Science is Fun....and it's open to

Everyone!

To be a professional scientist you need degrees, training, affiliation with research at some institute, industry, college, or university, grants to oil your research machine and...perhaps also have a white laboratory coat.

To do science and have fun, you need none of those. You only need to be able to make good observations, be curious, ask questions, then set up situations that will help you get answers to your questions.

For example...

Here are three layer boxes that I have made for my runner ducks, but boxes which can also be used by the yard flock of mixed bantams. Originally I had placed the middle, smaller nest box on the right, in the position where the box with the white tin cover is located in this photo.

Observation: Three runner ducks laid in the small box when it was in the original position on the right. One runner duck lays outside the box. One bantam lays in the box on the left side.

Question: Why would the runners lay in the small box and not in the other larger boxes? Whoops! This is not a question that can be answered by doing science. The question needs to be rephrased so that one factor can be manipulated to help get evidence that will give you an answer. Some better questions might be:

Is the inside volume of the small nest box the main factor in its use?

Does the location of the small nest (right, center, left) determine its use?

The small nest has a cover on the back so it is darker inside than the other nests. Is the darkness the factor that determines its use?

All three nest boxes have one plaster-filled egg which serves as a "lure" for the ducks. Is the egg in the small nest a more effective lure?

These are but four of the many questions that could be asked. Now the fun begins in trying to get an answer to any of them.

Experiment: Why not just shift the position of the boxes, rotate the lure eggs, remove the cover from the back of the small box, and put covers on the backs of the larger boxes. Do it all at one time and be finished. Nope, if that is done the experiment would be confounded. I wouldn't be able to separate one factor from another.

I like to begin with something easy. Last evening I moved the small box to the center position shown in the photo, and this morning the ducks will tell me if it is the location of the box that is important. I'm really testing an hypothesis, the "null" hypothesis that there will be no difference, that the ducks will lay in equally in all three boxes. If the ducks show a preference, I will reject the null hypothesis, accept the alternate hypothesis that there is a difference, then refine my experiments. I can hardly wait for it to get daylight!

But just suppose...

Suppose two ducks laid in the small box and one laid in the larger box to the right. Then the experiment "didn't work out"??? Experiments always "work out", but in this case it simply means that I need to refine my question and make more trials. Doing science is fun, but it can also take a long time and many trials to get an answer that will satisfy you and others as well.

Here's an axiom written by a Cornell graduate student, and printed in "Rules of Thumb":

If you can't repeat your own experiments, you're probably not doing science.

If others can't repeat your experiments, you're probably lying.

Of course, you may not be lying intentionally. You may simply be misinterpreting your data, or at least interpreting it differently from others who have repeated your experiment. Such is the nature of science.

You don't have to be a Nerd to "do science"! Nor will doing science make you a nerd. Go ahead...jump into the swimming pool and paddle about. Doing science is FUN!

A few comments about Science Fair projects...

I frequently see appeals on the listservers for help with science fair projects. The appeals are usually stated as, "I need do do a science project. Do you have any suggestions for a project with chickens?". One recent request was something like, "My daughter wants to do a science project on the effects of music on chickens. Do you know if any research has been done on this subject?"

I've judged science fairs long ago, in what seems like another galaxy far, far away. The beautiful shell and insect collections on display were lovely to behold, represented much work, but simply were not "doing science".

Consider the problem of a project dealing with "the effects of music on chickens." A few basic questions arise about this project:

What effects are going to be studied?

Can chickens hear music?

Can chickens distinguish between music, human speech, and dogs barking?

This project as initially phrased has a number of problems. Wouldn't it be better to do something like this?

Observation: chicks eat

Question: will chicks show a preference among laying mash, chopped lettuce, and live mealworms?

Define preference: Well, that's part of the problem. How about the number of pecks at a particular food in one minute? Think that would work?

Execution: Get a dozen chicks of the same age, set up three identical bowls but have the three different food items in them. Release chicks one at a time and see what happens. Repeat with the positions of the foods rotated.

Interpret data: Here's the hard part. How do you interpret the data. Put on your thinking cap and get to work. Then...draw conclusions, write your paper, and "publish" by building a science fair display.

See how "doing science" works?? Oh?? You want to know the answer to the above problem?

I don't know...I haven't done the research. I only sat here at this computer and made it up in my head as I wrote this page. Go ahead. You do it...get involved in doing science then post your results on one of the poultry listservers, newsgroups, or bulletin boards. You'll have fun.

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The views expressed on this web page are not necessarily the views of Georgia State University, Atlanta GA USA.