help son has school project

[4riscorn]

My 12 yr old just informed me he has a project due tomorrow!! He has to discuss the corn snake population over a 5 yr period in hot warm and cold climates. He said it has to be actual numbers and I told him that is almost impossible to pinpoint so I asked if he could just give areas of population but he said he needs actual estimated numbers. Anyone have any idea where we can find this info? I looked online but can't find anything.

 

[Reptilekyle64]

Unless you can find actual data done years ago, it might be impossible to find. There is studies like that done just with different species of snakes. Is he allowed to change his topic or snake snake species?

 

[chris68]

WOW what class is he taking? 5 year population studies on one species in three different locations, and all by tomorrow??? Tall task for sure

I feel your pain; I'm working with my 15 yr old on HER Honors Bio project...due tomorrow

 

[dionythicus]

Because corns are not considered a threatened or endangered species, except perhaps in New Jersey, I doubt such research exists. I would be looking at University studies, government studies, other scientific groups for any kind of data. I just think this is a subject that doesn't get enough interest to warrant studies.

I'm coming across some local herp groups who have done some field research, but it's not over a five year period nor were they specifically counting snakes for population numbers. But this one article was interesting...

http://www.kyherpsoc.org/kyappreciation/kycorns3.htm

 

[dionythicus]

Here's another article that might help...

http://gamebird.forestry.uga.edu/research/former/kim

 

[Hexadeci]

What a lame prompt. I doubt the data is actually going to be easy to find, if it exists at all. As mentioned, corns in the wild are not especially high on the list of research priorities. And 5 years is a lot of field work. All that effort for a bottom line that is as obvious as: "gasp! In warm climates (where "warm" means 75-85F) there are more corn snakes than in cooler climates that they don't do as well in!" Sigh.

So, did the teacher define the parameters of "warm" and "cool"? I'm thinking pull up some studies on Antarctica that show "hey! no corn snakes!" from which we can deduce the number to be 0 (with relative certainty) and also Death Valley with likely similar results. Clearly from this we can conclude that temperatures aren't relevant to corn snake populations! *cough cough*

Try Google scholar?

 

[4riscorn]

WOW what class is he taking? 5 year population studies on one species in three different locations, and all by tomorrow??? Tall task for sure

I feel your pain; I'm working with my 15 yr old on HER Honors Bio project...due tomorrow

Just a regular 7th grade science class..guess that's what he gets for scoring perfect on his SOL (for VA standard of learning tests)....his teacher puts some heavy stuff on the kids. And she isn't the easiest teacher to get through to. He missed a day of school and asked for his makeup work and I even emailed asking for it and she gave him a zero!! Won't give him his work. I am emailing her once more then going to the guidance counselor.

He asked today about changing the subject to areas of population instead of exact population. He didn't ask the teacher but her aide so we'll see how it goes.

 

[wade]

Just an observation but I would bet he wasn't just given the assignment that is due tomorrow. And the assignment was given to the student, not the parent.

 

[dionythicus]

I would contact the school board about her teaching style. It is unacceptable that she would not give him make-up homework when he was out for a day. I would also mention that she assigned him a school report that does cannot be done to her expectations. I would suggest that it was an impossible assignment and she should know the results that she's expecting him to get. If she doesn't have the information at hand then she gave him an unreasonable assigment that he could not complete. She set him up to fail. I can't stand teachers like that.

Wade - Parents need to be on top of what their kids are doing in school. Maybe the assignment was for the student, but parents do help with projects. Mine did.

 

[4riscorn]

Yes Wade you are right. He was given the assignment before Christmas. But the topic had changed. He had a different corn snake topic but the teacher said it was too easy...how changes in climates effect corn snake's population. So the teacher changed it to this topic. Along with Christmas, we had a death in the family...my husband's grandmother, lost his grandfather in July, so it was a bit of a shock for her to go so soon..even though she had been ill for the week of Christmas. So we were going here and there all break and forgot about it being due today. Then yesterday he was like oh crap I go back to school tomorrow and the project is due. He tried telling the teacher he couldn't find anything on the subject before Christmas break and she told him to try harder...so here we are with no report for him to do...hopefully she will accept the subject the aide suggested...that he could do.

 

[4riscorn]

I would contact the school board about her teaching style. It is unacceptable that she would not give him make-up homework when he was out for a day. I would also mention that she assigned him a school report that does cannot be done to her expectations. I would suggest that it was an impossible assignment and she should know the results that she's expecting him to get. If she doesn't have the information at hand then she gave him an unreasonable assigment that he could not complete. She set him up to fail. I can't stand teachers like that.

Wade - Parents need to be on top of what their kids are doing in school. Maybe the assignment was for the student, but parents do help with projects. Mine did.

Yea, she had a baby over summer break and missed the first month of school...he was getting nothing but A's before that, now because of his missed day O assignement he has a C...