A line of ants carrying food may seem like an ordinary sight, but for 13-year-old Seungah Chung, it raised a question that led to an award-winning scientific discovery.
The eighth-grade student from Beverly Vista Middle School in California designed an experiment using 200 red harvester ants and a custom-built maze to find out how the insects navigate back to their nest after finding food. Her findings suggest that the ants don't rely solely on chemical trails—they also use visual landmarks to find their way. The research earned her a place among the finalists in the 2025 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, one of the United States' premier STEM competitions for middle school students.
