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Given that this was in open habitat, I'd prefer the ID of lasioides over neogagates. But just looking at the photos, I can't dismiss the idea that they could be a Formica fusca-group ant either. To get a good species ID, someone who really knows these ants well should examine one under the scope. There are zillions of species of Formica and some of them are very, very hard to diagnose.

First, you'll need a dissecting scope, not a compound scope. That is, a relatively low-powered stereomicroscopes of the sort used for dissections an to examine jewels and coins, instead of one of those high-powered things where you mount things on glass slides. I don't know your Bio teacher, but most Bio teachers I know would be very happy to have students bringing in their own stuff to look at.

Second, you'll need something to compare your ants to. Since you probably don't have a pre-identified reference collection, you'll want to make use of www.antweb.org and www.discoverlife.org as those sites have high-quality ant specimens imaged and publically available:

Formica at antweb

Third, you'll need an idea about the potential IDs. Of the 200 or so species of Formica out there, you don't want to spend time looking at species that aren't found in your area. Some resources:

Kye Hedlund's Formica list (note: these data are incomplete- some species do occur in states where they aren't listed, for instance F. lasioides certainly occurs in Ohio, it's just that Hedlund didn't have access to any formal published record. But, you can get a good sense of which species are western and which are eastern).

Midwestern formicine ant list

Finally, you'll need to know which traits are important for identifying each species. Unfortunately, this information is usually buried in the technical literature, which is often not easily available. Some of it is posted on antbase.org.

In the case of F. lasioides and F. neogagates, the key diagnostic difference is in the erect hairs on the antennal scape. F. lasioides has them, F. neogagates does not. Note that both these species don't have a dense matt of appresed hairs on the body and are consequently very shiny. If your ants have lots of appressed hairs, giving the ants a more "silky" appearance, you probably have one of the many F. fusca-group species like F. subsericea or F. argentea.

Hope this helps.