Science fair project

[Anonymous]

DS is in 7th grade and fair is in the spring. He has to pick his topic soon. We have looked through numerous sites for ideas.

What is one of your favorites that involves data gathering of some sort over numerous months v doing the project right before it is due?

[Anonymous]

I would ask the teacher for ideas.

[Anonymous]

Science Buddies is a good resource.

[Anonymous]

Projects where you measure plant growth take a while. Some plants grow faster than others and it probably wouldn't take numerous months, but can take several weeks.

Frankly, I think the long-term data collection is a pain in the neck and unnecessarily colmplicates the project. One of my daughter's projects involved studying plant growth. It was a big hassle and I was grateful that her projects other years were less consuming.

[Anonymous]

my daughter did a project where she measured the sound insulation qualities of half a dozen different materials. where she kept the volume consistent, but varied pitch/frequency

basically put a speaker in a box and measure the sound outside the speaker

while it seems benign and simple, the project also involved building insulation box that the speaker went into.

data acquisition was done in a day, but the build took time.

nice thing was it did not require having to keep plants alive to get good data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my daughter did a project where she measured the sound insulation qualities of half a dozen different materials. where she kept the volume consistent, but varied pitch/frequency

basically put a speaker in a box and measure the sound outside the speaker

while it seems benign and simple, the project also involved building insulation box that the speaker went into.

data acquisition was done in a day, but the build took time.

nice thing was it did not require having to keep plants alive to get good data.

That's a cool idea! I'll have to pack that one away for the next time DS has a science fair project (I think next year).

[Anonymous]

I've gotten science project ideas for my kids from the podcasts Hidden Brain and Live from the Poundstone Institute.

Ones discussed in Hidden Brain are usually psychology related so you need human subjects. A recent favorite that my DS wants to do involves either having subjects construct a small lego model or another group is just given the completed model and then ask how much they'd pay to keep it (putting in effort to create something tends to = greater value).

A Poundstone Institute one my DD liked was about fluid dynamics as demonstrated by how long you should dunk Oreos and different types of cookies for optimal saturation.

[Anonymous]

I like the on line telescope Slooh.

It is not the most reliable to be able to get pictures exactly when you want them (clouds if no other problems) but if you have months you should be able to get what you need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my daughter did a project where she measured the sound insulation qualities of half a dozen different materials. where she kept the volume consistent, but varied pitch/frequency

basically put a speaker in a box and measure the sound outside the speaker

while it seems benign and simple, the project also involved building insulation box that the speaker went into.

data acquisition was done in a day, but the build took time.

nice thing was it did not require having to keep plants alive to get good data.

What was the hypothesis being tested?

One issue that I have with science fairs as a teaching tool is that many teachers and science fair judges don't really understand the scientific method, so they do an activity that's not an experiment and has no hypothesis, no control, etc. This started with DS in elementary school when his teachers suggested a science fair project of "creating something from recycled plastic bottles" (despite rules specifying that the project had to be an experiment). It continued in middle school when projects seemed to win awards based on their cuteness factor -- one winning entry was something like "do people think puppies or kittens are cuter?" This failure may be specific to DCPS, but I found it appalling.

To me (a non-scientist), failure to understand the scientific method and what constitutes evidence are two of the greatest challenges that our society faces right now. I'd love to see science fairs or other kinds of science instruction that really did a better job of teaching those concepts.

[Anonymous]

My kid's 7th (or maybe 8th) grade project was bacteria collection. We ordered prepared agar Petri dishes and he swabbed various places to compare bacterial growth. He used places/things we normally think of as clean... home toilet, home desk, home railing, fridge door, etc. and compared with public versions... public restroom, public desk, public railing, door handles, etc.

His friend did cell phones, which was fun to see. He had people self-categorize as a heavy user (talking on the phone & browsing the web), talker mainly (didn't do much else except use it for calls), and texter mainly (rarely used it for calls) and swabbed their phones to compare bacterial growth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my daughter did a project where she measured the sound insulation qualities of half a dozen different materials. where she kept the volume consistent, but varied pitch/frequency

basically put a speaker in a box and measure the sound outside the speaker

while it seems benign and simple, the project also involved building insulation box that the speaker went into.

data acquisition was done in a day, but the build took time.

nice thing was it did not require having to keep plants alive to get good data.

What was the hypothesis being tested?

One issue that I have with science fairs as a teaching tool is that many teachers and science fair judges don't really understand the scientific method, so they do an activity that's not an experiment and has no hypothesis, no control, etc. This started with DS in elementary school when his teachers suggested a science fair project of "creating something from recycled plastic bottles" (despite rules specifying that the project had to be an experiment). It continued in middle school when projects seemed to win awards based on their cuteness factor -- one winning entry was something like "do people think puppies or kittens are cuter?" This failure may be specific to DCPS, but I found it appalling.

To me (a non-scientist), failure to understand the scientific method and what constitutes evidence are two of the greatest challenges that our society faces right now. I'd love to see science fairs or other kinds of science instruction that really did a better job of teaching those concepts.

For the sound experiment, I presume the hypothesis is something like, "Using X material will result in the lowest decibel recording 2 feet outside the box." or "Using a material that has more density (would need to be defined) will result in the lower decibel recordings 2 feet outside the box."

I agree that many schools with science fairs do not uniformly push students to do "experiments" but rather allow for more of a "science demonstration".

[Anonymous]

My advice, based on hard earned experience....

Shoot yourself now.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the great ideas.

Instead of shooting myself, I will just drink a lot of wine

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My advice, based on hard earned experience....

Shoot yourself now.

Its not that bad as a parent of a kid

BUT BUT BUT

DO NOT VOLUNTEER TO BE A JUDGE. Thats worthy of swallowing hot lead...

My DD was the decibel experiment. and it was a nice "bonding" and learning experience on building the sound enclosures out of wood, cardboard, foam, air, cotton, ect.. and by varying the material and the frequency, it was pretty neat how one material works on one frequency but no others.

I don't remember exactly what she was trying to prove/disprove.....