Dr. Shawn's Super Science Project Support Blog

The Air's Not So Thin, So Something's Gotta Give

Here is a super-cool demonstration of something outrageous...

What you need. . .
• A newspaper
• A wooden ruler you wouldn't mind destroying, or a flat wooden stirring stick like the kind used to stir paint.
• A broom handle or a wooden dowel for whacking

(Click to enlarge image.) First, if you use a ruler, make sure to pull the metal pencil guide out of the grove in the side and throw the guide away.

(Click to enlarge.) Place your ruler so that its center is just over the edge of a table that has a hard and straight edge, as shown in the photo. Now, imagine you were to use a broom handle to give the overhanging edge a hard whack, as shown. What do you think would happen? Write your prediction down in your science journal and then, make sure everyone is well clear of the table and do the experiment!

(Click to enlarge.) Next, ball up a single sheet of newsprint and balance it on the ruler as shown. Now what do you think is going to happen to the ruler and to the paper ball when you strike the ruler hard with the broomstick? Write down your prediction in your note book, STAND BACK, and do the experiment!

(Click to enlarge.) Now, pick up a new sheet of newsprint. Only this time, lay it out flat over and the edge of the table as shown, and slip the ruler underneath it so that it is sticking out halfway as before. The sheet weighs the same amount whether it is balled up or flat, right? So the weight of the paper is the same in both trials. What do you think is going to happen this time? Write your prediction down and explain it in your science journal.

Go ahead and do the experiment. I'll wait. . .

Pretty cool, eh?

Here's a photograph of what happened when I did it. If you hit the end flat, your ruler should have broken. If you hit it at an angle, so the ruler tipped sideways a little, then it probably ripped a ruler-shaped slot out of the newspaper. The point is, something got broken!

(Click to enlarge.) When you laid the newspaper out flat something had to give.

Why?

Here's why… When laid flat, the newspaper acts a little like a diaphragm because it's hard for air to slip underneath it very quickly. Hitting the stick causes the other side to lift the paper quite rapidly, far faster in fact than the air can flow in to fill the gap. Essentially, the air above the paper can't get out of the way as fast as the stick wants to move it. As a result the atmosphere just sits there and clamps the sheet to the table.

That's why something has to give. Either the stick has to break or the paper has to tear because the atmosphere won't let the paper get out of the way fast enough. (Here's another test of this idea. Try pushing on the stick slowly. Does anything get torn or broken? Can you explain why or why not?)

Dr. Shawn

For more FREE help, visit my Super Science Project Support Site. Check out my collection of killer science fair project downloads. Are you running out of time? Check out my Desperation Science Projects for complete science project instructions that can be carried out in just one day! Or, better, have a complete science experiment sent directly to your home for professional results fast! And, of course, you'll find plenty of science project ideas at my science project idea bank, or my student-driven science project idea exchange.

What is the "Scientific Method"

The scientific method is how scientists do what scientists do to find reliable answers to their questions about how nature works. Basically, the scientific method is the process that scientists most often use to make sure they aren't fooling themselves.

The scientific method involves the following steps: investigating something that interests you, identifying the problem, making your best guess about what the solution might be, devising a test to see if you can prove the guess WRONG (scientists don't try to prove themselves right! They know that making sure they aren't fooling themselves means trying to prove their guesses wrong). Then you must carry out your test, and finally you must analyze your results and reach a conclusion.

Investigation: Investigation is the process of gathering information about something that interests you from every reliable source that you can find. These sources can include your own experiences, respected experts, printed and web-based resources, or the results of experiments done by others. Ultimately, this research should lead you to learn about something you don't understand, or to a question you have that doesn't seem to be answered by anything you've learned about. It is from these questions that you will select your science fair project idea.

Question/Hypothesis: The question you select to answer must be one that both interests you and is very narrowly focused. It should be an open-ended question, that is, one that is answered with a statement, or better, a graph, rather than a simple yes or a no. For example, "How does temperature affect the reproduction of beer yeast?"

