Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I'm doing the project "Are we there yet? How Migratory Birds Navigate" ( https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary ) and I'm completely lost as to how to word the project's title or do the hypothesis. The project title should contain the independent or dependent variable but im having a lot of trouble finding out what that is exactly, and how to word the hypothesis. Surely i should be changing the enviroment somehow for it to be dependent, correct? Im asking all this not for a scientist to do the work for me of course but i already tried asking my science teacher and she was lost as well. The science fair in my area is January 23rd 2014 and the project takes roughly 2-5 days to complete so im scared admittedly. (i was never good with "testable" hypothesis' every time i had to do a science air because i just got confused by easy stuff.)
i have a feeling i should just give up trying to grow up to be some sort of biologist :c

Hi Adianis,

Let’s look at this migration project and figure out what a hypothesis could be and what then would be the variables you would have. The idea here is to use data that other scientists have gathered rather than do the experiment yourself which would take rather a long time! So what’s going on here? The sparrows were transported 2200 miles east of their normal home and equipped with tracking devices so their movements could be followed. The question the scientists asked was: Can juvenile birds who had not made their first migration find their way south to their winter home after being displaced several thousand miles from their usual habitat?

The migration of the juveniles was compared to that of adults who had made at least one migration. The statement of the hypothesis could be something like this: Juvenile Gambel’s white-crowned sparrows are able to navigate to their usual wintering site in California or Mexico in spite of being moved 2200 miles east of the place where they breed. What the scientists were trying to discover is whether the birds had just a ‘compass’ that would tell them which direction was south towards their wintering ground or whether they also had an internal ‘map’ so that they could compensate for being geographically moved out of their normal flight path.

One of the independent variables might be the geographical location of the birds when they are released. The adults and juveniles are both 2200 miles east of their normal breeding ground, but they are not released in the same location. They are separated by a couple of miles. This is probably to eliminate the possibility that the juveniles might follow the adult birds, although these sparrows are solitary migrators and normally do not travel in flocks.

Adult birds are being compared to juveniles, so you might say that the segregation of the birds into adults and juveniles is also an independent variable. This segregation is a key part of the experimental question. The dependent variable is their locations as they migrate. Since you are using existing data, there is no way for you to change the hypothesis or the variables. You are acting as one of the scientists on the team analyzing the raw data from the birds’ tracking devices and stating your conclusions with statistical analysis to back up your results.

Here are some of the questions you need to think about from the project’s Background material:
• What are the current theories about how birds navigate? Do all birds appear to use the same method(s)?
• How does radio telemetry work?
• What are some applications of radio telemetry?
• How do you read and use longitude and latitude coordinates?

And here are the things you need to have in order to do the project:
• Computer with Internet access
• Google Earth, a free mapping program available for download from http://earth.google.com
• Lab notebook
• Graph paper

Now all you have to do is follow the instructions in the Procedure part of the project: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure

If you have specific questions, let us know and we will help. This is a great project as it gives you real-world experience with plotting and analyzing data, testing your hypothesis statistically and coming up with a supportable conclusion based on your results. The only thing better would have been if you were out with the team tracking the birds yourself!

Best wishes,

Sybee

What do I use the graph paper for in this project? It doesn't state anywhere in the procedures when to use it. I'm assuming to record the map off google earth?

Analyzing Your Data

Look at the Google Earth map you created. Did the birds in the experiment appear to be flying in the general direction of any of the hypothetical travel lines? Or were the birds completely disoriented and flying in directions not predicted by any of the lines?
To quantify your results, make pie charts or a stacked bar chart showing the percentage of birds traveling along each hypothetical travel line.
You may need to add other categories to your chart if you find that for some birds, none of the three hypothetical travel lines describes their flight path. For example, you may need a category for birds that did not resume migration and instead appeared to stay at the release site.