My Independent Science Experiment 2022

My Independent Science Experiment 2022

April 10, 2022

(2nd place medal for my experiment! - not to brag or anything ;)

So last year, I entered a independent science experiment in my county science fair on how music affects a chick's brain. This year, I decided to enter another experiment- on which musical era has the most effect on a chick's brain. I placed 2nd again!!! I would love for my readers to see which era had the most effect, so here is my lab report:

Advances On Which Musical Era Has The Most Effect On A Chick's Brain

Purpose:

To find out which era of music has the most effect on a chick’s brain.

Hypothesis: 

I hypothesize that classical era music (known best for repetition and order) will have the most effect on a chick’s growth and development.

Materials: 

• Environment free of drafts (Garage or spare bathroom)
• Chick brooder 
• Kennel
• Heat bulb and lamp
• Instant thermometer
• Feeder
• Chick feed
• Waterer
• Clean water
• Shelf liner
• Newspaper
• Day-old chick
• Playlists of seven musical eras
• Middle Age
• Renaissance
• Baroque
• Classical
• Romantic
• Impressionism
• 20th Century
• Document to record data
• Measuring tape
• Weighing scale

Procedure: 

1. Create a chick brooder, by setting up a dog kennel and plastic bin in a draft-free environment with a heat lamp, (temperature measured with instant thermometer), feeder with feed, waterer with water, shavings, and newspaper. 
2. Hatch chick.
3. Place chick in brooder, and play 24 hours of pieces each of the seven musical eras. 
4. As the chick grows and gets older, test their growth by measuring wingspan with a measuring tape, and weighing them on a weighing scale.
5. Record the results on a document.

Data:

Results:

There were tremendous results from this experiment. Surprisingly, both the Classical and Impressionism eras of music had the same and most amount of effect on the chick. It grew an inch in wingspan, and 0.8 oz in weight, after both 24 hour periods of music.

Also, I noticed that throughout this experiment, the chicks were extremely loud and noisy, and constantly chirping at all hours of the day. Once the experiment was finished and I stopped the music, they behaved normally, and kept a normal volume of sound. I believe their excessively loud volume was fueled by constantly listening to the 7 days of musical eras.

Conclusion: 

The chick was most affected by Classical and Impressionist music. Apparently, Impressionist music also conveys moods, scenes, and emotions rather than detailed stories. This style of classical music uses “color” or timbre through different textures, harmonics, and orchestrations to create atmosphere, just like Impressionism. 

So that's my independent science experiment from this year. I learned a lot from hatching my very own chicks and doing this lab, and I hope you have too!