Joker Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 Dd is in 8th grade and has a science fair coming up she is required to participate in. She is bummed because she loves behavioral science but isn't allowed to do anything that requires humans (or any animal with a vertebrate). She's been scouring the internet but nothing is appealing to her and she has to turn in her topic tomorrow. Any ideas? They are to start working on it immediately but the fair is not until December, so it can be a long experiment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 Not much time, but I can help. Do you have squirrels? She can do a behavioural study as long as she does not affect them in any way. What about birds? You would have to check on the legality of this, but my sister won the Virgina State Science Fair (in 9th grade !) with this behavioural study: Do squirels prefer acorns or do they just eat them because there is nothing else available? She put out other nuts and then counted up the remains every night. She could ask a population question. For my university honor's thesis I asked what affected the number of gulls sitting on a mudflat every day? I looked at wind, rain, temperature, other animals, tide, boats, etc. She could study competition for resources in different bee species. They typically sort the foraging so that they don't overlap in time, space, or flower type. She could study predation by starfish in the rocky intertidal. Or competition for space amongst the other invertebrate species living there. (Don't know where you live). Give me some more hints of what she likes and I am sure I could come up with something..... Ruth in NZ Oh dear, just checked the time and you are probably asleep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.