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The Wonderful World of Isopods

Teacher’s Guide

by Shannon B. Olsson, CSIP Graduate Teaching Fellow, Cornell University

Objective: Students will utilize inquiry skills to observe isopod behavior and develop and
test hypotheses concerning that behavior.

Subject: Biology/Life Science

Audience: AP or High School (Version One) and Middle School (5th -8th grade) (Version
Two)

Time Required: 1 Full Period

Background

This activity allows students to design and carry out an experiment related to animal
behavior. Originally a rather “cookbook” AP Biology lab (AP Biology Laboratory Manual,
Edition D), it has been modified to incorporate more student driven discovery and learning.
Versions have been created for both high school (and AP) and middle school classrooms.

Pillbugs (also known as sowbugs or roly-polys) and woodlice are types of crustaceans
known as isopods. Related to shrimp and crabs, these crustaceans live on land, mostly in
leaf litter and soil, and use gills for respiration. They feed on decaying material as well as
algae, moss, and bark. Isopods have two eyes, two pairs of antennae, and seven pairs of
legs.

In this activity, students will observe isopods and generate questions about the behaviors
they observe. They will then create hypotheses based on these questions and develop
methods to test them. Following their experiments, the students must interpret their results
and generate conclusions from their experiments.

Learning Objectives

1) Students will observe animal behavior and generate questions based on their
observations.

2) Students will generate relevant hypotheses from their observations.

3) Students will create appropriate testing procedures including variables and controls
to test their hypotheses.

4) Students with perform experiments to test their animal behavior hypotheses.

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5) Students will analyze the results of their experiments and generate appropriate
conclusions about the behaviors they observed.

NYS Science Education Standards Addressed

1) Standard 1: (High School and Middle School): Key Idea 1: The central purpose
of scientific inquiry is to develop explanations of natural phenomena in a
continuing, creative process. Key Idea 2: Beyond the use of reasoning and
consensus, scientific inquiry involves the testing of proposed explanations
involving the use of conventional techniques and procedures and usually requiring
considerable ingenuity. Key Idea 3: The observations made while testing proposed
explanations, when analyzed using conventional and invented methods, provide
new insights into phenomena.
2) Performance Indicator 5.1 (Middle school): Compare the way a variety of living
specimens carry out basic life functions and maintain dynamic equilibrium
3) Key Idea 5 (High School): Organisms maintain a dynamic equilibrium that
sustains life.
4) Performance Indicator 7.1 (Middle School): Describe how living things,
including humans, depend upon the living and nonliving environment for their
survival.

Assessment Strategy

Students can be assessed via the worksheets provided. Their ability to form relevant
hypotheses, create appropriate tests for those hypotheses, and to generate and interpret their
results can all be assessed via the worksheets. In addition, students can be authentically
assessed as they present their results to the rest of the class. Finally, if working in groups,
students could peer review each others’ performance.

Teaching Tips

Obtaining Isopods
Isopods can be found virtually anywhere in the fall, spring or summer where it is dark,
warm and damp. They can be found in gardens under rocks and litter, in compost piles, in
wood piles, and even in some basements. The Shrub-Steppe Ecology Series website
(http://www.pnl.gov/pals/resource_cards/pillbugs.stm) suggests a “potato trap” you can use
to collect isopods:

“To make the potato trap, bore a 3/4-inch hole through the potato lengthwise, then
close up one end of the hole with a small piece of the potato plug. Place the "trap"
in the garden or any other place where sowbugs and pillbugs are abundant. Cover
the trap with leaves, and leave it alone a few days. The pillbugs will come and feed
inside the hole in the potato. To remove them, place the opening over a jar, and
strike the potato to dislodge them. The potato trap is especially useful for collecting
small or young isopods and rare species, too.”
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Maintaining a Lab Colony

Isopods are quite easy to maintain in the classroom. Place them in a small terrarium or an
oblong Tupperware container (1.5 liters+). Add moistened paper towels to the bottom of
the container and various bits of bark and leaf litter for food. Make sure to keep the
environment moist, but avoid standing water or significant condensation or the isopods will
drown. A vented top will allow air flow but will help retain moisture.

Preparing Isopods for Observation

Pillbugs prefer moist, dark areas. They will use taxis to avoid light and kinesis to locate
moisture. Consequently, if you create a large observing chamber (such as a large rectangle
Tupperware dish or deep pan so they can’t crawl out), you can line one half with moist
paper towels and one half without. Make sure to press the paper towel firmly to the bottom
so the isopods will not crawl under the paper. Also, include a couple of leaves/bark on each
side for them to crawl under. For the observation, you need not use all of your isopod
supply, but can transfer 20-30 for observation. The students can gather isopods from both
the observation chamber and the stock container for their experiments.

