Using Open-Source Behavioral Tracking Software to Incorporate Novel Inquiry-Based Activities for Biology Laboratories

With the help of undergraduate students, we piloted the use of ToxTrac, a free open-source behavioral tracking program as a tool to incorporate inexpensive inquiry-based research activities in an undergraduate classroom setting. For this study, we examined potential anti-predator behaviors among house cricket prey in response to chemosensory cues of predatory wolf spiders. Students hypothesized that crickets exposed to these cues would exhibit a greater degree of anti-predator behaviors than those in control settings. Cricket behavior was recorded using a GoPro-style camera and students analyzed their videos using ToxTrac, which provided data on prey mobility rates, average speed (mm/s), and the total distance traveled (mm) between treatments. These data were compared using separate one-way ANOVAs, and the students presented their findings at a campus-wide undergraduate research symposium. While our study focused on predator–prey interactions among arthropods, this tracking software could be used to examine any number of behaviors across a wide range of species. Using a similar research design, students could analyze complex behaviors recorded as part of an in-person or hybrid laboratory exercise specifically tailored for biology undergraduates or upper K–12 grade levels.