RUNNING HEADER: MAGNETIC ANIMAL REPELLENT LAB NOTEBOOK 1

Magnetic Animal Repellent Lab Notebook V

Sidney Boakye, Michelle Miller, and Joaquin Valda
Senior Physics Mentorship
2/8/18
Dr. Psaker Lab
Governor’s School @ Innovation Park

Objectives:
Completing device construction

Discovery of optimal camera location

Data collection and the composition of that data into analyzable data
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Materials and Methods

These last two weeks saw us obtain all the parts we initially felt were needed in our final

device design. Some pieces were even re-ordered to fit proportions that had not been originally

considered. Our containment shell was a prime example of this, since we had it 3D printed twice

to properly fit all the elements of our magnetic field generator.

Aside from the construction of our project, we have also begun to investigate the layout

of our testing site. Joaquin lives in the closest proximity to this site, and as he originally picked

it, he has been trying to map out the best location for camera placement. Since the environment

chosen is suburban, we believe the birds will be more tolerant to the color of our containment

shell. However, we do need to strategically place our camera. This must be done, not only to

capture the amount of birds which enter and how much time they spend in the bird-feeder. We

must also keep the camera out of visual range so that it is not disturbed during the recording

period.

Figure 1. This is a picture of our completed circuit.

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Figure 2. This is a picture of our circuit inside its housing.

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Data and Results

At this point we have no new data tables. But we found that our variable resistor is too

strong for our device. We began testing its effects on the devices output magnetic field, and we

found that it dissipates the current too much. However, we have gotten the majority of our final

device done. Therefore, we will hopefully be able to test the device in the foreseeable future.
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Future Goals

With the time in the next two weeks, we plan to make minor tweaks to the device, such as

adding some way to attach to a tree. But, other than that our construction is done. The upcoming

two weeks are also particularly exciting for M.A.R.T. as we will begin field testing during this

time. In order to do this we need to find an optimal time and place to record birds and where to

place the device.

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References

Loss, S. R., Will, T., & Marra, P. P. (2014). Refining Estimates of Bird Collision and
Electrocution Mortality at Power Lines in the United States. Retrieved October 24, 2017,
from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4081594/

Staff Feb. 7, 2005 From the print edition Print Share Subscribe Donate Now. (2005, February
07). High Country News. Retrieved October 24, 2017, from
http://www.hcn.org/issues/291/15268

Patent US5884426 - Magnetic device for repelling birds. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2017,
from https://www.google.com/patents/US5884426ht