Landfill Science Fair Idea

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Herbmist13
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Landfill Science Fair Idea

Post by Herbmist13 »

Hello,
I just got my paper information for the science fair and after scrolling through Science Buddies' ideas, I found one that I really liked to base my idea on. It was the landfill experiment. So, basically, I'd visit or call some local landfills and ask about dumping statistics to determine the most problem waste products and I believe the goal is to determine ways to reduce those appearances in landfills; however, I am unsure of what the independent, dependent, and control variable would be. Would I have to change the goal to make it easier to determine one? I was considering involving people during surveys after discovering ways of reusing/recycling to see which option they are most willing to do if that could help figure out what the variables should be.
SciB
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Re: Landfill Science Fair Idea

Post by SciB »

Hi,

Personally, I think running experiments is the most fun way to do a science project, but you can get good data through surveys too. This is a statistically valid tool in social sciences. It can be difficult getting enough people to participate, however, and you have to select your target group carefully. That would be your independent variable, with sub-variables like age, gender, level of education, etc. The dependent variable would be the scores on the questionnaire.

The key to success here is the questionnaire that you have to create for your subjects to respond to. The survey will contain a number of questions that the participants have to answer using a scale of 1 to 5 (called a Likert scale) from 1 = strongly disagree, to 5 = strongly agree. There are many statistical tests that researchers have to run to check for bias in the survey, for uniformity of the data, significance and several other parameters. It can get pretty complicated, but it is necessary to test your hypotheses accurately.

Let me know more details about the specific question or questions you are trying to answer and what group of people you are going to ask to participate. You can also do some online research to find out more about using a questionnaire as a research tool if you aren't familiar with this.

Send me your reply and I will get back to you right away.

Sybee
Herbmist13
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2021 7:05 am
Occupation: Student

Re: Landfill Science Fair Idea

Post by Herbmist13 »

SciB wrote:Hi,

Personally, I think running experiments is the most fun way to do a science project, but you can get good data through surveys too. This is a statistically valid tool in social sciences. It can be difficult getting enough people to participate, however, and you have to select your target group carefully. That would be your independent variable, with sub-variables like age, gender, level of education, etc. The dependent variable would be the scores on the questionnaire.

The key to success here is the questionnaire that you have to create for your subjects to respond to. The survey will contain a number of questions that the participants have to answer using a scale of 1 to 5 (called a Likert scale) from 1 = strongly disagree, to 5 = strongly agree. There are many statistical tests that researchers have to run to check for bias in the survey, for uniformity of the data, significance and several other parameters. It can get pretty complicated, but it is necessary to test your hypotheses accurately.

Let me know more details about the specific question or questions you are trying to answer and what group of people you are going to ask to participate. You can also do some online research to find out more about using a questionnaire as a research tool if you aren't familiar with this.

Send me your reply and I will get back to you right away.

Sybee

Thanks for responding. I would prefer to run some experiments instead doing questionnaires but I am unsure about how to begin. The question I was think was "What methods could minimize abundant kinds of waste in landfills?" Would you have any ideas on how to start something like that? Maybe you have another idea for a question. As for the surveys, I was planning my target group to be homeowners where dumping at landfills are routine task.
SciB
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Re: Landfill Science Fair Idea

Post by SciB »

Hello again,

Recycling is a complicated process because there is so much variation from community to community. Our state of Maine just passed a law banning the use of disposable plastic bags, so people have to provide their own reusable bags for groceries and other items. I have done that for years so it was not a problem for me, but others might say that they were recycling the plastic bags after use, so it should be OK. The biggest problem for consumers, I think is packaging material--the various clear plastic bags, wraps and containers that just about everything is packed in these days. Most places recycle metal cans and some types of plastic, but glass probably not--and glass does not degrade in a landfill.

I think such a survey about consumer opinions and preferences for recycling could provide interesting data and make an attention-getting project. The hard part is going to be writing the questions. In my experience, the only way to quantify and test the results statistically is by using a Likert scale--numbered from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). For qualitative purposes you could also create a brief questionnaire with short answers to get demographic data like age, gender, income, education, etc., the standard sorts of things surveys want to know. To define the subjects' current recycling status, you will also have to include questions like, What do you recycle?, How do you recycle?, How often?, etc. Targeting homeowners is a good idea, but I would also be very interested to know what children think about recycling since they are the consumers and recyclers of tomorrow. Also, they frequently push their parents to be more conscientious about recycling and buying items in biodegradable or recyclable packaging

I would suggest doing a search for survey questions related to recycling so you can get an idea how others have approached such a question. There are established statistical tests that can be done on the questionnaire and the data that will improve the success of your project greatly and these are described online--try Youtube.

Post again when you have decided how you want to approach the project.

Good luck!

Sybee
Herbmist13
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Re: Landfill Science Fair Idea

Post by Herbmist13 »

Thank you so much for the ideas!
I do plan to go on with the likert scale surveys as I find many similar experiments in my grade level do not consider social preference. After researching the kinds of plastics and which forms seem to be prominent in my local landfill, I plan to take some to experiment with different ways of reuse and hoping engineer some ways to recycle them. In the surveys, I hope to provide a concise outline of those experiments and ask the subjects how they feel about it while including your other question recommendations.
Tell me if you notice any potential problems with what I've stated or have any advice to help clear something that I might be missing. I appreciate the time you took to help me.
SciB
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Posts: 2066
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 7:00 am
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Project Question: I wish to join Scibuddies to be able to help students achieve the best science project possible and to understand the science behind it.
Project Due Date: n/a
Project Status: Not applicable

Re: Landfill Science Fair Idea

Post by SciB »

Hey, I'm happy to help get your brain working on science ideas.

It sounds like you have two projects going here, which might be a little hard to mesh. If I understand right, you want to come up with some ways to reuse different kinds of polymer and then survey people on your proposals. That would require some knowledge of chemistry and also engineering which most people don't have, so asking them questions about processes might not get the answers you are looking for.

To me there are two problems--how to get the most people to recycle their plastic food containers and what to do with the plastic after it goes to the recycling plant. You could throw in a third problem, which would be making manufacturers and packagers come up with biodegradable containers, but that gets into economics and I'd stay away from that.

So, which problem are you most interested in? Devising ways to process waste plastic would require some experiments that could be a challenge because of limited resources and time, but would be (to me as a chemist) much more interesting. A survey is quicker and doesn't cost anything, except for time to compose the questions, distribute and collect the questionnaires and analyze the results.

More ideas?

Sybee
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