宿題、テストに追われつつ、やっと数週間前にサイエンス・レポート（皇帝ペンギンについて）が終わったかと思えば、今度はサイエンス・フェアです。何でもいいので、ひとつトピックを決め、仮説をたててテストをして検証し結果を述べるというもの。２年生なので、仮説をたてたり、テストをして検証するというのはかなりの難題！身近なもののほうが少しはピンとくると思い、クリスマス・プレゼントとしてうちにやって来たセキセイ・インコのパーキーの挙動について取り組むことにしました。かごから出すなりすぐ鏡のところに飛んでいくので、「なぜ、うちのインコはいつも鏡のところに行くのか？」というタイトル。仮説１；鏡の向こうに飛んでいける空間があると思うから。 仮説２；光るものが好きだから。 仮説３；もう一羽、インコがいると思うから。それぞれ、テストもしましたよ。統計とって、グラフ作って。どうやら仮説３が正しいらしいということでおしまい。本日このでっかいボードを持って学校に行きました。あ~、終わったぁ~。。。一番ほっとしているのは私。次はパーキーかな（何度もテストにつき合わせてお疲れの模様）。2nd graders these days are busy! On top of the daily assignments and weekly tests, she had to finish the big science report (on emperor penguins) a few weeks ago. This time it's Science Fair. You need to pick a topic, establish a hypothesis, perform a test, analyze the results, and come up with a conclusion. She is only a 2nd grader, so testing a hypothesis is a difficult concept. We decided to pick a topic which is as close to her daily life as possible, so we picked the behavior of Perkey, the parakeet, which joined our family last Christmas. He, as soon as let go out of the case, always goes to the mirror and stays there for hours. So the title is, "Why does my parakeet always go to the mirror?" Hypothesis 1: It's because he thinks there is more room that he can fly into. Hypothesis 2: It's because he like bright things. Hypothesis 3: It's because he thinks there is another bird. We did three tests accordingly, took the stats, and analyzed them. We disproved Hypothesis 1 and 2. So our best guess is Hypothesis 3. She took the presentation board to school today, and we are DONE! It's me who is feeling most relieved, followed probably by Perkey, who had to go through series of tests. I hope we did not abuse him.... sorry, Perkey!