Note how narrowly focused this question is. It's about the life process of yeast—reproduction; one type of yeast—beer yeast; and one factor that affects its growth—temperature. To find the answer to a broader question such as "How does temperature affect yeast?" you would have to test different life processes and lots of different types of yeasts.

Hypothesis: A hypothesis is your best educated guess about what the answer to your question is likely to be. And of course, you can't make an educated guess without an education. Your hypothesis has to be based on your knowledge, experience and/or the research you did about the subject that lead to your question.

Personally, I do not think that students should be required to state a hypothesis for their experiment. Many times, when entering some new area of research, scientists have very little idea about what result a new experiment may produce. Their attitude is "Let's do this and see what happens." A hypothesis is NOT essential to an experiment. Worse, it changes the focus of the experiment from answering an open question, to defending a their opinion. And that often leads students to fit the facts to their opinions, instead of fitting their data to their question. In short, it leads to dogma over data, instead of data over dogma.

However, if your science fair competition insists that you formulate a hypothesis, then make your best guess, then try your darnedest to prove that guess wrong! If you have absolutely no idea what will happen, then let your guess be the "null hypothesis"--the most boring possible hypothesis--the guess that the variables you are testing in your experiment are not related. That is the best way to make sure you are not fooling yourself.

Whatever you do, don't change your hypothesis even if data do not support it. If you've disproved your hypothesis--good for you! You've got the makings of a real scientist! If time permits, repeat or redesign to verify your refutation and the judges will really take note of your work.

Do the experiment!

Of course, the experiment is the process you go through to answer your question or challenge your hypothesis. You take data to see how different things are related. Anything you decide to measure in your experiment is called a variable, (meaning "something that can change"). There are three kinds of variables that you must to identify in your experiment: independent, dependent, and controlled.

The independent variable whatever you decide to change in your experiment. The dependent variable is the variable you monitor to see how it responds to that change. A controlled variable is one that you make absolutely certain not to change during the experiment. It's important to only allow one variable to change at a time so we can isolate how one thing affects one other thing. It is only be studying these simple on-against-another kinds of interactions that we can wrap our minds around exactly what's going on.

Looking at our example of temperature on beer yeast, the independent variable is temperature and the dependent variable is yeast reproduction.

Control Experiments: Often, scientists need to do mini experiments before they do their main experiment to make sure they don't get blindsided by other conditions in the experiment. One important mini test is called a "control experiment" in which the independent variable is kept constant in order to identify other things that can cause the dependent variable to change. In a control, you set up the experimental you intend to do, but you don't allow your independent variable to change. Instead, you allow other parts of the experiment to change (for example, the amount of light that falls on the yeast). Doing control tests allow you to know how hard you have to struggle in your experiment to keep these variables constant. For example, if you discovered that the yeast growth rate wasn't much affected by atmospheric pressure, then you know you wouldn't have to worry if a storm front moved it. However, if you discovered that the grow rate was affected by light, then you'd want to make sure that you didn't expose the yeast to enough light during your main experiment to affect the results.

In principle, there are many variables that want to do control experiments to study; humidity, air pressure, light, temperature, and so on. There is no way you are going to be able to test them all. Those that you can't test you'll want to keep as constant as you reasonably can, and then note what you did in your logbook. No science fair judge could possibly expect you to conduct every possible control experiment. Professional scientists don't. Rather, they rely on their experience to tell them what variables they need to control and which are less important.

Another thing, don't just assume you everything right the first time. If you want to make sure you're not fooling yourself you need to repeat the experiment a couple of times to verify that you get essentially the same result every time. If not, then your results are being affected by some subtle variable that you haven't controlled for properly. Chasing these down can be a frustrating exercise, but it is here that you'll really learn the artistry of the scientist.

Conclusion: The conclusion is a summary of the results of your experiment and your final statement of how the data bare on your question or hypothesis. If the data prove your hypothesis wrong (scientists say "falsify the hypothesis") then great! If you see how others could take this work further, make sure end by pointing out how. Namely, say what independent variable you'd use next time, what you would be careful to control, and what change you'd be looking for in the dependent variable.

