The domestication project was about learning how the scientific method can be applied to questions we have about domestication. We dove deep into genes as our background knowledge component of this project. We pieced together what different terms like dominant, recessive, and pedigrees meant in order to get a in depth perspective on what domestication really means. After learning the basics about genes, we dove into our research projects. Everyone in the classes selected a question to form a hypothesis, experiment, and analysis on, and off we went!!!! Outside of school we conducted our experiments, which included student surveys and infield work. After gathering enough data to get to a solid conclusion, we created an infographic that illustrated our findings in a fun exciting way. Diving into my specific project, I studied whether or not breed affected activity levels in dogs. In my experiment I tested my two dogs (a chihuahua and pitbull mix) because these breeds were very different historically and physically. I also used my dogs because they are almost the same age so that variable was canceled out. I took my dogs through multiple trials of three different activities. Walking, Hiking, and playing in a field. I would time each individual dog and the mileage they went in order to formulate my conclusion. I put this data into a graph to compare and my results were very different than my original hypothesis! The chihuahua kept up with the pitbull for the majority of the activities. This does not include hiking because she has shorter legs therefore going uphill constantly puts her at a disadvantage. Some more questions raised after this experiments were:
-When does leg length come into play? -Does the ratio of food to dog weight affect energy level? -What is genetic? What is nurture?------ |