Eighth-grader Seungah Chung Shows Ants Use Visual Cues to Find Food

Curiosity about ant trails led Seungah Chung, an eighth-grader at Beverly Vista Middle School in California, to construct a controlled experiment using 200 red harvester ants. She arranged a T-shaped maze with a small tangerine piece as bait and added artificial landmarks—fake leaves, sea rocks and colorful blocks—along the path. The ants were trained to locate the food, then Chung rearranged the landmarks while leaving the food in place.

The majority of ants became disoriented and chose incorrect directions, demonstrating that visual cues guide their navigation. The Society for Science reported that her work supports the idea that ants use landmarks, not just pheromone trails. The project secured her a place among the finalists of the 2025 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, highlighting the potential of student-led research to inform robotics and autonomous systems. Outside school, Chung volunteers with Ariari21 and aspires to become a microbiologist.