Work Log

o Goal: What is your goal for this class period?

o Reflection: What did you learn? How will impact your next steps? What is your next step? Did you complete your goal?
o Sources: All sources should be documented on the work log

Date : March, 31, 2017

Goal : To do a research on the differences ways of learning in human and brainstorm the methods of
learning in animal

Reflect : Human and animal have difference ways of learning. For the human, we can separate the
learning methods into three main categories including visual, aural, and physical. However,
animal learning methods are separate into seven types including habituation, sensitisation,
classical conditioning, observational learning, play, insight Learning, and operant conditioning.
This information will help us to determine the question that will be used in our experiment. Our
next step is to make a question by using the information we have learnt. I have completed my
goal to do research on ways of learning in human and animal.

Sources : http://www.edudemic.com/styles-of-learning/\
http://www.ck12.org/biology/Learned-Behavior-of-Animals/lesson/Learned-Behavior-in-Ani-
mals-Advanced-BIO-ADV/

Date : April, 10, 2017

Goal : To create a research question and find more information to support the research

Reflect : After we do a research about the eating habit of a hamster, we found out that hamsters are
omnivorous which mean they eat both meat and vegetable. They should have a balanced diet
with a specific of 16 % protein and 5% fat. Our research question is Which hamsters will be
able to run through a maze faster, the one whose fed with a vegetable or the one that fed with
meat. The next step is to learn more about the type of meat and vegetable and the restriction
about the food, plus the amount and time of feeding. I have completed my goal to make a
research question.

Sources : http://www.livescience.com/27169-hamsters.html
http://thehamsterhouse.com/hamster-food/what-do-hamsters-eat/

Date : April, 18, 2017

Goal : To edit the research question that has a control variable and find the basic food of hamster

Reflect : The research question is Which hamsters will be able to run through a maze faster, with one
hamster fed raw vegetables and the other a regular hamster diet? The control group is the
one that fed with normal food pellet. And the experimental group is fed by the raw vegetable.
For the fresh vegetable, we will give them the raw carrot, corn, sunflower seeds, grains, and
peas. While the experimental group will be given Hamster and Gerbil Food and will have
additional food include egg, milk, and meat. The control variable is water. The next step is to
create the hypothesis and decide the materials and methods for the experiment. Today, I have
completed my goal to create the research question and find the food lists for the hamster.

Sources : https://www.oxbowvetconnect.com/products/type/detail?object=1591
http://hamsterific.com/hamster-illness-and-injury-guide/hamster-diet-and-nutrition/
http://thehamsterhouse.com/hamster-food/what-do-hamsters-eat/
Date : April, 24, 2017

Goal : To list all additional materials needed for hamster and design who will adopt the hamster

Reflect : Apart from the normal living thing that is required for the hamster, we will need the extra food
for our experimental hamster. This food includes carrot, corn, sunflower seeds, grains, peas.
And for the regular diet food, we require Oxbow brand since we do a research and find that
this brand reaches the requirement of hamsters diet. We will use two male hamsters, and one
of our group members will adopt one of the hamsters. The next step is to outlining the
proposal. I have completed my goal to list all the materials needed and inform it to school.

Sources : No source since we already find the food listed for the experimental group and the normal
diet.

Date : April, 25, 2017

Goal : To answer the question that the teacher provide on the introduction

Reflect : The question covers 1. The central research question which was what we had done before.
The question is Which hamsters will be able to run through a maze faster, with one hamster
fed raw vegetables and the other a regular hamster diet? 2. The topic of study related to that
question. The answer is the behaviour of mammals and the classical conditioning which is the
association between food and the maze or us(the feeder). 3. Why this is important research.
The answer is that it helps us to determine whether a hamster fed with normal food can learn
faster than the hamsters fed the special diet that we will give them. I was not able to complete
the goal since the answer were not thoroughly answered and it wasnt put into the paragraph.
The next step is to finish the answering part and put it in the correct order.

Sources : The slide from the teacher (Information from what I have learnt in class)

Date : April, 28, 2017

Goal : Arrange the topic in outlining the proposal between the group members.
Research about the literature review for methodology and paraphrase the information
Complete the draft version of the proposal.