Dr. Shawn

For more FREE help, visit my Super Science Project Support Site. Check out my collection of killer science fair project downloads. Are you running out of time? Check out my Desperation Science Projects for complete science project instructions that can be carried out in just one day! Or, better, have a complete science experiment sent directly to your home for professional results fast! And, of course, you'll find plenty of science project ideas at my science project idea bank, or my student-driven science project idea exchange.

More Student Science Project Ideas

Dear Dr. Shawn,

I did a project on oil pollution in the water. We all know that lots of oil gets spilled into the water each year but no effective method for cleaning it up has surfaced. So I took put water in a few containers and poured motor oil into them. I used the heaviest grade. Then I chose three ways to try to remove the oil from the water. I used a spoon (scooping), cheesecloth (straining), and sand to see if I could make the oil sink to the bottom, combine with the sand and make to easy to scoop or vacuum out. You can use any methods you want though. The great thing about this project is that it applies to real life and will therefore be easy to find connections of how to use this. I did this in 7th grade and got an A!

Nancy C.
Paris, TX
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Dear Dr. Shawn,

My idea is "How fast does temperature affect mold growth?"

Mold is dark spongy patches that sometimes appear on bread. My project was to put one slice of bread in two sandwich bags. I put a little warm water in each of them. I put one in a warm place (above the stove) and one in a cold place (the fride). When I took them out 6 days later, the sandwich in the cool spot looked fine while the sandwich in the warm spot had dark patches of mold.

Jo Anne O.
San Diego, CA

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Dear Dr. Shawn

I got 2nd place with this project!

Question: Does temperature effect the way a musical instrument sounds?

You need a tuner (machine used for finding out what note your instument is playing), a flute, and a violin (you can use any other instrument), and a thermometer. Play your instruments in room temperature seeing and recording the temperature, date and the tune theyre in (make sure you remember the note you played). At night when its cold out put the thermometer and instruments outside all nite, in the morning go out and play the same note, again recording the tune, date, and temperature. then put a hairdrier in a small room, put the thermometer and instrument in the room and turn on the hair drier, close the door and keep it closed for about 3-4 hours. After that go back into the room & close the door turn off the hairdrier and play the instruments recording the time, date and tune.

Repeat this about 6 times.

Kevin G.
Los Angeles
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Dear Dr. Shawn,

In the fifth grade I got second place with this topic.

Is the reach of a magnet affected more by cardboard, glass, or plastic. Place a sheet of one of these materials between the magent and a magnetic weight. Find out how thick the material has to be before the magnet is not strong enough to hold it any longer. Plot this on a bar graph and compare the results. The less thickness you need to break the magnet's hold on an object, the more strongly that material affects the magnetic field.

Camilo Lopez
San Diego, CA

For more FREE help, visit my Super Science Project Support Site. Check out my collection of killer science fair project downloads. Are you running out of time? Check out my Desperation Science Projects for complete science project instructions that can be carried out in just one day! Or, better, have a complete science experiment sent directly to your home for professional results fast! And, of course, you'll find plenty of science project ideas at my science project idea bank, or my student-driven science project idea exchange.

How to "Connect the Dots" on a Graph

Nearly all science projects require at least one graph to display their results in a clear and convincing way. Once you have plotted your data you will need to connect the dots in a way that displays the underlying connection, if any, between your independent variable (whatever you change in your experiment) and your dependent variable (whatever changes in response). Here are a few tips about how to do that.

Suppose you plot your data with the errors bars and it looks something like this.

(Click on the picture to enlarge it.) You can see that the yield of whatever this graph refers to increases with temperature. How do you connect the dots?

First, NEVER simply connect the dots with a ruler like this.

(Click on the picture to enlarge it.) Every measurement you make is subject to experimental errors and so each datum you take will have error associated with it, meaning that it is unlikely to lie exactly where it should. A few of your data points might be pretty close to where then should be, but you'll measure some to be a little above or below their their true position simply because the no measurement process is perfect. The curve you want to draw needs to be the best estimate you can make of the underling trend that produced the data. It needs to a smooth continuous line or curve that the data is centered around.

