Harmless Science Fair Ideas

[MyOnlyBaby5]

Hey everyone, I am having a science fair and would like to bring in my girly. I, of course, want something harmless and i have heard of testing to she if she perfers a certain color, but I want something that will really 'Wow' the judges. Any and all ideas will help me out alot. Thank you so much everyone!:rabbithop

 

[audrinasmommy88]

you could do a rabbit maze and see how your bunny reacts to motivation. It doesnt have to be huge, just try to put in at least 2 dead ends. Make sure its big enough for your rabbit to hop through comfortably. Show him the food and then put it at the end of the maze and time his progress. Repeat it over a few days but only once a day so your results arent affected by the rabbit being full or tired

 

[Nancy McClelland]

All my experience was with plants--never got into the animal part of the FFA when I was in HS.

 

[ldoerr]

When I was in middle school we had to do a science fair project each year. We were not allowed to use animals in any way. It was a mandatory grade.

You could see if your rabbit prefers a certain kind of pellet (or hay) to another. I think that there is someone doing a similar thing on here where she is training her rabbit to do tricks for a project.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

You could train your rabbit to do something. Maybe try a few different tricks and try training some different ways. You could compare what you rabbit responds to more and what she is motivated by. Most people are amazed when a rabbit does anything, so doing tricks is a bonus. Since some rabbits might be more shy when away from home, take photos and video of your rabbit doing the tricks and her progress. That way you do have some proof that she does the tricks even if she doens't want to do them at the fair.

 

[woahlookitsme]

I really like the maze idea! And the tricks! Those would be my best guess too

 

[missyscove]

Hi and welcome to RO!
What grade is this for? With a sample size of one rabbit I'm having trouble thinking of any sort of experiment that would have statistically valuable results.

 

[Imbrium]

I did some science projects with hamsters as a kid...

the first project was 5th grade... I proved hamsters could learn using a maze and a skinner box.

the skinner box was basically one big room and two little rooms with hammy-operable doors leading into them (my mom and I made it out of plywood and used dollhouse doors). I put something good smelling on top of the T where the inside walls met (so that they couldn't use their sense of smell to figure out which door was the correct one) and taped a little paper circle to one door and a paper triangle to the other. the circle door was the correct one because I figured circles looked more like seeds

at first, the door on the right was always the circle door and the one where they got a treat as soon as they went through it. once they always beelined for that door when placed in the box, I started switching the shapes between each run (I did 10 tries per hammy per night), so the circle would be on the right door, then the left, then the right, etc. once they mastered that, I started placing the shapes totally at random so there was no pattern for them to follow and they HAD to decide based on shape.

in 7th grade, I did another experiment using hamsters and the skinner box - this time to see if they could see colors. I only had time to test one color, so I picked the one most likely to be visible if they only had partial color vision - blue. I used a piece of blue construction paper to make the colored circle, then my mom xeroxed it in a bunch of different shades of gray. we used a light meter to figure out which shade of gray matched the blue exactly so that they couldn't tell the difference because of one being brighter than the other.

I ran the tests the same as the first time - starting always on the right, then alternating, then no pattern; doing 10 tests per hammy per day.

the results were that all but one hamster aced the tests by the end and therefore, could see blue. the one that couldn't see blue and failed miserably, only getting a treat when it got lucky, was an albino (which was expected to be fully color-blind)... I'm glad I happened to have an albino baby at the time (I bred hamsters for myself), since that ended up working well as a control to verify that a color-blind hamster wouldn't be able to tell the two circles apart.

 

[MyOnlyBaby5]

Thank you this is a nice idea that i have not seen yet. I'll take it into consideration

 

[MyOnlyBaby5]

missyscove wrote:

Hi and welcome to RO!
What grade is this for? With a sample size of one rabbit I'm having trouble thinking of any sort of experiment that would have statistically valuable results.

Hi! And thanks for the warm welcome. I am doing a project for an 8th grade science fair. My rabbit is a silver fox/dutch mix and shes about 5 lbs. Also, if you need the info, shes 2 1/2 years old.

 

[ldoerr]

Jennifer that is such a cool idea!!!!!! How many hamsters did you have at the time of each experiment and how many days did you run the experiment with them for?

 

[Imbrium]

I don't remember the details, 'cause I was 10 and 12 at the time, lol. I wanna say maybe 12-15ish hamsters? they had their own (tiny) room, hehe - this storage room adjacent to our laundry room that was my craft room/hammy room. LOTS of shelves full of cages and most of my allowance went to buying them toys and cages and stuff.

experiments went for as long as it took for the majority to have the current stage mastered, I guess, then I'd up the challenge factor and go again. maybe 3-4 weeks total?

 

[fuzz16]

what about how certain foods affect poop size! lol or how the poop works as fertilizer. planter with bun poop. planter with natural dirt. and planter with dirt and fertilizer

 

[Imbrium]

best part about the planter idea is that if you pick the right plants, your bunny can eat your project after the science fair

 

[ldoerr]

I think that I did the planter idea in high school for an ag project. I SOOOO screwed it up though. I did not want to touch poop so I placed the planted under the hutch. Neadless to say that the plants were killed by suffocation from being berried under mountains of poop. I think that the cage that I put in under had a mom and her litter of 5 babies. They were on wire floor. At that time the cages were on out back deck and we did not have pans for the cages. When the rabbits used the bathroom it went onto our deck. Every couple of months we would use shovels and push the poop off the side of the deck. To be fair, I was a freshman and had only had rabbits a couple of months and did not know anything about them.

 

[Reese_loves_her_bun]

Hey everyone, I am having a science fair and would like to bring in my girly. I, of course, want something harmless and i have heard of testing to she if she perfers a certain color, but I want something that will really 'Wow' the judges. Any and all ideas will help me out alot. Thank you so much everyone!:rabbithop

Color Test
Testing a rabbit's ability to differentiate among colors may be a useful science project. Find two food bowls or containers that are exactly the same size and shape, yet are distinctly different colors. For several feedings in a row, put the rabbit's food in the same bowl every time and cover both bowls tightly with plastic wrap to ensure that the rabbit's sense of smell is not a factor in the project. If the rabbit learns to come to the proper food bowl every time, begin putting the food in the other bowl and track the rabbit's behavior. Ideally, the animal will learn to recognize where its food is by the color of the bowl. If no distinct patterns develop during this science project, you have determined that the rabbit has not learned how colors relate to food