Robo-Hamster Cottage

TEAM NAME: Mecha hamsters
SCHOOL NAME: Joseph L. Carwise Middle



Featured Photo:

The objective of this STEM project is to design and build a comfortable living space for some sort of critter.

Critter chosen: Roborovskiy hamster

Roborovskiy hamsters info

size: about 2 inches long
color: sand colored with white markings above their eyes
habitat: desert regions
originated from: central Asia
preferred humidity: 40%60%
preferred temperature: 75°-85°F
diet: grains, vegetables, fruit, plants, and insects (in small quantities)
breathing rate: 34-114 bpm
pulse: 250-500 bpm
weight: 0.71 – 0.88 oz.

Features:

• Clover room: hamsters can enjoy fresh food straight from their garden
• Sand room: As a hamster’s natural habitat is the desert, they will enjoy a room where they can burrow and clean themselves in the sand
• Additional space: hamsters are very active they will enjoy an extra room where they can climb and run around
• Feeding room: sometimes feeding hamsters can be messy, so we provided a room where there is a tube where the food can drop directly into the bowl.

Materials Used

• Sand
• blue hamster tube
• yellow hamster tube (3)
• Greek Gods Yourt container
• Snapple tea container
• Acai drink container
• hot glue
• pipe cleaners (10)
• hamster bottle
• orange folder
• small brown hamster wheel
• pineapple chalk
• assorted hamster food
• soil
• clover seeds
• tape
• hamster plate
• brown plastic container bottom
• metal wire top of cage
• assorted bottle caps (5)
• non-toxic foam spray
• cardboard
• sparkling ice water bottle
• black costruction paper
• 2 bottles (about 20 oz)
• newspapers
• duct tape
  
  

Recycled Parts

• blue hamster tube
• yellow hamster tube (3)
• Greek Gods Yougrt container
• Snapple tea container
• Acai drink container
• hamster bottle
• orange folder
• small brown hamster wheel
• pineapple chalk
• soil
• brown plastic container bottom
• assorted bottle caps (5)
• cardboard
• sparkling ice water bottle
• 2 bottles (about 20 oz)
• newspapers

Bought Parts

• clover seeds
• non-toxic foam spray

Building Process

• 1st step taken: connect brown plastic container bottom to metal wire top of cage
• 2nd step taken: put blue tube into opening in metal wire top of cage
• 3rd step taken: secure blue tube with pipe cleaners
• 4th step taken: cover up the remaining opening in cage with pipe cleaners and piece of orange folder
• 5th step taken: cut up folder and put the strips of folder around the cage for darkness in the cage
• 6th step taken: connect yellow tubes to the blue tube
• 7th step taken: cut top of acai bottle
• 8th step taken: cut a rectangular hole in acai and Snapple bottle
• 9th step taken: cut of top of acai bottle
• 10th step taken: filter the sand with the siff and use it as bedding
• 11th step taken: hot glue acai bottle and snapple bottle together
• 12th step taken: make sure the bottle structure is stable by hot gluing bottle caps and top of acai bottle on the bottom of the snapple bottle
• 13th step taken: cut bottom part of greek gods yogurt container
• 14th step taken: put pineapple chalk into bottle cage
• 15th step taken: put hamster wheel, bottle and food holder into brown bottom cage
• 16th step taken: grow clover plant
• 17th step taken: put clover plant into bottle cage
• 18th step taken: make crawl space for hamster
• 19th step taken : make feeding room
• 20th step taken: connect all parts together
• 21 step taken: put construction paper on the inside of the enclosure
• 22th step taken: fix major issues

Gallery

Critter Test

During a 9-hour night period, the cottage preformed very well in sustaining the critter. The hamster seemed to enjoy the sand pit, as well as the extra room. Despite being product-fed their whole life, they devoured the clovers set for them. They showed some interest towards the apple and carrot put in the drop pit, but ultimately showed a greater liking to the clover.

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Insight video:

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Challenges encountered during building:

• While building we discovered that there were a lot of sharp shells in the sand from clearwater, so we filtered through the sand to make it purer
• another challenge we encountered was in growing the plant because it died couple of times, so we had to start over with growing the plant.
• A final challenge we encountered was that the hamster was able to escape through a hole in the cage which we had to patch up.

intended for indoor use

Team members

Name: Rita B
Grade: 7th

Name: Matias G
Grade: 7th

Name: Mya F
Grade: 6th

Name: Chloe T
Grade: 6th

Resources

https://hamsterhideout.com
https://feedingnature.com
https://hamstercare.com
https://www.hamster.com
https://www.petco.com
https://animals.mom.com
EXACTO knife
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