Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My daughter in 3rd grade is conducting the Cat's Meow Project listed on the ScienceBuddies website. We followed the directions to insert items (bell, catfood, catnip toy) into socks which then are tied to shoelaces attached to sticks as well as making one stick with shoelace only. Maddie, my daughter, then dragged these, each for 3 minutes, alongside our cat Nicky, counting how often he pounced, bit, and hit them. The snag is that Nicky, after the first run, became afraid of the socks. Maddie has conducted the experiment three times, and in the second two Nicky did nothing with the toys within socks. Tonight, in another run, Maddie took the catnip top and bell out of the socks and attached them again to shoelaces on sticks. This time Nicky played with these happily. How could addie deal with this change--taking toys out of socks--in her science fair project? Should we leave this run out or conduct more of them?

Thanks,

Heather and Maddie

Hi heather,

Sorry it has taken a while for someone to respond to you. Maybe some of our experts weren't sure the best way to respond to your question. You have a couple of options:

1) It seems that what you have discovered is that your cat, for some reason, does not like socks! Can you try and remember if there was anything that happened after the 1st trial, when he suddenly stopped playing with the sock? Are you sure he was frightened of them, not just bored? I know that my dog certainly has preferences for some toys over others. Sometimes she'll get excited about a toy for a few minutes, but then she's not interested in it anymore. With some other toys, she's always in the mood to play. Since the whole goal of the project is to determine what kind of toy is the most exciting to the cat (and also why), I think you've done that!

The project idea says to analyze results: "Create a fourth data chart in which you average the results of your three days' worth of data for each toy. Was there one version of the toy that excited your pet the most for all behaviors? Was there one version of the toy that was better for some behaviors, but not others? Were there any versions of the toy that your pet completely ignored?" It sounds like the socks are the ones that are being ignored. You could test to see what happens if the toy does not have catnip or a bell (perhaps a feather?). Maybe your cat likes the sound and/or the smell, or maybe he just gets more excited when he actually sees what is inside the sock? Maybe the sock doesn't move around as much as the toys inside? I don't know, I'd make some observations during the experiment about how the toys move/sound and smell and then come up with a theory of why he likes certain combinations of toys over others.

Often we come across problems with our experiment (I can't remember doing a project where I did not have some kind of problem!). It sounds to me like you guys are doing the experiment correctly, and your cat is showing you his preference. I would just do a few more tests: a toy with a bell and feather (no catnip), catnip with a feather (no bell), and a feather that doesn't smell or make noise. (If you don't have a feather, you could just use the same toy for each experiment).

2) If you have enough time (seeing as how the project is due on the 25th, you may not). Remember that you will need time to write up the results and conclusion. You could try the same experiment with a couple other cats in your neighborhood, and see what happens. Then you would have a larger sampling of data.

Good luck and let us know if you have any more questions!