OK, so what line or curve should you try first? Answer: The first function you should try to fit the data on any graph is ALWAYS A STAIGHT LINE.

Here's the same data with the best straight line I could plot by eye, without the use of complex mathematics or a computer.

(Click on the picture to enlarge it.) This is actually a pretty good fit. Note that although this line actually touches all the vertical error bars, this need not have been the case. Your error bars are not absolute bounds on your data.

Let me repeat that since no many students do are completely confused about this.

YOUR ERROR BARS ARE NOT ABSOLUTE BOUNDS ON YOUR DATA. In fact, about 1/3 of your data an be expected to be located more than one error bar away from the best fitting curve.

If you can find a line that fits your data then you are done. Never try complex curves or functions when a straight line will do. Why not? Ockham's Razor again... a simple straight line is about the most boring relationship you can imagine. So if a straight line fits the data, then you must take that as the best explanation of your data.

Dr. Shawn

For more FREE help, visit my Super Science Project Support Site. Check out my collection of killer science fair project downloads. Are you running out of time? Check out my Desperation Science Projects for complete science project instructions that can be carried out in just one day! Or, better, have a complete science experiment sent directly to your home for professional results fast! And, of course, you'll find plenty of science project ideas at my science project idea bank, or my student-driven science project idea exchange.

Ockham's Razor and the "Most Boring Hypothesis"

Remember that doing science is all about not fooling yourself. With that in mind, consider this. Suppose you see a situation where there are two different plausible explanations for a given set of facts that have been very well established. This may be in your own science experiments, or anywhere else in any sphere of your life. How do you decide which of the competing theories to accept as your working hypothesis, that is, the hypothesis that you hold as the one that is more likely to be closest to the Truth?

Experience teaches the following remarkable fact: If you always prefer the more boring hypothesis you'll turn out to be right far more often than not. This rule of preferring the most boring hypothesis is so famous that it even has a name. We call it Ockham's Razor.

Here's an example. Suppose when you step out of the shower you are startled see what looks like a ghostly pattern of baby footprints standing out in the condensation on your bathroom mirror. One hypothesis you might consider is that your house is haunted and that some departed spirit is trying to send you a message. Another hypothesis is that a family member is playing a trick on you. Since no one has ever been able to scientifically establish that ghosts exist, (and there is plenty of reasons to suspect that they don't) the ghost hypothesis is a pretty remarkable one. But clearly your family members do exist. And even if no one ever played a trick on you before, and even if everyone in your family denies doing it, the notion that someone is trying to trick you now is clearly a far more boring explanation than that you've been visited by a spirit from the Great Beyond. Therefore, the you should accept the practical joke explanation as the one that is most likely to be the correct one.

That's not to say that strange or remarkable ideas are always wrong. There certainly have been circumstances when truly bizarre theories like Quantum Mechanics and Continental Drift were eventually favored by the data. (And the moment they were, Ockham's Razor required the scientists of those times to change their minds and accept the newer idea as the one closer to the Truth.) But these cases are very rare and as we learn more and more about the Universe, they tend to happen less and less often. So Ockham's Razor really does gives you very useful tool to use in your science, and everywhere else in life, that will enable you to be on the right side of a debate far more often than not.

Dr. Shawn

For more FREE help, visit my Super Science Project Support Site. Check out my collection of killer science fair project downloads. Are you running out of time? Check out my Desperation Science Projects for complete science project instructions that can be carried out in just one day! Or, better, have a complete science experiment sent directly to your home for professional results fast! And, of course, you'll find plenty of science project ideas at my science project idea bank, or my student-driven science project idea exchange.

How Many Trails Per Experiment?

Remember, doing science is all about not fooling yourself and each data point you plot on your graph represents one trail. (A trail is a mini-experiment within your whole experiment to pin down one value of whatever you are testing [the dependent variable] against one value of whatever quantity you are changing in your experiment [the independent variable].) That's why scientists pull together all the trials they have done in their science experiment and plot them on a graph. Graphs allow you to see at a glance exactly how the dependent variable is affected the independent variable. (For example, growth rate vs. concentration of fertilizer.) Graphs paint a clear picture that is easy for anyone to understand. And that is exactly why they are used so frequently in science.

