Help! My daughters teacher assigned her a topic.

[spikes107]

We do not know how to come up with the research questions to use. Her topic is Whic has the most staying power lip gloss, lip balm, or lip stick? We thought about using a napkin, drinking from a straw and drinking from a cup. I don't know what to do actually. We will do the experiment. I know that lip stick has the most staying power because it is dryer. Lip gloss has the less and it is more sticky. Lip balm with coco butter in it stays on better then lip balm without coco butter. Lipstick stays on better when applied with a lip bush instead of the tube of lip sick. But, we need help on how to start this. PLEASE any advise would be helpful. Thank you!!!!

[ScienceExpert123]

Dear spikes107,

I think you are definitely on the right track. Remember, for an experiment you want controls and variables. So the people using the lip products and the lip products themselves are controls. So far your variable is how a napkin, straw, and cup will affect the lip products. So you have definitely got everything right. I would suggest using as large a sample population as possible (use multiple people). Make sure you repeat all the experiments on each person, otherwise your experiment doesn’t have a control. Also, you can add other variables to the situation, such as time. ex. you can try removing lipstick from someone a minute after applying the product and then you can try removing the lipstick 10 minutes after you applied the product.

let me know if you have any more questions.

good luck,
scienceexpert123

[spikes107]

Thank you so much! This definitely helps. How should I show my hypothesis? That I think lip stick has more staying power because it is dryer than Lip gloss and lip balm. Do you think another variables could be to get the people to exfoliate their lips before applying the lip stick, lip gloss and lip balm to their lips? Thank you for your help!

[ScienceExpert123]

Well you can have multiple hypotheses as long as they don't contradict each other and work with different variables. For example, these can be a set of hypotheses:
1. lipstick will stick the most out of the three lip products
2. exfoliation will make all products stick more

in your hypothesis you can't say that the lipstick will stick more because it is drier. Dryness is not a variable or constant in the experiment, so saying that the lipstick will stick more because of its dryness should go in a discussion section.

here's a link about hypotheses: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... esis.shtml

also, remember, this is your daughter's project, so make sure she is doing the work. A middle school science fair project and the scientific method (question, hypothesis, procedure,...) are invaluable skills learned in middle school.

let me know if you have any more questions

good luck,
scienceexpert123

[spikes107]

She is right here with me. I'm helping because she was so frustrated and had no idea where to start. Her teacher said "It had to be done at home, they do not have time to go over it in class. Research it". And I had to many ideas and did not know how to start. You have helped tremendously. Thank you!!

[spikes107]

When we do the experiment on which has the best staying power lip stick, lip balm or lip gloss, we are going to use 5 individuals and have each one drink from a straw, a solo cup, and blot the lips with a white napkin. How should we measure this? Should we apply the lip product and 1 min. after applying let the individual drink from a straw and re-apply the same product and have the individual drink for a solo cup and ect.? ( allow all 5 individulas to do this ) Then 10 min. after applying do the same exact thing as the 1 min. experiment? Measure it on how it sticks by how long it stays on before you drink or blot on a napkin or just see how much is left on the individuals lips and take pictures? Do you have any suggestions?

[spikes107]

HELP!!!! When we do the experiment on which has the best staying power lip stick, lip balm or lip gloss, we are going to use 5 individuals and have each one drink from a straw, a solo cup, and blot the lips with a white napkin. How should we measure this? Should we apply the lip product and 1 min. after applying let the individual drink from a straw and re-apply the same product and have the individual drink for a solo cup and ect.? ( allow all 5 individulas to do this ) Then 10 min. after applying do the same exact thing as the 1 min. experiment? Measure it on how it sticks by how long it stays on before you drink or blot on a napkin or just see how much is left on the individuals lips and take pictures of the product on each of the items we use, straw, cup, and naptkin? Do you have any suggestions?

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

I'm so sorry we missed your question on Wednesday! Here is a reply that will hopefully help you complete this project.

The problem that you are having with this project is that there's no good way to quantitate the lipstick or lip balm before and after the trials. However, your idea of taking before and after pictures is a good idea. You could do your experiment either way, but I think it would probably be better to reapply the lip product before each straw, napkin, or Solo cup test. This is actually going to be a lot of work, and if you think your test subjects' time or patience is limited, you might want to do just one test, using either the straw, napkin, or Solo cup test, for each product. The staying power of the lip product will probably be similar in each experimental situation. In addition to the photographs, I recommend that you try to score the results with a number; for example, freshly applied lipstick or lip balm would have a score of "10" and no remaining product would have a score of "0." You can have two people rate the results after each test, if possible. This would give you a semi-quantitative result that you could present on your science board. You could present results with a bar graph.

Don't forget to include some background science in your project board. The chemistry of lipsticks is very interesting. Here is a website that includes some information:

http://clearlyexplained.com/culture/fas ... stick.html

http://www.chemistry.nus.edu.sg/2500/cosmetics.htm

http://www.science.org.au/nova/083/083key.htm

If you can, look up the ingredients in the products you test and compare results with the composition of the products. This discussion would be included in your conclusion section.

I hope this helps!

Donna Hardy