Reflect : Everybody in a group has their own topic to work on. I was assigned to do the literature review
for methodology. I found the experiment from the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal
Behavior Processes. They tested on a rats ability to run a maze in different condition which
include free choice, rebait, and odor. The maze they use was the radial arm maze, which has
a centre platform with eight arm. The conclusion is the rat tend to not chosen the same arm
and usually respond clockwise to the arm it just chosen. After finishing this part, I have
created the methodology for my group experiment by follow some of the teethed that has
been learn from the literature review. The differences is that we focussed on comparing the
ability of 2 hamster by giving them the difference food. Plus, the design of the maze has been
change by make a slight bend on each end of the arm so that the maze cant see the food.
Ihv completed my part of writing the literature review for methodology. However, the other
part of the proposal were finished. I and my group designed to finished the literature review I
and II the next time we met which is tomorrow. Therefor, the next step is to complete the
proposal outline.

Sources : http://www.ratbehavior.org/RatsAndMazes.htm
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2ac2/5df2b999fddadf0e78be761a9756b427134a.pdf
Date : April, 29-30, 2017

Goal : Find the sources for literature review I and II then write it

Reflect : The first experiment is about the effect of omega-3 on cognition in hypothyroid adult male rats.
There are three groups for experiment include control group will receive normal diet, the
Hypothyroid group will receive a carbimazole (an antithyroid drug), and omega three treated
group will receive both carbimazole and omega 3. The result shows that the control group
noticed the least error. The second experiment forces on the influence of omega-3 fatty acid
status on the way rats adapt to chronic restraint stress. The result also comes out that the
control group spent the least time in the open arm maze. From these research, we designed
to change our research question to Which hamsters will be able to run through a maze faster,
with one hamster fed a high omega3 food and the other a normal hamster diet? I am able to
complete my goal to finished the literature review and redesigned the research question. The
next step is to finish the research question and send the proposal outline.

Sources : http://akademiai.com/doi/pdf/10.1556/APhysiol.101.2014.3.11
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3408452/

Date : May, 5, 2017

Goal : Edit the proposal : Methodology

Reflect : After I had got the feedback to add some detail about classical conditioning procedure at the
beginning of the experiment, I did a few research. I found that in order to teach a hamster to
run a maze, we have a build a good relationship with them. We must play with them often so
that the hamster didn't scare when you picked it up. I decided to placed the hamsters food on
my hand and put the hand in the cage. Then the hamster will notice the food and then run to
eat the food from hand. By doing this, the hamster will learn that anytime the hand was placed
in the cage, and it will be their feeding time.Before picking it straight up, making sure that it
dont frighten. By doing so, just nudge it gently with a finger before pick it up. I was able to
finalise the methodology the next step is to rewrite the literature review.

Sources : http://www.catexpert.co.uk/other-animals/hamsters/training-your-hamster/

Date : May, 8, 2017

Goal : Revise the Literature review

Reflect : After recognising that the literature review has to have all of the 5 Cs including cite, compare,
contrast, criticism, and connect, I have read through the lit review and add criticism to my
work. The cons about Influence of Omega-3 Fatty Acid Status on the Way Rats Adapt to
Chronic Restraint Stress are the time required to do the experiment is long because it is
testing on the first generation of male rats that born from a female that has to eat an assigned
food for two weeks before mating. And those male offspring will be used in the experiment for
at least six months. To test the behaviour of the rats, it requires a motor which is the object
that couldnt find in the daily life. The good point about this experiment is that there were the
different experimental group which is omega three enrich and omega three deficient which
help to determine the effect of having and not having omega 3. Apart from that, I also build the
hamsters cage together and put it in the biology lab to prepare for the hamster. I was able to
complete my goal today. The next step is to start making a maze from wood.

Sources : No sources needed today.

Date : May, 9, 2017

Goal : Start making a maze for a hamster

Reflect : The material is the softwood board. The first thing I did was list the size of the wood that I
have to cut. The woods were 100cm long, and I cut it into 50cm, 40cm, 20cm, and 10cm long.
After all the size was calculated, I am the one who measures the wood and marked it for
friends to cut. I wasnt able to connect all the wood today because my friend forgot to bring the
sandpaper. The sand paper is used to polish the edge of the wood so that its smooth and free
from accident. I wont be able to finish making the maze, but all the wood was already cut and
ready to connected using glue. The next step is to finish making the maze.

Sources : No sources needed today.

