Author: Moffet, Ilana

Impact of Seasonal Change on Animal Tracks

Quinn Alban, Kendall Lambert, and Ilana Moffet

Data Analysis:
Intensity of Light’s correlation to the Number of Animal Tracks and Area of Light
Animal Tracks and Area of Light makes sense because the more light outside, the more animals that won’t hibernate
Intensity of Light and Area of Light is a faulty because the recorded Area of Light was always 100%

How does the area of light and the intensity of light impact the diversity of animals in the Roland Park Country School?\\back woods?

Methods:
Box and ink to track animals prints that go in the box to get food
Dog food in the box
Densitometer to track the area of light
Roland Park website that tracks solar panel production each day

Model Analysis:
Program was used to show what happens as Area of Light (dependent variable) increases, what happens to the Intensity of Light and Animal Tracks (independent variables)

Conclusion:
When the area of light was at 100%, and average of 8 animals came to the trap.
As the intensity of light decreased, the size and amount of animal tracks increased.
When our data showed that a large animal came, hardly any other animals tracks were found on the track because the large animal ate all the food.
Future Work:
Area of light is a major factor in this experiment, but it can vary depending on where the trap is placed. Our trap was placed in a spot where the area of light did not change. It stayed at a high number for most of the experiment. When the same experiment was conducted by another group, the trap was placed in a different place where the area of light did not fluctuate. It stayed at a low number. The area of the light differed from one another which affected the outcome of the experiment. Thus the conclusions differed from one another in very opposite ways such as the other group spoke, “at a low area, larger animals come” which was a very different conclusion as listed above.
In the future to make our experiments more reliable, the area should be scouted before and decide the best place to put the trap. A place that has some trees directly above to be sure that the area of light will indeed fluctuate.