So one of the basic questions you must answer in order to design your science experiment is this: Just how many trails will you need to answer your experimental question? This advice should guide you.

Rule of Thumb #1: In general, for most experiments in which you are studying how one variable depends on another, you should conduct as many trails as you reasonably can. Of course, you want to change the independent variable enough to cause a measurable change in the dependent variable, but beyond that it's good to get as much data as you can to the limits of your time, money, materials and patients. Your patients is a very think for you to keep in mind. Whatever you do, don't set out to conduct so many trails that you overwhelm yourself with work. That's a good way to destroy your interest in your science project, and nobody wants that!

Rule of Thumb #2: Spread your measurements out evenly between the smallest value of the independent variable, and the largest value you are testing. For example, if your independent variable starts at zero and goes to say 100 units, you might select the values 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 to test. This strategy provides the best way to establish the relationship between the independent and dependent variables over the range of values you are studying in your experiment.

Rule of Thumb #3: Whatever you do, make sure you conduct at least 5 trails. This should not only be able to establish whether or not the dependent variable changes in some regular fashion with the independent variable, it should also let you see if the data fall along a straight line or a curve.

Dr. Shawn

For more FREE help, visit my Super Science Project Support Site. Check out my collection of killer science fair project downloads. Are you running out of time? Check out my Desperation Science Projects for complete science project instructions that can be carried out in just one day! Or, better, have a complete science experiment sent directly to your home for professional results fast! And, of course, you'll find plenty of science project ideas at my science project idea bank, or my student-driven science project idea exchange.

How Many Measurements Per Trial?

Remember, doing science is all about not fooling yourself. And so rather than trust our crude and imprecise senses, scientists make measurements. In fact, nearly all science projects absolutely require them. If you're trying to find out how fast plants grow vs. the amount of fertilizer you are giving them, or discover how the temperature of a water bath changes as salt crystals dissolve inside it, or unravel the metabolism of an insect as its diet is varied, you are going to need to make measurements. And probably lots of them!

Each data point that you might plot on your graph represents one "trail." A trail is a mini-experiment within your whole experiment. Sometimes the method you have to measure something just isn't very precise and so you have to repeat the same measurement a number of times to get a number you can have confidence in to plot on your graph. The question here is, how do you know how many measurements you need to make for each trial and how to you find the number to plot?

Here are a couple of rules to guide you.

Simple Trial: You need to determine the value of some physical property of just one single thing: Its weight, or pH, or height--at some time during your experiment. The number of measurements you need to make depends on how accurately you can determine the value.

Rules of Thumb: For example, if you have high confidence that every single measurement you make is accurate to within about one percent or so, measure the quantity twice--just to be certain you get the value both times. That's a good check to make sure you didn't make a mistake If when you make the same measurement a few times in a row you find that find that you find that the answers are always close--say within about 5 percent of each other-- then measure the quantity three times and use the average of those three measurements as your data point. (To calculate an average you simply add the numbers to together and then divide by the number of measurements you added.) If successive values vary by more than five percent, then measure the quantity least five times and take the average.

(Exception: If you are looking for very small changes in something, changes on the order of one percent or less, you will need a different rule to follow. If so, then you're probably doing something pretty advanced. Since most science fair projects don't need highly precise data, I'll skip the subtle complications that can arise for now.)

Large Trials: You need to measure the same quantity for every member of your test and control group. For example, you are testing a new fertilizer and you have decided to grow 30 test plants and 30 control plants. If you measured the height of each plant three times you'd need to make 180 separate measurements for every trail in your experiment!

