Booth Id:
ANIM050
Category:
Animal Sciences
Year:
2023
Finalist Names:
Jackson, Nicholas (School: Johnson County High School)
Abstract:
I came into the science fair with many ideas, but when this one struck me I knew it was going to be my project. As a kid, I have always had chickens and I always wondered why the eggs crack so easily. Last year I did a project on testing the strength of an eggshell by giving chickens oyster shell supplements and it worked really well. After I finished my project it left me with lots of questions. If calcium can strengthen the eggshell, then what else can it do for chickens and how does it affect them on the inside? So I had the idea to test chickens' blood to see how oyster shells affected their blood. Would it make it go up or down and what other things could it affect? So I started my project by feeding 4 out of 5 chickens different amounts of oyster shells each week, then sending off blood samples to see my results. When getting my results back, they sent me the calcium mg/dl of blood and the Phosphorus levels. This kind of confused me at first. Turns out that as the calcium goes up the phosphorus goes down and they contradict each other. My project ended up showing growth and decay and calcium because of an overdose, according to my research.