Date : May, 11, 2017

Goal : Finish building the maze

Reflect : I used sandpaper to polished the edge of the wood and then connect each part of the word
together using a hot glue gun. The maze was built in open eight-arm maze, and each arm has
and extended area on their right side. This area used to placed a hamsters food so that the
hamster cant see from the centre whether a particular arm has food or not. Its difficult to glue
the wood and stick it together because there is a small area to put a hot glue. The glue can
cause the accident and might hurt the skin very easy. Today, I do not finish building a maze
because the middle part isnt completed. Only the eight arms were complete, and I still have
to use the future board to cut it into the octagon. The spot is to finish the maze and start
teaching the hamster to run a maze.

Sources : No sources needed today.

Date : May, 16, 2017

Goal : Change the home for hamster

Reflect : First, take the hamster out by letting in the run to the hand and placed them on the maze one
at a time. One will be in the maze, and one will be on one of the members hand. Take the old
sawdust out from the cage. Then wash the tray underneath and wipe it. Make sure its all dry
thoroughly to prevent the fungus. Then take the foods dish and water bottle out to clean it and
place the new food and water. Put everything back in the cage and return hamster back to the
cage. Assigned the thing that each of our members has to bring and prepare the date for
hamsters experiment. The goal was accomplished and next step is to give hamster different
food so that the hamster can have time to absorb the food before the actual experiment.

Sources : No sources needed today.

Date : May, 17, 2017

Goal : Give hamster the assigned food

Reflect : It is time to separating the food to the hamster. One with the same pellet food and another
with the high-omega3 food. The first thing to do is to separate the cage into two rooms. The
first floor with is for the control group with pellet and water. The second and third floor will be a
control groups hamster which will get oat, banana, and milk. We cut the future board to fit the
cage then place it on the second floor and close the whole so that the control hamster cant
run up to the second floor. Every thing was going well. Let them eat the food for two days and
we will let them run a maze by rewarding them with a carrot.

Sources : No sources needed today.

Date : May, 19, 2017

Goal : Each hamster experiment for 2 trials

Reflect : In the morning, we have take out the food bowl of each hamster from the cage. We will do
experiment 2 times for each hamster; during the lunch and after school. The hamsters get
only water during the day so that they would be hungry and eat the food during the
experiment. At lunch, the omega three hamster was first placed in the middle of the maze with
three pieces of carrot one each of the 8-arms for five minutes. The result comes out as
expected. Hamster eats the carrot and runs into the arms next to the one they just come out.
They run into four arms and then mess around. Then the normal diet hamster was given the
same condition, but the hamster doesnt do well as the first one. Hamster only eats a few
carrot and doesnt run into the warm in order. Then we put every thing back into the cage. In
after school, the experiment repeated and the result comet the same way. However, we have
reduced the number of carrots to be one per each arm. Next time, we designed to change the
food because the control group might not like the carrot so they dont eat it and which make
the result changed. I was able to complete my goal today.

Sources : No sources needed today.

Both experiments were videotaping.

Date : May, 22, 2017

Goal : Trial 3-4 Experiment and clean up the cage

Reflect : Today I planned to do the trial 3-4 experiment of hamster run a maze. In the morning, I have
taken out the food bowl of both hamsters. The treat is changed from carrot to broccoli. Our
first experiment was at lunch time, and the Omega enriches group first entered the maze and
didn't eat the broccoli at all. Then we tried with the regular diet hamster and also get the same
result where hamster doesnt eat the broccoli. So we designed to cancel this trial and redo
again with the carrot in the afternoon. After school, we came in the lab room and did the
experiment for two hamsters with the carrots. Every thing was going well. Then we threw
away the old sawdust and replaced the new one. After that, I clean the food bowl and water
bottle. Today I haven't completed my goal since trial four hasnt been done. The next step is to
do the fourth trial.

Sources : No sources needed today.

The experiments were videotaping.

Date : May, 23, 2017

Goal : Trial 4 Experiment

Reflect : In the morning I take out the food bowl of both hamsters. During the class time, we do the trial
4 experiment. The carrot is a stimulus for the hamster to run a maze. Both hamsters take the
turn and the experiment result was going as expected. I was able to complete my goal. And
the next step is to look at the video record and make a data table result.

Sources : No sources needed today.

The experiments were videotaping.

Date : May, 24, 2017

Goal : Make a data table result

Reflect : After we have finished all the experiment, and all the video has been recorded. We all have to
look through each video and then create a data table to show a result. The table is separated
into six rolls; the trial(1,2,3,4), hamster (experiment/control group), the time (5mins), the food
was eaten, the error(repeated route, omitted), and the explanation. I was able to complete my
goal. The next step will be decorating the data table and put it in the video which edited by
New.

Sources : No sources needed today.