Now, I would advise a research scientist who intended to publish their data in a peer-reviewed journal to do just that. But I wouldn't advise a student to work that hard because that kind of drudgery can really kill a young person's budding interest in doing a science project. In fact, I strongly advise students to find the simplest possible way to get a reasonably good answer. If you must make a numerical measurement for each member of your test and control group, then make the measurement once for each member and average over the each group. If this is too much work, then cut your test and control groups down to a more manageable number. It is better that your science experiment to loose sensitivity than for you not finish it. Finally, see if you can find a fast visual way to estimate the average. For example, if you are measuring the heights of plants, try creating a set of horizontal lines along a wall, like what you see behind people in mug shots, and lining the plants along a wall so you can easily compare the height of each plant. With a little practice, you will be able to get a pretty good visual estimate of the average heights at a glance. Make sure you photograph these trials and include each in your science project report in case a judge wants to check your results. (Do you think your desire for a positive result might influence your judgment? [Say, YES!] Then you need to think about how you can control for this possible bias. Why not let a friend with no stake in the outcome make the judgment for you from the pictures?) If you can find a simple way to visually get the information you need, you can save a whole lot of time and get great results!

Dr. Shawn

For more FREE help, visit my Super Science Project Support Site. Check out my collection of killer science fair project downloads. Are you running out of time? Check out my Desperation Science Projects for complete science project instructions that can be carried out in just one day! Or, better, have a complete science experiment sent directly to your home for professional results fast! And, of course, you'll find plenty of science project ideas at my science project idea bank, or my student-driven science project idea exchange.

Science Project Ideas from Students

I get science project ideas sent to me all the time from real student who have had real success at their science fair. Every so often I'll post the best of these, complete with helpful suggestions, to this blog to help you find winning ideas for your science fair project.

Do you have an winning idea to share? Please do so through the "comment" box below this post.

Dr. Shawn

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Dear Dr. Shawn

I did this project in the fourth grade and I got 1st place out of my entire school (K-8), then I got sent to state where a won a small scholarship. My question was:

"Whose mouth is cleaner, a dog's mouth or a human's mouth?"

I started off with 4 Petri dishes filled with gelatin. [You can find Petri dishes here. I suggest making the gel from augar flakes, which you can purchase at any well-stocked health food store. You may want to add a nutrient to at as well, like teaspoon of boiled beef broth. Dr. Shawn] Then took a swab of my mouth, my partners mouth, my dog's mouth and my partner's dog's mouth. I put these all in separate Petri dishes. I then observed the growth of different molds and fungus on the gelatin. I let them sit for about 3 weeks.

The experiment had a surprising result!

Meredith

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Dear Dr. Shawn

Last year for 7th grade, I did this really cool experiment on soda.

My idea was to see which soda contained the most fizz Cherry Pepsi, regular Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and Coca Cola. The "fizz" comes from the carbonated water. I reasoned that soda with the most sugar in it should have less room for carbonated water and therefore less fizz, so I took that to be my hypothesis.

I made a little machine out of a few household items and some wood that stirred the sodas until all the fizz was gone. Then I carefully weighted samples of each type of soda, stirred them vigorously until all the fizz was gone and then weighed them again. The soda that lost the most weight had the most fizz to start with. [You'll probably want to carry this out using a triple beam balance. See if you can borrow one from your school if you want to do this project. Dr. Shawn]

I got First Place!

This is a great project because after demonstrating at the science fair, you can hand out the free soda and that will make everyone want to come and see your project! (Trust me, it works!) It would also be a good 8th grade experiment or even 9th grade!

Lish

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Dear Dr. Shawn,

In 7th Grade, I got took First Place honors at both my county and stat science fair.

I wanted to see how well moisturizers retain moisture. You'll need these things:

1) Nine Petri dishes [You can find Petri dishes here. Dr. Shawn]

2) Five name brand lotions- Lubriderm, Origin etc.

3) Four ingredients of Lotions--100 percent cocoa butter, 10 percent baby oil, 100 percent aloe Vera, and petroleum jelly

4) Three packets of clear gelatin [I suggest making the gel from augar flakes, which you can purchase at any well-stocked health food store. Dr. Shawn]

5) Bent butter knife (op)

6) Triple beam balance [See if you can borrow one from your school. Dr. Shawn]

7) Large cookie sheet

Make the gelatin according to box, then disperse it evenly into your Petri dishes. Put all the Petri dishes on a large cookie sheet and put then in fridge. Let them set overnight. The apply the same amount of each product on to 8 of the Petri dishes. Be sure to label each Petri dish so you won't get mixed up and record everything in your notebook.

