Need expert's advice!!!

[Neelu]

My daughter is in 5th grade and she decided to do the project ''how can body temperature tell the time of day''for her science fair and needs some advice. She wants to know what should be the Hypothesis and how to state the Problem for this project.She also wanted to know how you can tell the exact time?

Early advice will be appreciated,

Neelu

[agm]

Hi Neelu,

Welcome to the forum. I moved your question to the Life Sciences forum where more experts are likely to see it -- Preparing for the Science Fair is more for analyzing data and communicating results. Here's a link to the project you mentioned for everyone's reference:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p020.shtml

Amanda

[sunmoonstars]

Hi Neelu,

You won't be able to tell the exact time down to the minute because the temperature changes aren't significant enough every minute for you to detect. You may be able to determine the time down to the hour, depending on how long you gather data for and how frequently you measure the temperature.

The question or problem could be somethng like "Can I tell accurate time, within three hours, using my body temperature?"

The hypothesis could then be something like "My body temperature has a daily cycle consistant enough for me to predict the time"

[nithintumma]

Hello,

This sounds like a great project. I found some information online on the variations in normal body temperature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_hum ... Variations

This site has a graph plotting average body temperature against time of day, which might come in handy when you choose your time frames to study.

Also, when you are carrying out your project, keep in mind that time of day is not the only thing that influences body temperature. To account for other causes of variation, you should perform many trials of your experiment.

Hope this helps,
Nithin T.

[sciencediplomat]

Hello Neelu

I believe your hypothesis would be something like If I measure body temperature every two hours through 24 hours then due to circadian rhythms the body temperature will be cooler in the early morning and warmest in the late afternoon and early evening.This is hypothethical though so depending on your procedure and what research you find you can fill it in accordingly with the proper information.

The Problem statement would probably be : How does body temperature indicate the time of day?

There will be lots of influencing factors(variables) like activities you do, hot or cold liquids (depending if you are going to measure the temperature orally) you take,the accuracy of the thermometer,etc.,

Here are is a link regarding your project that might be useful

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/clock.html

Good Luck!

[Neelu]

Hi,Thank You for your reply!I was wondering if this project had more than 1 variable because the criteria said to have only 1 variable?Would the time and reaction time be 2 different variables?So if there is 2 variables,how would I go on doing this project?For my data,I am planning to make a line graph,so what would be on the X-axis and what would be on the Y-axis? Urgent reply appretiated!Thank you!

[sciencediplomat]

Hi neelu
There can only be one independent variable in an experiment because if you had more than one you wouldn’t be able to tell what’s affecting what. In your experiment the independent variable(what’s being affected )is the reaction time.
Here is the science buddies link explaining variables: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... bles.shtml.
In your graph the x axis would be the dependant variable which is the body temperature and the reaction time would be on the y-axis
I also included the science buddies link to help you create your graph:https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ysis.shtml

Best of luck!