my science fair project.

[THECHAMMAN]

ok, look, i know this plan may be a little flawed, but this is what im gonna do for my science project: i will see how the color of a light bulb affects a chameleon mood compared to natural sunlight. it is not to see which is best, but more abut which is worst. and i have been thinking for a month about the possible repercussions and figure they will be very minimal. any thoughts or ideas greatly appreciated. also, i belive this will get me an "A" already adding to my 100 avg in science.

 

[THECHAMMAN]

noone plzz reply if you have any suggestions. all CONSTRUCTIVE criticism appreciated

 

[Marc10edora]

If your worried about hurting your cham, you could try something with feeders instead. Maybe try something with hatching silkworms. Or even an experiment that will determine what types of feeders your cham prefers. Put Silkies in one feeding cup and crickets in the other. Or you can even play with temps a little to see how it effects their feeding habits.

 

[THECHAMMAN]

actually, im not worried about hurting him. iv thought all about that, an there seems to be nothing to worry about. im planning to see how it affects his feeding, activity,and how calm he is.

 

[danielle609]

I'm not saying it sounds like a bad idea, I think you have a fairly good idea started, but unless there is more to the plan than stated I think you still have a lot of work to do. The problem with scientific experiments is you need a control and test subjects. I think it would be very hard to do this experiment on just 1 chameleon, I don't think it is possible to be a test subject and a control in one. So that being said you would need at least 2 chameleons that are as close to being identical as possible (otherwise there is a greater risk of biased interpretation of the data) and in identical habitats and everything needs to be exactly the same minus the lighting. So now that get me to the main question, do you have an actual hypothesis yet? My understanding is that it would go something like this ; When a chameleon is introduced to a color of light, that is different than the norm, there will most likely be changes in attitude, feeding habits, sleep patterns and maybe some unforeseen changes that will be noted. Obviously it has been quite a few years since my last science class, so I know that hypothesis is a tad flawed, as I don't quite remember how to state one...but close enough...you get the drift. If I were you, I would only change one light at a time, and always keep UVB on him. I would just change the color of the heat lamp, but at the same time you want to make sure the ambient temperature of the cage is the same as the control, otherwise you are changing more than just the color of light, and we already know what temperature does to a chameleon. Now that being said, if you only have 1 chameleon...I guess you could probably do a skewed experiment and just base your notes on his "normal" attitude...but then you are still missing the control..which if you ask me is a very important part of any experiment.....but alright, this is getting way too long. But that is just my 2 cents. I think you have a good idea started, but I want to hear the rest of it....all of my post came from me assuming what you have planned...and you know what happens when a person assumes right...?? But OK hope this all goes well, and sorry for the length!

 

[THECHAMMAN]

what im doing is im gonna videotape his actions for a week w/ normal lighting, as a control, then im gonna videotape a week of him with a blue heat lamp, and the same with a few others. im gonna monitor the amount of water, by putting a certain amount of water and monitor some other variables. than i will play back all of the tapes against the 1st week. there are a few things that i didnt mention, but i didnt feel like writing for an hour with a broken arm! i will be as thorough as possible so that i wont get any off findings. ill post the edited tapes and see what you think. hope you like.