Leave one plain, as this will be your control.

Put all Petri dishes on the cookie sheet again and leave in a place at room temperature where they will not get disturbed. Weight each dish every day and record your results. Keep weighting until the control stops loosing weight. Record all your data and graph the weight of each Petri dish vs. time.

Which product works best? You'll have to try it to see!

Marz K.

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Dear Dr. Shawn,

In the 8th grade I did a science fair project involving the effectiveness of various hygiene products on the inhibition of bacteria.

I left meat on my counter for several hours and rubbed it on the agar of 10 Petri dishes. Then I soaked 60 hole punch circles in hygiene products---10 in mouthwash, 10 in antibacterial hand soap, 10 in Lysol, etc. Next I placed one of each type of circle at equal intervals around each Petri dish. [You can find Petri dishes here. I suggest making the gel from augar flakes, which you can purchase at any well-stocked health food store. You may want to add a nutrient to at as well, like teaspoon of boiled beef broth. Dr. Shawn] I allowed bacteria to grow for 48 hours under a bed and checked for bacterial growth. My hospital administrator allowed me to visit the hospital lab, and the technicians offered to make slides of the bacteria and performed Gram Stains, which really made the bacteria visible under the microscopes. We were able to identify the type of bacteria and I measured the absence of growth around each soaked circle and recorded the zone of inhibition(where the bacteria could not grow) and plotted the results.

It was a very interesting experiment that seemed to refute a lot of claims of products that supposedly kill so much bacteria. I learned so much and I really gained an interest in the field of microbiology!

Morgan
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Dear Dr. Shawn,

I did a project on whether snow was warmer on top or underneath. First, I filled a plastic container with snow. Next, I took two film canisters and filled them with warm gelatin. Then, I put one canister under the snow and one on top. After that I took two small regular thermometers and put one on top and one under the snow. After a while take the canisters and open them. I found that the top had a little ice in it but the other did not. Take the thermometers, to see which temperature is higher.

Do this several times with different thicknesses of snow. Record your data, plot your results, and state your conclusion.

Hilary King
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Dear Dr. Shawn,

My idea was to test the water found in our local areas to see if it has any threatening chemicals inside of it. Just buy a testing kit from epa.com/watersafe. (Only $6) Then gather up water from anywhere around your local wetlands and test it with standard EPA approved water. Trust it is a good project idea!

Megan
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Dear Dr. Shawn

My project was called Hay Infusion. It tested how bacteria grow in hay under different conditions.

It can be done with 4 glass jars and 2 lids. Put hay and water in each of the jars. Seal 2 of the jars. These will be your "anaerobic" samples--that is, samples grown in the absence of oxygen. [Actually, you should first boil the water vigorously, place it into the jars, seal the jars and set them aside to cool to room temperature BEFORE you add the hay. The water has oxygen gas dissolved in it (that's how fish breath) and boiling the water removes that gas before you start your experiment. You have to let the jars cool to room temperature, however, or you'll kill the bacteria on the hay when you put it into the jar. Dr. Shawn]

Put one anaerobic jar in the dark and the other in the light. Do the same for the two open jars. Let them set for a two weeks and see how much bacteria grows in each jar. Measure the turbidity (cloudiness) of the water by transferring some water to test tubes and measuring how much light gets through the test tube. You school probably has a colorimeter you can use for this test. If not, you can measuring the brightness of an LED [Light emitting diode. Dr. Shawn] through the water using a simple photocell you can buy at Radio Shack. Most house hold devices have LEDs on them. It doesn't much matter which color LED you use, just make sure all the room lights are off when you make the experiment. I made my measurements in my basement at night.

Put observations in research. If possible, use a high magnification and take pictures with a microscopic camera. Use a high contrast board. It stands out.(felt, construction paper and computer printouts)

THIS PROJECT GOT FIRST PLACE OVERALL!

