Rats - Science Fair

[myboynoah]

My 13-year-old wanted to do an experiment with his rats for the class science fair, so we came up with this:



I made it over one weekend. Kind of fun actually.

Another view:



These are the rats:

This is Belle, the rat that was rewarded at the end of the maze.


This is Daisy, no reward, just the good feeling that comes from helping a 7th grader finish a science project.


Some action shots:






He started out with some cheese as the reward, but that didn't seem to be enough motivation. In fact, the no-reward rat was finding it's way through the maze faster than the reward one. But when we introduced sugared-strawberries, Belle got religion. Her fastest time was 5 seconds, and she averaged about 6-7 seconds the final 7 days. Daisy got bored and averaged about 30 seconds.

A lot of fun. We'll find out if he gets bumped up to the district fair.

RF, you need to build your rats a maze.

[creekster]

My conlcusionis is that he needs to use sugar strawberries as bait. Have you seen rat traps? They are big suckers that can easily break your fingers. I used on to catch a mouse once and it just about cut him in half. My son and I were fascinated but my wife and daughter were disugusted.

[SeattleUte]

You have rats? Yuck. Speaks volumes.

[Soccermom]

How cool. That maze looks great.

I'm glad your son isn't at our science fair My 9 year old just finished his project. Nothing nearly as exciting.

Good luck!

[cowboy]

So when you're done, do you fry them or just toss 'em in the crockpot?

[myboynoah]

You have rats? Yuck. Speaks volumes.

"Eeeeeeeyyyeeeeeeeeeeewwwww, rats! Yuck."

Wow, totally unexpected. Seriously.

[creekster]

Nive handy work, btw. Did you actually round the edges with a router?

Maybe you could introduce some obstacles for the little suckers, like say some razors or somethign for them to crawl through in order to get the coveted strawberries. See how much pain they'll take for a gain.

[myboynoah]

Nive handy work, btw. Did you actually round the edges with a router?

Maybe you could introduce some obstacles for the little suckers, like say some razors or somethign for them to crawl through in order to get the coveted strawberries. See how much pain they'll take for a gain.

Thanks. I used a hand sander to round the edges. I didn't want to give those pinkos over at PETA any excuse to try to break in and let the rats go.

Good suggestions. We'll save those for the district competition.

[SeattleUte]

"Eeeeeeeyyyeeeeeeeeeeewwwww, rats! Yuck."

Wow, totally unexpected. Seriously.

Yikes. Did you catch this one in the alley behind your apartment building? He looks a little wild; love that blackish-gray color.

[YOhio]

Hey mbn, let bn do his own science fair project without you hijacking the whole project. He'll learn a lot more that way.

[myboynoah]

Hey mbn, let bn do his own science fair project without you hijacking the whole project. He'll learn a lot more that way.

omg! lol! So I'm like the overbearing Marinovich dad, taking over his son's life to live out my unfulfilled Science Fair dreams. Classic. Great post YO.

[TripletDaddy]

omg! lol! So I'm like the overbearing Marinovich dad, taking over his son's life to live out my unfulfilled Science Fair dreams. Classic. Great post YO.

smackdown!!!

[PaloAltoCougar]

My kid's project was entitled "Cup of Dirt."

[RobinFinderson]

My kid's project was entitled "Cup of Dirt."

But he did it himself, so I'm sure he learned WAY more than MBN's little one.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Very impressive, MBN.

It's science project week at our house too. My daughter wants to gauge the effect of butter quantities on the softness of cookies. We are going to throw them into a California Bearing Ratio device:



Not as sexy as the rat maze. But the leftovers should be good.