Posted on 03/23/2006 12:51:56 PM PST by Calpernia
Has anyone's children ever done a Mouse Maze for a science project?
My 10y.o. has a science project due by April 4th. She would like to try to do a Mouse Maze with her gerbil and Egyptian Spiny Mouse to see who can learn it.
I've no idea how much time a rodent needs to learn a maze. I just surfed a few university sites too and it seems they without food and water for about a day or too to encourage the mouse to learn the maze.
Anyone have experience doing this?
We do have a back up project ready in case this isn't doable.
Oh, and remember - A still photo of a mouse in a maze is just that. If you forget to take a picture of something, just STAGE it. Unless you have dated and timed pictures, there is no way to tell if you took it during the experiment or three days later! Just make sure some pictures are not in daylight and some in the dark, or some such...
Check your FReepmail....
:)
One more thing....I love science projects and at 64 still have several in process. The object should include massive amounts of fun resulting from the pure joy of learning. The excitement of discovery is just about as good as it gets.
Have a notebook for every project and keep good notes including the date and time of all actions and events.
Also......FReepers like to hear reports of good grades.
I was just asking a question.
I will deposit your nic to the circulator then.
Appreciate the input and help, bert. Our house is more of a playroom/science lab environment :)
garbage can
My memory from those days was that we were supposed to formulate a hypothesis beforehand, and then do a comparison in the conclusion.
There have been great discoveries from unexpected results from experiments, though -- but I can't think of one offhand.
Ping!
Can anyone offer advice to Calpernia on this science project?
Hi Tired. Thanks for the ping. The Mouse Maze has already been resolved :)
Yeah, I was just reading through the thread now. :-)
Sounds like a fun experiment. Too bad for my kids that I'm not an animal person. I draw the line at goldfish. :-0
Live experiments really get the kids attention.
Rats can learn a Skinner box in a week and a half of training, 2 or three trial runs each day. I can't imagine it'd take mice or gerbils much longer.
But there's not enough time to do this project properly by Apr. 4th.
Go to your backup plan.
We started working on the backup plan today. I ordered the mouse maze anyway so she can do the experiment on her own.
Thanks! :)
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