Question Can a mouse run a maze faster than a hamster?

Hypothesis Yes, the mouse will run the maze faster than the hamster. We think this because we read about how smart mice are.

Materials A white mouse A hamster Food for the mouse and the hamster raw sunflower seeds (not roasted) hamster/mouse food A cage for each animal A maze (made out of blocks) with a screen top A flat surface A timer

Pictures

Procedure Build a maze. Put food at the end of the maze. Put the mouse in the maze and time how long it takes the mouse to finish the maze. Take the mouse out. Put a hamster in the maze and time how long it takes the hamster to finish the maze. Do this several times to look for a pattern.

Mouse (Oceanus aka Miss Mousy) Data Animal Run One Run Two Run Three Mouse (Oceanus aka Miss Mousy) 37 seconds 39 seconds 1 minute and 35 seconds Hamster (Mr. Nibbles) 5 minutes and 10 seconds 3 minutes and 42 seconds 3 minutes and 14 seconds

Results In all three runs, the mouse completed the maze faster than the hamster. The hamster improved her time with each run. The mouse did not improve her time each run, but the mouse was still faster than the hamster in each run.

Conclusion Our hypothesis was correct. The mouse did run the maze faster than the hamster. We think the mouse was faster overall because it walked faster than the hamster and it didn’t get lost as often in the maze. To improve our experiment, we would make sure that neither animal was fed just before running the maze. We wonder what the results of this experiment would be if we compare different types of mice, like different colored mice or mice of different ages.