dwarf hamster behavior and intelligence

Question
I am running 3 hamsters thru a maze for my 6th grade science project to see what foods would intice them to go thru the maze faster. Do you have any information on this...I need to backup my hypothesis with some facts. Do you have any resources I could use.

Answer
Dear Paul,
thank you for your question.
I did some research on the topic, but I couldn't find anything online about dwarf hamster intelligence or sense of smell (or at least nothing but general info like "they have a well developed sense of smell")
I think you should try your local library for books about hamsters and for animal encyclopaedias. Try to find out what kind of food they naturally eat and offer those to the hamsters during the test. Then try out other foods they don't normally find (like water melon, cheese ect.).
There's not that much info to be found about dwarf hamsters. While Syrian hamsters were kept as laboratory animals for years, dwarf hamsters are comparatively new in captivity. You might find some articels in magazines about rodents - ask the librarian if the librarian has them or where you can find some (maybe a museum obtains them), but the articles will probably very scientific and only about one special topic. Anyway, it's worth a try.
I'm sorry that I cannot give any concrete links or literature tips, but I hope this still is of some help to you
Jennifer