Chloe's Life — Panda Base Research Activity : “I’m an Ethnologist”
On May 17, 2023, 20 students from Panda Road Primary School came to Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding to participate in the research activity of "I am an Ethnologist". They learned basic methods of researching animals’ behaviors and practiced the method. They now understand that each animal has different habits and needs and knows how to analyze data.
Visit& Lecture (led by scientist Guo, assistance: Chloe)
Guo and Chloe first led the students to visit the giant and small pandas, guiding them to observe the daily behavior of the giant and small pandas without any methods yet. In the following lecture session, the students learned the methods and significance of animal behavior research, the qualities that behavior researchers must possess, and how to scientifically carry out a complete behavior research.
Behavior Observation
Guo and Chloe took the students to the sub-adult giant panda area and the Red Panda area to select their observation objects(Giant Panda or Red Panda). Students cooperated and used the instantaneous observation method to collect data.
Data Analysis
Guo taught the students how to organize and analyze their collected data. The students drew bar charts based on the data after class to draw experimental conclusions.
Chloe: “Being a panda base volunteer is always great. Without becoming a volunteer, I would not have the chance to try the method the students learned on hands and on the pandas since my age is over elementary school kids and I could only read about it at home by myself. Helping out at the base makes me learn the method and get the chance to try it. And this hands on chance made me understand how important traits such as curiosity, patience, sensitivity, and concentration is for scientific researches especially with animals. I hope I can have these traits when I’m doing experiments and researches in the future. Other than learning myself, the smiles on the faces of the kids also made my day! I hope Guo and I did not make them confused and our powerpoint is easy to understand. Looking forward to the next research activity at the base!“
