Need help with my kid's Science Project

[anatess]

REPOST due to crash... I lost all the responses I got from this yesterday!



So, my son is in 4th grade and he came up with this crazy idea for his science experiment that I thought was cool. But - he is asking me how to set up the experiment and I have no idea how to execute it successfully.

So, here is the experiment he wants to do:

Question: Do Ball Pythons have memory?
(I googled the question and I can't find a definitive answer... hah! So, this should be interesting)

So, this is what my son came up with - He has this book that shows a mouse getting the cheese through a maze and how the mouse remembers how to solve the maze everytime...

So now he wants to build that standard maze they used for the rat for our ball pythons and see if the ball python can remember how to solve it.

So, what I've come up with so far is to somehow give the snake a strong impetus to move from point A to point B through the maze and then time how fast he can get to point B. Then do it again 14 more times to see if his error rate improves. (Going to a blind alley counts as an error).

Then, we'll have our 2nd ball python do the same maze but have him do the maze with a 15 minute interval between each trial.

Then we'll have our 3rd ball python do the same maze but have him do the maze every hour.

Note the error rate and the speed of solving the maze and come up with a conclusion.

So, my dilemma is what impetus to use to get the snake to move from point A to point B consistently (controlled variable). It can't be food - my snakes only eat once a week.

I tested this out with my kid last night where we put the snake in an empty tank in the middle of the living room with the TV blaring and put a hole on the corner of the lid and sure enough, the snake went looking for the way out.

So, I guess stress can be an impetus. I can live with putting the snake in stress mode for the sake of science.

What do you guys think? Think this will work?

My kid really wants to do the snake thing. I suggested to borrow his cousin's bearded dragon instead and lure him to point B with a dragon pellet. He didn't like the idea...

[anatess]

Okay, just to update everybody on this...

We had to abandon the project mid-way. It was going okay for the first experiment - putting the snake on a T-maze with the left T having the opening. Once the snake found the opening, he went for it without fail - zero error!

Unfortunately, by the 6th trial, the stress factor just got to the snake and when my son tried to pick her up to put her in for the 7th trial, he got bit. It didn't draw blood - my son has gotten to be an expert bite-avoider, but I told him to abandon the experiment at that point.

We didn't really prove much - at least we had indications that the snake has the capacity for short-term memory, we just haven't been able to prove it scientifically.

So, we went with his back-up plan - testing for the effect of center of mass on a pinewood derby race car.

[kc261]

Too bad you weren't able to successfully conduct the experiment.

A similar experiment was done on corn snakes in in a "real" scientific experiment. If your son is interested in reading about it, here is a link to an article about it:
http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=1514

For your son's future scientific endeavors, you might want to look closely into the requirements at his school. Most school sponsored science projects (at least in my experience) require special permission to work with live animals, so I'm a little surprised that does not seem to be the case here. It is usually just an extra form, with the idea to be sure that there is no cruelty going on. In my experience, it is WELL worth the extra work to get the kid working on something that REALLY interests them, but some teachers will discourage it.

[anatess]

Too bad you weren't able to successfully conduct the experiment.

A similar experiment was done on corn snakes in in a "real" scientific experiment. If your son is interested in reading about it, here is a link to an article about it:
http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=1514

For your son's future scientific endeavors, you might want to look closely into the requirements at his school. Most school sponsored science projects (at least in my experience) require special permission to work with live animals, so I'm a little surprised that does not seem to be the case here. It is usually just an extra form, with the idea to be sure that there is no cruelty going on. In my experience, it is WELL worth the extra work to get the kid working on something that REALLY interests them, but some teachers will discourage it.

Thanks for that article!

Yes, the school had no problem with it. No extra form even. We did show them my son's reptile and amphibian pin and certificate from cub scouts. My son does the reptile show and tell yearly at the school, so maybe that's why they didn't think to scrutinize the project.