Note: This month's "Scientist's Pick" is from Science Buddies' staff scientist, Kristin Strong. Kristin presented this project to the Science Buddies' team in February. It's got an icy, winter theme! ~ Science Buddies' Editorial Staff

Project: No Pain, Lots of Game
Scientist: Kristin Strong
Science Buddies' Difficulty Level: 4

My favorite project of recent ones I've worked on is the Science Buddies project, No Pain, Lots of Game, a project that looks at the relationship between video gaming and pain management.

Personal Connection

This project grew out of personal experience with my oldest daughter. When she was five years old, we discovered that she had a birth defect requiring chest and abdominal surgery. During her hospital stay, her pain was managed primarily with morphine, but during painful procedures, the surgeon advised us to put on a movie and to get her engaged in that before starting the procedure. During her months of recovery at home, my daughter would often wake up in pain, and again I used a combination of medication and videos to help her get through the night.

In 2008, when Science Buddies opened up a new interest area section on computer and video games, I wondered if any research was being done on using computer or video games to manage pain. I learned that indeed, throughout the country, studies are being done to see if video games and virtual reality games like Snow World can help alleviate pain in patients suffering from burns. Burn units were chosen for these studies because burns are some of the most painful kinds of injuries that people must endure, sometimes requiring months of daily wound care. I decided to try and write a science fair project for students that would parallel this real-world research.

Putting It All Together

An "ice bath" was used to create a painful circumstance for volunteers. We were then able to test to see if playing a video game helped reduce awareness of pain (or increase the ability to withstand and block pain).

The question that we're trying to answer with this video game science fair project is: Can video games be included in the repertoire of pain management strategies?

To try and answer this question, I decided to use an "ice bath" as a way to create pain without causing lasting injury. To test the project, brave volunteers were seated in a chair and asked to put the front part of one foot in the ice water, a situation that is uncomfortable and "painful." We asked each volunteer to leave his or her foot in as long as possible, and we measured and recorded the amount of time.

To test our theory about video games, we then had each volunteer play a video or computer game for 5 min, and, while the volunteer continued to play the game, the other forefoot was submerged in ice water for as long as the volunteer could stand that.
The data was then analyzed to see if the video games made a difference in how long the volunteers were able to endure the ice bath.

Real-World Results

I like this project because it can be done with things that many families have on hand, like ice, bowls, a stopwatch or way to count seconds, and computer or video games. In just a few minutes, you can set up an experiment that parallels research being done at big universities and medical schools. I think students will find it interesting to discover that there is great individual variation in sensitivity to pain—and in the ability of games to reduce or "dial down" pain.

Plus, there's a lot of room to extend and customize this project. One variation to the main project is to test various types of games to see if the "kind" of game or media source alters the outcome. Is Donkey Kong better than Dragon Warrior for helping block pain? Is TV just as good as a video game?

With an ice water bath and some brave volunteers, kids can find out.

~Kristin

For similar project ideas, explore the Video & Computer Games interest area, sponsored by AMD, in the Science Buddies Project Directory.

Note: This month's "Scientist's Pick" is from Science Buddies' staff scientist, David Whyte. David presented this project to the Science Buddies' team last fall. It's very cool! ~ Science Buddies' Editorial Staff

Project: Smarter Than Your Average Slime: Maze-solving by an Amoeboid Organism
Scientist: David Whyte
Science Buddies' Difficulty Level: 7-9

I was doing some background research on simple organisms that might be used in science projects when I came across an article entitled "Maze-solving by an amoeboid organism." The article contained just what I had been looking for—the basis for a novel project that was both cutting-edge science and also well within the reach of the kitchen scientist.

Materials Tip!

Kits for growing the organism, Physarum polycephalum, can be purchased from several science supply stores online.

The basic finding of the research presented in the article was that Physarum, a common inhabitant of wooded areas around the world, can find the shortest path through a maze set up on an agar plate. Physarum, also called slime mold, typically forms a large amoeba-like mass that moves over dead leaves and rotting logs looking for organic matter to consume.

Announcing their findings in the journal Nature, the researchers said they believe the organism changed its shape to maximize its foraging efficiency and therefore its chances of survival. They went on to claim that "This remarkable process of cellular computation implies that cellular materials can show a primitive intelligence."

In the lab, Physarum can be grown in Petri dishes that have a layer of agar on the bottom, so I decided to put Physarum to the test at home.

Conducting the Experiment

To set up the experiment, I placed pieces of slime mold in a 30-square-centimeter (five-square-inch) maze on an agar plate. On that same plate, I strategically placed a food source at two spots in the maze.

What happened?

The pieces of slime mold coalesced, and the organism condensed its entire body to form a mass that stretched between the two food sources and connected them. In each trial, the slime mold showed its ability to both solve the maze and find the food. Each time, it adopted the shortest possible route, effectively solving the puzzle.

The project idea I created for Science Buddies lets you devise your own maze to see for yourself how the slime mold behaves. You'll have to decide for yourself—is the slime mold "intelligent"? Are there limits to its intelligence?

