Challenge & Research

Challenge: Design a prototype of some sort of stimulus that can be put in a moose's exhibit at the zoo to help it develop as it would in the wild

This challenge, originally from the Minnesota Zoo, was given to my classmates and I by our professor. She explained that we needed to create a real-life model, make 3D designs online, and finally 3D print our prototypes. So, I created this blog to document the process of building my moose toy!

The most important thing to do when you are given a new challenge or assignment is to research the topic and find out all the information you can about it. Basically, if you are going to present on a topic or do a project on something specific, you want to try to become as much of an expert as you can.

In my research, I found out that moose love water! In fact, they need it!

"But wait, Miss Mariah, ALL living things need water! Animals (and people) need it to drink."

You're right, but moose need to swim around in water and get it all over their bodies because they don't sweat like we do. When we exercise or get really hot, our bodies create sweat to cool our bodies down. Since moose don't have that ability, they need to use bodies of water like lakes or rivers to get their fur wet and make their own "sweat".

Another thing I discovered is that moose are browsers with their food. This means that they like to move around and eat a bunch of different things in different spots, kind of like a buffet. They like to switch from eating grass on the ground to little branches in the trees.

Hmm....I'll see what I can think of ....

Scientist Words

stimulus: a thing that causes activity or energy in someone or something

research: discovering and collecting information

browser: someone or something that casually looks through things