Abstract
Did you know that some teachers give their students a peppermint candy on state testing days? Is it to give the kids sweet-smelling breath? Or are the teachers hoping for something more on the important testing day? In this human biology science fair project, you'll explore whether or not peppermint influences scores on different types of tests.Objective
To determine if peppermint can improve reactions times during periods of mental fatigue.
Introduction
![]() Click here to watch a video of this investigation, "Breakfast by Cameron and Ashley." This video was produced by DragonflyTV and presented by pbskidsgo.org. |
Imagine that tomorrow is a big state testing day. You may feel a little nervous, and your teachers and parents have probably advised you to "get a good night's sleep" and "eat a good breakfast," so that you can do your best. The biggest predictor of success on a test is, of course, the amount of time you spend studying for it, but can other little things, like eating breakfast, give you an edge, too? If you want to watch how a couple of students investigated whether eating breakfast could improve their scores on a memory test, click the DragonflyTV video link on the right, and join Cameron and Ashley as they test their entire classroom.
In this science fair project, you won't be looking at memory tests, but at reaction time tests, and investigating whether eating peppermint can improve reaction times when a person is tired, or under mental fatigue. Reaction time is the time between the start of a sensory stimulus and the time when a person responds to that stimulus. For example, if a person is told to push a button when he or she sees the color red flashed on a screen, the reaction time is the time between when red is first flashed on the screen and the time when he or she first pushes the button. During the reaction time, the person's visual system will see and identify the color red, and then the higher thinking centers will command the motor cortex, in the brain, to send a signal to the arm and hand muscles to push the button. That's a lot going on!
The sensory stimulus does not have to be a visual one, though. Reaction time can be measured as a response to other sensory stimuli, too, such as a sound or a touch. In fact, reaction times to sound have been shown to be faster, on average, than reaction times to visual stimuli. Reaction times have also been shown to be dependent upon many factors, such as a person's:
For example, reaction times continue to shorten as a child ages. Reaction times reach their fastest point sometime in a person's late 20's. After this age, however, reaction times slowly begin to increase until the 50's and 60's, at which point they begin to increase even more. Reaction times also lengthen if a person is sleepy or mentally fatigued.
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| Figure 1. This drawing shows that reaction time is the time from the presentation of a stimulus (in this example, the stimulus is the red screen) to the time of a reaction to that stimulus (when the hand pushes the button). |
In this science fair project, you will look at reaction times during a time of mental fatigue, and see if peppermint has the ability to improve those reactions times. Peppermint is currently used in some school districts in the United States as a snack on state testing days, in hopes that it will help improve test scores. Peppermint aroma has been studied to see if it can increase attention and focus, and even athletic performance. You will study peppermint candies to see if they improve the reaction times of volunteers at a time when they are most drowsy, right before bedtime. So find your favorite peppermint candy and find out if peppermint freshens your breath and your brain!
Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research
Bibliography
This source describes how peppermint candies are used in some school districts:
This source describes how many factors—like age, gender, and handedness—can influence reaction times:
This source describes paired t-tests and gives four online sites for conducting these tests:
This source uses a stoplight for a reaction time test:
This science fair project was inspired by this resource:
Materials and Equipment
Experimental Procedure
Be sure that each row has reaction times for the same volunteer. For example, row 1 should have reaction times only for volunteer 1. Row 2 should have reaction times only for volunteer 2.
Variations
Credits
Kristin Strong, Science Buddies
Last edit date: 2008-12-26 11:17:00
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