Students will quickly observe that the isopods prefer to be on the wet side of the container
and under objects. However, you will be surprised at what else they observe. For example,
it is likely that you collected more than one species of pillbug and/or woodlice. They may
note interesting inter/intraspecies behavior between the various organisms.

Allow approximately 5-7 minutes for observation.

Preparing for Experimentation

To assist students in developing their methods, provide several containers for them to use
for experimentation. Make sure to point out these potential resources when the students
begin to plan their experiments. Clear Tupperware, cups, plastic containers, and Petri
dishes all make excellent arenas for experimentation. Another option seen in the AP
Biology Laboratory text is to take two Petri dishes and cut narrow openings in their sides.
When they are taped together these openings provide a passageway for the isopods to travel
from one dish to the other:

Place the Petri dish covers upside down on each dish to prevent the isopods from escaping.
However, encourage students to be creative and utilize the containers as they wish. They
will likely create much more ingenious bioassays than the one above! Also, be sure to
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emphasize the importance of creating humane and ethical experiments that cause as
little harm to these organisms as possible.

During Experimentation
When approving students’ proposed experiments, make sure that they understand their
hypotheses. Ensure that they are testing only one variable at a time and that they are
controlling for other variables as much as possible. Also, make sure that each student has
created an appropriate data table and emphasize the importance of proper experimental
observation and note taking in behavioral experiments. Students should write down
everything they notice – especially if they observe something “weird”. Some of the best
discoveries in animal behavior have occurred while looking for something else!

If students are having trouble focusing on one topic for experimentation, have them work
through their observations carefully and for each observation ask, why did this happen? For
example, if they observe that the isopods were all on the wet side of the container – why do
they think this happened? What do they hypothesize is causing this behavior (i.e. isopods
prefer moist environments)? How can you test this? (Have a container with one side
containing moist towels and one side dry. Put the isopods in the middle between the towels
and observe where they are after one or two minutes or over a series of time intervals.
Remember, you must give the isopods a real choice and thus they need a place in the
middle between the two environments so they can choose. Otherwise, they HAVE to be on
one side or the other.)

Questions for other potential experiments include:

1) Do isopods prefer light or dark environments? (They are photonegative.)
2) Do isopods move faster in moist or dry environments? (Because they use kinesis to
locate humid environments, they should move faster in a dry environment and
slower in a moist)
3) Do isopods prefer a certain type or size of object as shelter?
4) If given a moist/light environment or a dark/dry one, which of the two will they
prefer (i.e. is light or humidity more important to isopods, or does it matter)?

In the pilot lessons, neither middle nor AP biology students had trouble coming up with
projects. The key is to make sure that students think about their observations and choose
the problem that is most interesting for them. Then, make sure they have established proper
methodology to test it.

Data Analysis
Sometimes students’ results may not sufficiently answer their question, but may raise a
whole set of new ones! Ensure students that this is common, and often beneficial to
scientists as they can learn more and more about their organisms. With AP students,
encourage them to classify the observed behavior in one of the categories obtained from the
AP Laboratory Manual. Most likely, they will observe some form of orientation behavior
(taxis away from light or kinesis to humidity). With both levels, encourage students to think
critically about their results and what this means to the life of an isopod. Also, encourage
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them to come up with further tests/modifications they could make to improve or expand
upon their experiments.

References: (For background and worksheet information)

Glase, JC, Zimmerman, MC, and JA Waldvogel. 2000. Animal orientation behavior. In:
Glase JC, Ecklund PR, editors. Investigative biology. Ithaca, NY: BioG 103-104,
Cornell U,; p.207-234. (NOTE: the isopod illustrations are from this source.)
College Board and Educational Testing Service. Laboratory 11: Animal behavior. In:
Advanced placement biology laboratory manual for students, exercises 1-12.
Edition D. College Entrance Examination Board, p.125-135.
Shrub-Steppe Ecology Series. What about pillbugs?
http://www.pnl.gov/pals/resource_cards/pillbugs.stm

This material was developed through the Cornell Science Inquiry Partnership program (http://csip.cornell.edu), with
support from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) program (DGE #
0231913 and # 9979516) and Cornell University. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.