Julie

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Dear Dr. Shawn,

My Idea was to measure the amount of fungus on my feet. For three days I wore three different kinds of shoes. Then I took the fungus off my feet with a Q-Tip. I put the fungus in a paper bag and wet it with water. Then I let it grow for five days. At the end of the five days there was a lot of fungus there.

Dominique

For more FREE help, visit my Super Science Project Support Site. Check out my collection of killer science fair project downloads. Are you running out of time? Check out my Desperation Science Projects for complete science project instructions that can be carried out in just one day! Or, better, have a complete science experiment sent directly to your home for professional results fast! And, of course, you'll find plenty of science project ideas at my science project idea bank, or my student-driven science project idea exchange.

KYSS Rule--"Keep Your Science Simple" X3

If you want your science project to kick tail at your science fair , then you need a science project idea that you can carry out easily before your science project is due. Remember, your science project idea may not work out the first time (most don't!), so make sure you pick a science project that you could complete at least three times before the due date. The experience you gain when doing your science project the first time will make your science project work better the second time, and if things still don't work out then, you'll still have time to complete your science project again!

Example: Suppose your science project requires two weeks to grow something, but your science fair is just three weeks away, then think carefully before settling on that science project idea. Don't start a two-week science project unless you have at least six weeks before the science fair.

Dr. Shawn

For more FREE help, visit my Super Science Project Support Site. Check out my collection of killer science fair project downloads. Are you running out of time? Check out my Desperation Science Projects for complete science project instructions that can be carried out in just one day! Or, better, have a complete science experiment sent directly to your home for professional results fast! And, of course, you'll find plenty of science project ideas at my science project idea bank, or my student-driven science project idea exchange.

How to Pick the Right Science Project

Since science includes absolutely everything that exists anywhere in the entire Universe, you aught to be able to find something out there that will lead you to a successful science project. It's actually pretty easy if you remember these simple rules.

Rule #1: Your topic doesn't matter much. Unless you're going after the top spot at one of the super elite national science competitions, your choice of project matters a lot less than you might think. Science fair judges are looking for evidence that you understand the methods of science and that you can actually carry out the entire scientific process--hypothesis to conclusion:That is, that you can formulate a testable question, design and implement a solid science experiment and write up an understandable science fair project report. They especially want to see that you understand whatever topic you have chosen, and that you understand the scientific method. Do all that, and you'll probably have a winning project.

Rule #2: Just make sure you've selected a science project. Forgive me, but from my long experience as a science fair judge I know that many students try to do an art project for their science fair! For instance, what does mixing baking soda and vinegar with a little red food coloring have to do with how volcanoes erupt? Answer... absolutely nothing. Yet many science fair students spend a whole lot of time creating a paper masche "volcano" around a soda bottle to deliver that classic but silly payoff. The truth is, the volcano "experiment" is an art project, not a science project, that has no place in a science classroom, let alone a science fair. And there are plenty of other disguised art projects at science fairs as well. How do you tell? ...It's pretty simple. If you haven't made measurements (or reviewed published data) to answer a specific and narrowly defined question, you haven't done a science project. Usually, if there is no graph in the paper, there is no science the project.

Rule #3: (the most important rule of all!) Pick a science project that interests you! I can't emphasize this enough. If your science project doesn't get you excited, then it's the wrong project for you. You've got be interested in something, right? Then you can formulate a narrowly focused question about whatever that thing is, can't you? Well, if that question is one that you could answer in a reasonably short amount of time using stuff that you have ready access to, then you've got yourself a science project. For more hints about selecting your science project idea, check out my 4 Fundamental Rules of science project success.

Dr. Shawn

For more FREE help, visit my Super Science Project Support Site. Check out my collection of killer science fair project downloads. Are you running out of time? Check out my Desperation Science Projects for complete science project instructions that can be carried out in just one day! Or, better, have a complete science experiment sent directly to your home for professional results fast! And, of course, you'll find plenty of science project ideas at my science project idea bank, or my student-driven science project idea exchange.