Animal Magnetism

[ALANG]

Alright thanks, I'll let you know as soon as I complete the data collection. It should be done by tomorrow, latest friday.

Another question is, I'm not sure what type of animals I do find on google earth. All I know is that they're grazing animals. So could my title say grazing animals instead of just cows?

-Alang

[donnahardy2]

Hi Alang,

Yes, if you can't tell, you should say grazing animals. Unfortunately, if not all of the animals are cows, this will be an uncontrolled parameter in your project, but there's nothing you can do about it.

Donna

[ALANG]

What exactly is an Uncontrolled Parameter? Will it effect my results somehow?

I completed the data of the 5 pastures without proximity to power lines. My average for all 5 is:13.2716230909 degrees West.

-Alang

[donnahardy2]

Hi Alang,

Excellent! How many grazing animals were in the 5 pastures total?

How many significant digits do you think you should use?

Donna

[ALANG]

Good Afternoon:

There were 41 grazing animals counted in total without proximity to the powerlines. And by significant digits, do you mean how many decimal places? If so, I think 13.27 degrees west is sufficient enough.

-Alang

[donnahardy2]

Hi Alang,

Your protractor is marked in one degree increments. It is probably possible to read 0.5 degree, but for your calculations you should use the significant digit that matches your protractor. So you should probably round to the closest whole number and report 13 degrees. If your electronic protractor is giving results to the closest 0.1 degree, then you could report 13.3 degrees. You can't have more significant digits than the instrument used to measure the angle.

A science experiment should be designed so that there is only one difference between the control group and the experimental groups. The one difference is your independent variable. In your project, the only variable should be the power lines. Ideally, you would want to analyze the same species of animal and the time of day, temperature, altitude, slope of the pasture, and everything else should be identical. This is called controlling all parameters of the experiment.

Obviously, with this project, it is not possible to control all of the parameters. It never is possible when working with living organisms like grazing animals. If your analysis includes cows, horses, buffalos, donkeys, and deer, this could affect your results if there is a difference in the magnetoreception of different animals. It would be best to analyze just one species of grazing animals.

Since Google Earth doesn't allow exact identification of the animals, you will have to include this point in your discussion. It might be helpful to investigate whether or not the pastures you are analyzing are known to be in a cattle raising area so you could say the animals are probably cows.

Donna

[ALANG]

Hello,

While the measuring of the angles, I rounded to the closest whole number. But at the end I got the decimal number after averaging out all the angular values.

I understand what you mean. Would mentioning this to the judges likely defeat the chance of me winning? Because I'm sure that if I do advance, I'll head out to a few dairy farms and conduct real research on one specific large animal. Even if I don't there's a possibility I could continue this research later in the year.

This is really getting in my head now. Hopefully the "grazing animals" in the title doesn't raise any questions on what type of animals they are exactly.

-Alang

[donnahardy2]

Hi Alang,

The science fair judges will be impressed that you understand the principle of controlled parameters and if you are able to discuss what factors could not be completely controlled. They will be interested in your ability to analyze the data. There's always some uncertainty when working with biological systems and they will be aware of this.

You have already thought of a better way to try to select pastures that probably have cows; looking for pastures in dairy farming centers would be a good way to do that. So, in your discussion section, you can explain how you would ensure data was collected from one species of animal, if you were do to the experiment again in the future.

Donna

[ALANG]

Hey,

Sounds good!

I'll try my best to finish the "with power lines" data, and let you know how it goes tonight or tomorrow.

-Thanks

[ALANG]

Hello,

I've collected all my data, but I'm having a hard time averaging them. Let me explain why. Let's say I have 2 grazing animals, one of them is -90°and the other is 90°. When I average them out its 0°. But that really defeats the purpose of the experiment. So what do I do?

-Alang

[donnahardy2]

Hi Alang,

The project guide suggests graphing each data point on the perimeter of a protractor and calculating the percentage of animals that are facing + or - 45 degrees vs the percentage between 45 and 90 degrees. If the grazing animals do not have magneto reception, then you would expect no difference between the two groups.

Try this and see if it helps your data make sense.

Donna

[ALANG]

Oh Alright, Thanks.

So I'll take the average, not minding the direction. Because 57 degrees west and 57 degrees east are still the same angle.

Then I'll find the percentages.

Sounds good! Thanks.

[ALANG]

So I got 33 degrees for Without powerlines and and 36 degrees for with powerlines. Now I'll do the percentages within 45 -45 degrees and 45

[donnahardy2]

Hi Alang,

Excellent, you have some data to analyze. Next, you need to find out if there is a significant difference in the results of the two groups. Please refer to t distribution calculator.

https://onlinecourses.science.psu.edu/s ... m/node/138

The degrees of freedom for your data is the number of grazing animals minus one. You probably know how to calculate the mean value and the standard deviation.. If you have Excel on your computer, you can calculate the mean and standard deviation with Excel, Here are a couple of more websites that help explain how to do the calculations.


http://smallbusiness.chron.com/calculat ... 29214.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-P-Value

There are many other websites if you do a search on p values.

You will need to find out if there is a less than 5% chance that there is a difference between the direction of the control grazing animals and the power line animals. If your value is less than 5%, then your data is significant. If you get a value between 5 and 20 percent, then I recommend getting more data to help confirm or disprove the hypothesis. You can also do the calculation on the control group using the values between 0 the 45 and 45 to 90 degrees.

Please post your data if have questions.


Donna

[ALANG]

How do I find the expected results to input in the chi square?

Also when you stated this: You can also do the calculation on the control group using the values between 0 the 45 and 45 to 90 degrees. Do you mean finding the percentages of the control group of grazing animals between 0 -45 and 45-90?

Also for my data with powerlines, I had 44 grazing animals, and without I had 41. Do I subtract 3 from with powerlines?

I just analyzed the data and 40% of grazing animals with powerlines were between 45-90 and 59% were within 0-45 degrees.

I also analyzed the data of the without and 68% were within 0-45 degrees, and 46% of the grazing animals were between 45-90.

-Alang