Other questions you might ask as you work with the Physarum include:

• What environmental cues is it using and how does it process information in ways that allow it to adapt?
• What other tests can be devised to further explore how these remarkable creatures respond to the world as their senses experience it?

For me, any project that involves "cellular computation" and "primitive intelligence" in an amoeboid organism has lots of potential. In this project, what I discovered is that Physarum is a simple organism - one that you can experiment with at home—but it is not really so "simple" after all.

David

If this project sounds like fun, you might want to explore other Project Ideas in our Zoology section.

Note: This month's "Scientist's Pick" is from Science Buddies' lead staff scientist, Sandra Slutz. Did you miss last month's "Scientist's Pick" write-up? Do you speak Ollie? ~ Science Buddies' Editorial Staff

Project: That's a Real Smile! ...or is it?
Scientist: Sandra Slutz
Science Buddies' Difficulty Level: 5-7

Maybe it's the fact that the holiday season is starting, or maybe it's the funny antics of my toddler - but either way I've been noticing people's smiles. And the truth is people smile a lot! But after a bit of people watching (a favorite activity of mine), I've noticed that not all smiles are created equal. For example there are the "I'm having a really good day" smiles, the "nice to meet you" smiles, and the "I'm going to plaster this grin on my face and look happy even if I'm not" smiles. There are probably a dozen more that you could separate out if you sat and watched people for a while.

So do you think you're any good at detecting "genuine" versus "social" smiles? After all that people watching, I sure thought I was! But after taking a 10 minute long Spot the Fake Smile test I was surprised to see how hard it is to tell the difference between a true smile and a false one. Sitting in the café watching people it seemed so easy; probably because of all the other social cues and context. But when it came to just watching videos of people smiling out of context, I wasn't very good at distinguishing the real smiles from the fake ones.

All this piqued my curiosity about the science behind smiles - and our instinctive ability to interpret or accurately read them. After a couple of hours of digging around in psychology literature, I realized that I'm not the only one who is fascinated by smiles. Scientists have been researching smiles for centuries! In fact it was the nineteenth-century French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne who first noticed that we use different muscles for genuine smiles versus social smiles. These two types of smiles also correlate with activity in two very different parts of our brains.

All these observations and research culminated in my writing a Project Idea about smiles for science buddies: That's a Real Smile!...or is it?

This science fair project, which is my scientist's pick of the month, lets you explore how good a group of people are at detecting different types of smiles, as well as their confidence in doing so. I had a lot of fun researching and writing the project. Hopefully, it will be just as fun for the scientists who try it out!

:) (genuinely),

Sandra

P.S. If you'd like to try another "science of smiling" science fair project check out Is Smiling Contagious?

If you enjoy watching people, check out the other projects in the Human Behavior section of the Science Buddies Project Ideas library.

Note: A core team of scientists at Science Buddies work on an ongoing basis on the development of science fair project ideas that are grounded in real-world science and current events and are engaging. Working to excite a wide range of students, our scientists often work on projects that uncover and highlight the science that underwrites even everyday activities. Each month, we'll be asking one of our scientists "What's your favorite project idea from the ones you've recently authored and why?" With each monthly Scientist's Pick, we'll give you a behind-the-scenes look at what our scientists are thinking when they come up with the ideas they turn into project ideas for Science Buddies. We'll find out why they picked a certain project or problem to explore and why they enjoyed a certain project. We're kicking off this new blog feature with a pick from staff scientist, Michelle Maranowski. ~ Science Buddies' Editorial Staff

Project: Popping an Ollie: How Skateboarders + Physics = A Really Cool Trick
Scientist: Michelle Maranowski
Science Buddies' Difficulty Level: 4

Have you ever seen skateboarders in your city? The way they balance on a small plank of wood, dodging and weaving around obstacles, is amazing. I have always been fascinated by the skill, stamina, and strength that skateboarders exhibit. Most adults that I know find skateboarders kind of annoying and think of skateboarding as a silly hobby.

I spent some time with a typical skateboarder, Jonathan Perez, and I realized that for skateboarders like Jonathan, skateboarding is more than a hobby. Jonathan is passionate about skateboarding because he believes it is an art form. He also believes that his hobby has improved his balance and focus.

After watching Jonathan jump and spin, I realized that while there is art to skateboarding, the sport also demonstrates physics at work. I thought that writing a project on the physics of skateboarding might interest a lot of students who think that science has no application in real life and just belongs in the laboratory.

In the project "Popping an Ollie" we look at the how to do the most basic trick, the Ollie, and the physics behind it. The Ollie is the first step in more complicated tricks like the 360 kick flip. Some of the forces that act on a skateboarder are gravity, the weight of the skateboarder, and the force of the ground pushing back up on the skateboarder. In "Popping an Ollie," the skateboarder experiments with how his or her speed affects the height and the distance of the Ollie.

~ Michelle

If you enjoy skateboarding, try this Science Buddies project along with the other skateboarding project in the Sports Science section of Science Buddies.