The School of Life Sciences' pioneering online research course, “Behavioral and Molecular Analysis of Honey Bees,” engages students in hands-on scientific exploration from anywhere in the world. The course isn’t just about watching bees - professors Hong Lei and Cahit Ozturk co-instruct the course and provide a unique opportunity for students to conduct real-world research through live, 4k-capable web camera feeds of beehives. Students in the course design and conduct original research projects on bee behaviors, analyzing data on temperature, humidity and hive activity to understand how environmental factors impact bee behavior.

In just seven weeks, students complete a cycle based on observations of bees in an “observation hive” — a unique hive with glass walls that allows viewers to watch bees as they perform daily activities, from the famous waggle dance to foraging and hive maintenance. This includes observation, data collection, and analysis. At the end of the course, they present their findings in a manuscript format, some even posting their work on Open Science Framework for public access. For students, this course doesn’t just end with a grade — it leaves them with a lasting piece of scientific work.

This virtual lab experience offers students the opportunity to collect and analyze real data. Marilyn Roberts, a senior majoring in biological sciences with a concentration in ecology and conservation, described the course as pivotal in helping her develop essential research skills. “I expected it to be more like virtual biology labs, where everything is simulated,” she said. “But it wasn’t like that at all. I came up with my own questions, collected my own data and ran analyses through software. I genuinely felt like I was doing research, just as I would in person.”

Roberts’ project explored the activity levels of forager bees during the winter to determine if they store extra honey in preparation for the harsh Arizona summers. “I monitored the forager bees returning to the hive over a period of days, sometimes using specialized software to count them, and analyzed the data alongside temperature readings,” Roberts said. “Though I couldn’t prove my hypothesis definitively, I found enough interesting trends to suggest there’s more to investigate.” 

Her newfound confidence in research even inspired her to present her findings at ASU’s undergraduate symposium, where she earned an honorable mention. “Research was always intimidating to me, but this course gave me so much confidence,” Roberts shared.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to see how engaged the students are,” said Lei. “They get to experience the entire research process — from question formulation to manuscript writing. Some of our students, like Mariana Bustamonte, have even used this course to strengthen their applications to graduate programs.”

Mariana Bustamante took the course while living in Belgium. “I didn’t know I could be a researcher until I joined this class,” Bustamante explained. “I never knew that was an option for my life, and it opened a bunch of new doors for my future.” Her research focused on “undertaker” bees, a subset of honey bees responsible for removing dead or diseased bees from the hive. She observed how temperature fluctuations impacted their efficiency and noticed that colder temperatures led to higher rates of “mistakes,” as undertaker bees occasionally left deceased bees in the hive. “This sparked my interest in how temperature might affect cognitive abilities in insects,” Bustamante said.

Students’ research experiences are made possible by the seamless support Lei provides in response to their requests. “If I emailed Dr. Lei about needing a camera movement or a temperature change, by the next day, the adjustments were made,” Bustamante noted. Roberts echoed this, mentioning the flexibility in camera setups that allowed her to track her bees’ movements efficiently.

The course has been a huge success, quickly reaching maximum enrollment each term and recently expanding to include graduate students. Ozturk, who works on ASU’s Polytechnic campus has worked with bees for over 30 years. He ensures that the hive environment is optimal for observation. “We make sure everything is ready for students to collect data remotely,” he said, emphasizing the dedication behind the scenes that makes this virtual research possible. “We open the hives, check on their health and ensure everything is ready for students to collect data remotely.”

Reflecting on the experience, Roberts shared her appreciation for the unique opportunity ASU provides to online students: “ASU’s undergraduate research program is phenomenal, and having these opportunities available to online students is invaluable. I can’t imagine having this experience anywhere else.”

Lei and Ozturk are now looking forward to their next cohort, which will include graduate students as well. “Research opportunities have traditionally been limited to students physically on campus, but with the growing demand for online education, we wanted to offer online students authentic, original research experiences,” Lei said, “This has been truly a great team effort, with generous support from Kevin Tinnin and David Roman who volunteered to design and implement the network architecture, the OURS program from The College, TLC and SOLUR from SOLS and Shawn Mahoney as TA.”

“We’re excited to see how much further we can push this project,” Ozturk added. “It’s inspiring to think about the doors this could open for online students who want a real taste of scientific research.”

In July, SOLS professors Ted Pavlic and Jessie Ebie brought two PhD students and one undergraduate student with them on a field work trip to Townsville, Queensland, Australia. While on the trip, they observed and collected weaver ants to bring back to their labs in Tempe.

