Science Project Ideas

I was wondering if any of you guys knew of a science project i can do with my 2nd grader involving snakes. She has to have a question, hypothesis, purpose, steps and results. I was thinking maybe something along the lines of their husbandry in captivity. But I don't know, any help will be appreciated.

Thanks
Alan

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Originally Posted by grunt_11b

I was wondering if any of you guys knew of a science project i can do with my 2nd grader involving snakes. She has to have a question, hypothesis, purpose, steps and results. I was thinking maybe something along the lines of their husbandry in captivity. But I don't know, any help will be appreciated.

Thanks
Alan

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I think that may be a hard one you have there. I don't know how much experimenting you'd want to do with your snake.

Maybe you could do something with genetics/morphs, but I remember when I did these in school, you actually had to do something, and purchasing a morph for a science project may be a little much.

I've got morphs and normals. I just wanted to know if maybe someone here might have some ideas or maybe had done one before.

Alan

Do a simple 4 square punnett square using examples of one type of resessive gene such as Albino and Normal.

Breed:
Albino to Normal
Albino to Het Albino
Het Albino to Het Albino
Albino to Albino

Show pictures and list percentages of each kind of out come. Also need to explain what a Het is.

What about something simple like feeding in the day vs. feeding at night?

Dont forget this is 2nd grade, lol I didnt learn about genetics until grade 8 biology. Maybe the question can be "Can I keep a snake as a pet?" The hypothesis can be "A snake can be kept as a pet if it is properly cared for."

The pupose of the experiment could be "to develop a proper environment for a captive snake" and the methods could be on how to set up an enclosure and care for the snake. You could dismantel one of your simpler enclosures (a tub or a small tank) then put it together as if you had just bought it. Take pictures of each step putting it together maybe:)

Thanks for the ideas guys. They are all great. Keep'em coming.

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Originally Posted by missi182

Dont forget this is 2nd grade, lol I didnt learn about genetics until grade 8 biology. Maybe the question can be "Can I keep a snake as a pet?" The hypothesis can be "A snake can be kept as a pet if it is properly cared for."

The pupose of the experiment could be "to develop a proper environment for a captive snake" and the methods could be on how to set up an enclosure and care for the snake. You could dismantel one of your simpler enclosures (a tub or a small tank) then put it together as if you had just bought it. Take pictures of each step putting it together maybe:)

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My 2nd grade science project was building your own AM radio transmitter and stuffing it inside of a teddy bear to spy on your kids.

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Originally Posted by Skoalbasher

My 2nd grade science project was building your own AM radio transmitter and stuffing it inside of a teddy bear to spy on your kids.

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:8::rofl::rofl:Lol:rofl::8:

You could do something where you test the hypothesis that a snake will only eat food that is warm enough. You could offer frozen, unfrozen but cold, and warm prey items. You could do an explanation about heat pits and sensing heat.

im not sure about the rules now but when i did my sci fair project, i think it was like can fresh water fish live in salt water n vice versa, i went to a few pet stores and asked and was allowed to use that as factual data. but with the rules now i dunno if they would let u do something like that or even allow an animal to be the subject of a test.... good luck tho the "can i keep snake as pet" topic sounds like a winner

How bout doing one on snakes thermo regulating - why, how they thermo regulate etc. - set up a hot and cold zone switch hot and cold zones - collect data - display results kind of dealy.

Yeah that sounds good tosha. I'm looking for pretty simple she's in the 2nd grade. I appreciate all the repllies guys. Keep'em coming. We're going to start working on the project tomorrow.

Alan

My daughter who is in kindergarden knows all about Dominate, Co-Dominate, and resessive genes in snakes. She also knows that to make a Snow BP you have to breed an Axanthic with an Albino to produce double hets that will look normal. Then breed those double hets back together for a slim chance of actually making a Snow BP.

Granted she is Virtual Home charter schooled and has been out performing the public school second graders on standardized tests. Also Mom having a masters in educational development helps a lot too! :D

I guess kids were dumber where I live and did simpler projects, ha!! At least thats what I remember..lol anyway

Just thought I'd say this is a good idea for a theory project but if for some reason your bp DID eat the cold/partially frozen prey, It could be very dangerous because of the sudden temperature drop within the snake. This is what I have heard at least and it makes sense.

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Originally Posted by clipclopclip

You could do something where you test the hypothesis that a snake will only eat food that is warm enough. You could offer frozen, unfrozen but cold, and warm prey items. You could do an explanation about heat pits and sensing heat.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by clipclopclip

You could do something where you test the hypothesis that a snake will only eat food that is warm enough. You could offer frozen, unfrozen but cold, and warm prey items. You could do an explanation about heat pits and sensing heat.

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What timing... I just helped my son finish his display board on snake senses. He did feeding trials on warm and room temp prey items in the dark to eliminate their sense of site (leaving heat and smell). We didn’t test frozen prey or test if they would strike at a warm object that does not smell like food, but we do that every time we reach in to pick them up.

His hypothesis was does heat help them find and constrict their prey faster than room temp prey(that they would have to sniff out).

Any excuse to take a few snakes to school for the fair... ;-)