My Science Experiment By, Morgan M.

BIG QUESTION What percentage of my neighborhood’s pets are overweight?

Hypothesis My Hypothesis is that about half of the pets will be overweight. I think this because I have seen all the pets and I think that half of them look overweight. Also because I saw a TV show once that said about 50% of the pets in America are overweight. I also found that same fact on the internet. ( bibliography address 4 )

6 Facts From Research 1.If your pet is constantly looking for food or treats, unable to keep up with you while exercising, and you can no longer feel your pet’s ribs, then your pet is probably overweight. 2.Obesity is the number one problem with America’s pets. 3.Many pets with obesity have the same problems as humans do. 4.A lot of people think putting a pet on a diet will stop the obesity. IT WON’T!! Your pet needs exercise to stop the obesity. 5. You probably often give your pets treats because you love them, and also give them food scraps. But don’t do it. All “people food” is often too high in fat for your pet. 6. Heart disease and diabetes are just some of the many problems with today’s pets.

Materials -At least ten dogs or cats -Some source so you can find out what the normal, underweight, and overweight weights of that dog or cat is. -A scale that you can measure the weight of a dog or cat. -Paper to write everything down on.

Directions 1. First, I suggest making some sort of graph to record everything on. 2. Then, measure the weight of every dog or cat. Make sure the pets aren’t eating more or less than usual. 3. Wait a day and then measure the pet’s weights again. 4. When you are done, you can compare the average weight of every dog or cat to the normal weights to figure out if they are underweight, normal, or overweight. 5. Then find the average amount of your chosen pets that are overweight. After that you are done!!!

Control & Variables Control = I don’t think I have any control group. Variables = My variables are the difference of cats and dogs I am using in my experiment.

Observations 1. I observed that one of the pets looked overweight but wasn’t. 2. I noticed that none of the pets were underweight. All were normal or over. 3. I also observed that Mayzie, one of the dogs, looked quite underweight but she wasn’t. 4. Last, I noticed that one of the dogs, and one of the cats, had the exact same weight.

Data Kaya = Overweight Jasper = Normal Mayzie = Normal

More data Jezzie = Normal Meisha = overweight

Analysis of Data I think my experiment did test my hypothesis. It did because I was able to find out if my hypothesis was correct or not and nothing went too wrong in my experiment.

Conclusion My hypothesis was about correct because I guessed that ½ of the pets would be overweight and about half were. It is not completely true because 2/5 were really overweight. If I could change something, I would do the experiment with 5 cats and 5 dogs. I have 2 questions. (1.) Would the weights be the same if I did the same experiment again except, weighing the pets at the same time each day? (Ex: 5:00 Mon., 5:00 Tue.) (2.) Would the weights be different if I weighed the pets on a scale designed for dogs and cats?

References 1. pets.htm (September, 2009) Overweight Petshttp://exoticpets.about.com/b/2008/12/04/overweight- pets.htm 2. ( September, 2009) Pet Obesityhttp:// 3. (September, 2009) Is Your Pet Overweight? 4. ( September, 2009) Overweight Petshttp:// 5. September, 2009) The Numbershttp:// 6. S=0&SourceI D=28 (September, 2009) Overweight pets? Help Is Here! S=0&SourceID=28