The Great Rat Race
You will raise a rat in this 9-10 week project. First you will bond with the rat by monitoring its growth "vitals", then training the rat to perform a series of tricks.
This activity will help to answer a variety of questions, including: Can organisms lacking complex reasoning skills learn to perform a series of tasks? What techniques can be used to facilitate this learning? How does this type of behavior differ from other types of behavior that are important to any organism’s survival?
Assessment:
1. GROUP: Maintain RATS VITAL MONITORING LOG. Monitor you rat on a daily basis. Before and during the actual training period, you will be required to care for your rat and take mass (g) and tail (cm) measurements. Fast your rat just a day prior to the beginning of training, and then give them only 50% of their typical daily intake in their food dishes in the cages. The other 50% is intended to be made up during the training sessions.
2. INDIVIDUAL: Maintain a RAT OPERANT CONDITIONING TRAINNG JOURNAL, You will make daily entries for what your rat accomplished or what they did unusual, and what your strategies will be for the next training session.
3. The 50% of the project grade comes from the actual accomplishments of the rat during the training period. The rat training is broken down into steps (1-14 below) that comprise the competition. If the rat feeds on command, the grade would be a 60%. This is the minimum requirement for passing THIS PART of the project. For each additional step they receive 4%, so that if their rat completes all steps in the series in less than 10 seconds they would receive 60% + (3% x 15) =105%
Procedure: Students begin with Step 1, and when it is mastered, they go to Step 2, and then the next Step, etc. The rat must perform the accumulated series. For example if the rat is now ready to receive the rod in Step 6, the rat would be expected to sniff or touch the rod, followed by what it has already mastered (pushing the marble up the ramp and out the hole) before it would be given its small food reward in the feeding dish. The double knock on the box and the delivery of food always takes place at the end of the series. When the rat accomplishes all tasks in order, it will go like this: first jump through the raised hoop, push down completely on teeter-totter, pull rod completely into box, push marble up ramp and out the hole, receipt of food reward.
Training steps include
1. Feeding from dish
2. Feeding on command
3. Touching or sniffing marble
4. Pushing marble part way up ramp
5. Pushing marble all the up the ramp and out the hole
6. Touching or sniffing rod
7. Pushing/pulling rod part way
8. Pushing/pulling rod all the way
9. Touching or sniffing hoop
10. Stepping through lowered hoop
11. Jumping through raised hoop.
12. Completion of the 11 steps in 30 seconds or less
13. Completion of the steps 1-11 20 seconds or less
14. Completion of steps 1-11 in 10 seconds or less.