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[quote=Anonymous][quote=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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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