Developing an artificial pancreas

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Heet
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 11:28 pm
Occupation: Student

Developing an artificial pancreas

Post by Heet »

Hi,
I have successfully completed this experiment, but as I was doing my variables, I could not find the manipulating variable. My science fair is due in 2 days. Please help!!
norman40
Former Expert
Posts: 1022
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2014 1:49 pm
Occupation: retired chemist
Project Question: Volunteer
Project Due Date: n/a
Project Status: Not applicable

Re: Developing an artificial pancreas

Post by norman40 »

Hi,

I'm assuming that you are working on the project described here:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... as#summary

This is an engineering project and as such it does not have independent and dependent variables. Rather, the goal of the project is to build and troubleshoot an artificial pancreas model.

Although it's not really the objective of the project an acid/base titration is used to demonstrate the artificial pancreas function. In a titration experiment, the dependent variable is the endpoint (where the acid neutralizes the base). And the independent variable is the amount of acid needed to get to the endpoint.

I hope this helps. Please ask again if you have more questions.

A. Norman
Heet
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 11:28 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: Developing an artificial pancreas

Post by Heet »

Thank you very much!
Heet
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 11:28 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: Developing an artificial pancreas

Post by Heet »

Hi,
I completed my school science fair and now I am off to the regional science fair. One of my judges suggested that I should do my experiment a few more times. However, when I started to do my experiment a few more times, the pump sucked all of the vinegar in the bowl and there was none left. It was supposed to stop when 100ml is sucked out and pumped into the baking soda, but it did not. I checked if my circuit board was right many times and I did not find any errors with that. Could I please get some help on why it did not stop and how I could make it stop?

Here is the link to my experiment:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... l-pancreas

Thank you
norman40
Former Expert
Posts: 1022
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2014 1:49 pm
Occupation: retired chemist
Project Question: Volunteer
Project Due Date: n/a
Project Status: Not applicable

Re: Developing an artificial pancreas

Post by norman40 »

Hi Heet,

Congratulations on making the regional science fair. Nice work!

Sorry that the pump in your artificial pancreas model is not shutting off properly. Some possible causes for this are as follows.

Are the bare wires of the conductance sensor touching? If the two copper wires are in contact the experiment will not work. Separate the wires as shown in the project procedure.

Does the pump run when the conductance sensor is immersed in a neutralized solution? If so, you should normalize your model as described in steps 1-11 of the project procedure (Testing the Artificial Pancreas Model).

Did you prepare the baking soda solution correctly? The project procedure calls for 14.3 g baking soda dissolved in 200 mL of distilled water.

Did you use fresh distilled white vinegar? You might want to try a new, unopened bottle of vinegar for your experiments.

I hope this helps. Please ask again if you have more questions.

A. Norman
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