The weaver ant colonies that were collected and brought back to their labs in Tempe will be used to further their research in cooperative behavior and communication & reproductive regulation within the colonies. 

Cooperative behavior concepts can be used in engineering

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Pavlic, whose research focuses on the cooperative behavior of ants, was particularly intrigued by how weaver ants manage to transport large objects in teams, despite the challenges posed by their spatially separated sub-nests. His work investigates the decision-making processes involved when ants from different subunits come together to move food items. This cooperative transport not only involves horizontal movement but also the vertical challenge of carrying objects up trees. Pavlic, who is jointly appointed in ASU’s School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, does research that extends beyond biological curiosity, seeking to apply these natural mechanisms to engineering and robotics.

“The weaver ants’ ability to carry objects up trees and resolve decision points in decentralized ways offers insights into broader natural problem-solving mechanisms,” Pavlic explained. His work aims to understand how these trade-offs in nature can inform the design of more effective robotic systems.

Anoushka Dasgupta, a PhD student in Pavlic’s lab studying animal behavior and fascinated by cooperative transport, was captivated by the weaver ants’ ability to coordinate their efforts in both horizontal and vertical movements. Her research focuses on how these ants make decision-making regarding food transport and how they interact with it.

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“An incredible amount of strength is required for these tiny ants to carry these things that are huge compared to them, like crickets and mealworms” Dasgupta noted. The trip allowed her to see firsthand the contrasts between the desert ants of Arizona and the Australian weaver ants, deepening her understanding of how these species manage cooperative transport under different environmental conditions.

“I was able to observe the ants in their natural setting, which was incredibly beneficial for understanding their behavior in the wild,” she explained. “It’s one thing to study them in the lab, but seeing them in action outdoors provided a whole new perspective.”

Decoding communication and reproductive regulation

Ebie's research centers on the communication and reproductive regulation within weaver ant colonies. These colonies, which can span up to a dozen trees, rely on complex chemical signals to coordinate their activities. Her work seeks to identify the compounds responsible for signaling the presence of the queen, who resides at a central location within this sprawling network of nests.

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“Our goal is to pinpoint the exact chemical signals used by the queen to regulate worker reproduction,” Ebie says. This research not only enhances our understanding of ant behavior but also has practical applications, such as developing synthetic attractants to temporarily lure ants away from fruit trees during picking season and then back into the trees to ward off pests during growing season, benefiting local farmers.

Ariel Aslan, an undergraduate student double majoring in ecology and conservation biology and data science, was fascinated by the reproductive communication within weaver ant colonies. Her observations highlighted the unique ways ants build their nests using silk produced by their larvae and their aggressive territorial behaviors.

“I was amazed by how the ants use their larvae as natural glue guns to weave nests and how they defend their territory with such intensity,” Aslan remarks. Her experiences in the field, including the challenges of working closely with these ants, provided a deep appreciation for the complexities of their social structure.

Aslan found the process of collecting queen nests both exhilarating. “Seeing the ants react to the queen pod was like a treasure hunt. For me, seeing this gave me a rush of excitement because I knew I was about to find the queen. ”

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Beth Ponn, a PhD candidate in the Animal Behavior program in the Ebie and Liebig labs, focuses on how the queen’s signal is transmitted across vast areas of the colony. Her research aims to identify the specific signals that communicate the queen’s presence and maintain colony cohesion.

“The concept of ants acting as a single organism is intriguing,” Ponn says. “Studying how they manage to coordinate and maintain their collective functioning over large distances offers insights into their social dynamics.”

Ponn’s research will also emphasize the importance of understanding how these signals are communicated and maintained across the colony. 

An immersive experience

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Reflecting on the trip, Pavlic emphasized the importance of fieldwork in education. “When a student goes out and is in the field and starts seeing the ants do things on their own that they didn’t make them do and start asking their own questions, you can see them get a new grounding in why it’s significant,” he says, and Ebie agrees, “It allows students to put those questions in context. They can see what you’ve been explaining and actually see and discover those nuances. It’s an opportunity to see the things we’re talking about in the classroom in real life and these interactions between different organisms. It’s invaluable in education.”

For Aslan, she says that working alongside other academics has shown her what that path can look like when she graduates. “I’m only a sophomore right now, but I think I would like to get my PhD. That’s been my idea for a long time because I want to develop my own questions, continue to learn and make contributions to the scientific field. As a student, this trip was a dream.”