Science Project - SPCA
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Learn about a science project three 8th graders created and how it has impacted the NH SPCA and beyond!
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Project Description
- This project was submitted for the eCybermission competition.
The problem our team is trying to solve involves helping the dogs at our local animal shelter get adopted. Ultimately we will be helping the shelter find homes for the dogs, but we’re not doing it by putting up flyers or having an add air on the radio. We are getting down to the science of it and using advanced sound recording equipment to help animals in need. We feel that more dogs could be adopted but sometimes their stress level makes them seem like unruly or dangerous dogs, which might cause potential owners not to adopt them.
Our specific research question is: Does playing music affect how active dogs are during the night at the SPCA?
We decided this is an environmental mission because the dogs have an environment. Environment isn’t just limited to earth’s environment; each of our surroundings is an environment. We have a learning environment, a working environment, and much like dogs, a living environment. Our goal is to improve this living environment, so we chose the environmental issue category. Also, dogs are part of our living environment, and if they are calm, they make our living environment calmer.
Our team chose this problem because we all have a deep passion for animals, and have all experienced the joy they bring to our lives. Because we all know how much happiness animals bring to us, we would like to share that feeling with others. Our local shelter does a wonderful job of placing their dogs in great homes, and we would like to help out with this process. We have heard that playing classical music, as well as other sounds can be soothing to dogs and we are interested to see if this is true. If it is, we will help set up our shelter with a soothing sound system, which will hopefully help send the dog’s home faster.
We are also doing this project to experiment with a SoundCache, a unique sound recording device, that we have access to at our school. This poses a great opportunity for us to experiment with technology that is new and different to us.
Follow-up from NHSPCA - March 26, 2010
The link to the TV feature was forwarded to a person (unrelated to our school) who shared it at his work place at Adobe in California. They were so impressed that are collecting ipods and docks that people don't want/need anymore and donating them to their local animal shelters!
Last updated: May 4, 2010
Student created web page. This will be updated as possible by the afterschool technology club.