By Arturo Gonzalez, Kane Shahabi, Oscar Calderon, and Mary Rodriguez, teachers, 28th Street School

Group Study Focus: Pigeons makes decisions to optimize food intake

Question: What decisions will a flock of pigeons make when confronted with food of different sizes.

Hypothesis: Pigeons will divide themselves between piles evenly in order to eat the same amount of food.

Experimental Design:

Independent Variable: The amount of food that is offered to the pigeons.

Dependent Variable: The number of pigeons visiting the food.

Confounding Variables: Amount of food in the area (students in cafeteria might be eating) /location of food (near classrooms or playground/time of day

Materials:

Pigeon food; binoculars; datasheet; clipboards for recording data; timing device; video camera

Procedures:

1. Measure the amount of pigeon food.

2. Place piles of food 15 feet apart.

3. Observe from close-up, but far enough away as to not to disturb pigeons.

4. After pigeons eat, make a change to eliminate any bias that the position might have had on the experiment.

   
   

Data Generation: Sample size: 1 cup of food for the small pole. 2 cups of food for the large pile.

Unit of measurement: Number of pigeons at eat pile of food (two minutes intervals)