. European and Indian researchers used a high speed camera and watched the ants jump. It can accomplish a 12 to 18 inch leap by synchronizing its middle and hind legs. The third and final ant is the Trap-Jaw ant. It uses its overdeveloped jaw to propel itself into the air sometimes at 145 miles per hour. This powerful leap allows the ant to strike prey with a force equivalent to 300 times its own body weight the researchers said.
Duncan did a great job, presenting this very interesting article. Specifically, his writing style keeps the reader interested by getting right to the point and highlighting the important facts. He also did a great job talking about the rare abilities of these special aunts. Finally, Duncan’s catchy first sentence will make any reader interested.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Duncan did a great job with this article, he could have improved it by maybe including a little bit more detail about the normal or regular species of aunts and the extent of their abilities. I feel this would have given the reader something to compare these special aunts too. Also it would have been interesting if Duncan discussed how this knowledge would affect society.
Before reading this article I had no idea that there were so any different kinds of species of aunts. It amazes me at how vast and intricate our animal kingdom really is.
Duncan did an excellent job reviewing this article, especially when it comes to detail. He meticulously described the ant, where it lives, etc. Also, Duncan did a very nice job picking a non-mainstream topic, and keeping the reader engaged while discussing this topic.
ReplyDeleteThere are, however, some things Duncan could have done differently. The first involves sentence structure and grammar. I think he should’ve broken his review up into paragraphs so it looks more organized. Also, many of his sentences are one-clause sentences, so maybe he could try adding more flow and zest to his review.
One thing that I learned from this article was the versatility of ants’ abilities. The amount these particular ants can do is completely extraordinary.
I liked Duncan's review and thought he did a very good job writing it. One thing I liked about it was that he showed me how many different kinds of ants there are in the world. I knew there were a lot but not 14,000. I was also surprised by there being three kinds of ants that can jump. Duncan's article was very captive and caught my attention. One thing Duncan should have done would be to make his article a little bit longer. It was very interesting but it didn't have as much facts and details that I would've hoped. But I did learn from Duncan's article about all the different kinds of animals in our world and how just one group can contain up to 14,000 species.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting article review and Duncan did well presenting it. It was very interesting because not a lot of people write article reviews about ants. Also, the way it was written kept the reader engaged. Lastly, Duncan's use of easy to understand terms helped to keep the reader on track.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that Duncan should keep in mind for next time is the fact that he didn't include why the article is important to society. Also, it was a little short length-wise.
I thought that this article was really interesting overall. It really changed my perspective of this particular topic.
I believe that this article; "Acrobatic Ants" was very enjoyable to read. There was alot of detail provided about these ants. This also was enjoyable because normally someone wouldnt choose to review an article on such small creatures.
ReplyDeleteThough this article was good, it was slightly short and some more information could've been provided. Also he could've compared these amazing ants,to regular ants so we know how spectacular these ants truley are.
I enjoyed this article because it gave us all these interesting facts about ants, normally i would not be so curious as to what tricks an ant could do, but this article made me want to read more about these particular spieces.
I think Duncan did an excellent job review his article. It was clear, concise, and straight to the point which is always good. Also, it is a very unusual topic, so it immediately catches a reader’s attention, and he is able to keep it throughout the review.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Duncan could have broken down the review into paragraphs to make it easier to read and comprehend. Also he could have added more details about regular ants compared to these special species.
Overall, Duncan did a great job reviewing this, and before reading it I had never known that any ants could jump, or produce fatal bites.
I liked Duncan's review.It was very informative and factual. I liked the fact that he chose an article that people would not know much about. His review was very straight forward witch I also enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteDuncan could have made this article better by writing more about how it will affect people. He also should have separated the review into more paragraphs.
I did not know anything about ants before I read this article.
James Faville 4/20/10
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading Duncan’s review of the article “Acrobatic Ants.”: I liked how he caught the reader’s attention at the beginning of his review by talking about the number of ant species (ten to fourteen thousand) and the strange abilities of three of them. I also liked how he used quantitative facts, such as the size of the leaps, the speed of the Trap-Jaw leaping into the air, and that the Trap-Jaw can strike prey with forces 300 times its body weight. These facts added detail and interest to his review.
However, Duncan simply summarized the article, and didn’t discuss how this can affect society and his personal opinion of the article. This would make his review much more interesting, as it isn’t even a review in its current state, just a summary. Also, Duncan’s sentances seemed a little short, and the review might have benefited from some of those sentances being merged together to make the sentences flow better.
I enjoyed reading about these unique ant species, which show how many different ways a species can turn out. Evolution is a still very mysterious process, even one and a half centuries after Darwin first discussed it. Even creatures like ants, who often will appear fairly similar to us, come in tens of thousands of variations, some of which happen to be able to “leap, jump, hop, and produce a fatal blight.”
Duncan did a good job in reviewing this article. I liked Duncan’s writing style and the way that he wrote about the ants. Duncan also did a good job describing all of the ants and their special abilities.
ReplyDeleteI think that Duncan could have improved his review by comparing the ants more to regular ants and describing regular ants a bit more. He also could have included why this article is important to society.
From reading this article I learned that ants could jump, which I never knew before. I also learned that there were a lot of different species of ants that are apparently very diverse.