Potential project idea

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AKM
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:15 am
Occupation: mom
Project Question: My daughter is in 2nd grade and is very curious as to why scent triggers old memories. She noticed myself, grandma, and others talk about an old memory after smelling certain things-campfire, spices, etc. She wants to do a science fair project on it...and we need some help landing on how we should test this...how many people, etc. Are there resources you can suggest? Thank you.
Project Due Date: Feb 2014
Project Status: I am just starting

Potential project idea

Post by AKM »

Last year I did a human memory project and enjoyed it so much that I want to work with people again. I need some advice for a couple of ideas please. One idea is that I have sets of grandparents and great grandparents that I like to hear stories from. Is there something I can do to see how their experiences affected the family and me? Or is that not scientific?

i would appreciate any advice and thank you!
tdaly
Former Expert
Posts: 1415
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2003 11:27 pm
Occupation: Planetary Scientist
Project Question: N/A
Project Due Date: N/A
Project Status: Not applicable

Re: Potential project idea

Post by tdaly »

Hi AKM,

I'm glad that you enjoyed your project last year so much that you want to do a similar project again! A passion for your project goes a long way in helping a project be successful. I'm not sure whether you can do an experiment to see how your grandparents and great-grandparents stories affected you and your family. I can't definitely say no, but I'm having trouble thinking of a way to make that work. Is there a specific story they have told you that you particularly like? I'm wondering whether there might be something in one of their stories that you could turn into a science project. Maybe one time one of your grandparents or great grandparents left something out of a recipe and something funny happened, for example. You could do an experiment where you varied the amount of that ingredient in the recipe and measured how that changed the food once it is cooked. Did they do any science projects when they were in school? If you are willing to share a couple of parts of stories that stand out to you, I'm happy to brainstorm projects that could be inspired by those stories. Hopefully another Expert will chime in with some additional ideas!
All the best,
Terik
connief
Former Expert
Posts: 302
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 12:27 pm
Occupation: Graduate Student
Project Question: I am volunteering for the "Ask an Expert" program.
Project Due Date: I am volunteering for the "Ask an Expert" program.
Project Status: Not applicable

Re: Potential project idea

Post by connief »

Hello there,

I'm also really glad that you really enjoyed your project last year and would like to do another one this year! I agree with the previous expert that it may be difficult to design an experiment to test how your grandparents' and great-grandparents' experiences affected you and your family because it's hard to measure something like that. I think the previous expert's idea about the recipe experiment is really good, and perhaps thinking about the stories that stuck out to you and designing an experiment inspired by those stories may be a good direction to go. However, if you are still interested in doing something related to human memory, we can also help you brainstorm about that. What about human memory would you like to learn more about? Why don't you write back with some more details about that and also what the previous expert mentioned about stories that stuck out to you, and we can help you figure out potential projects you can do!

Connie
AKM
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:15 am
Occupation: mom
Project Question: My daughter is in 2nd grade and is very curious as to why scent triggers old memories. She noticed myself, grandma, and others talk about an old memory after smelling certain things-campfire, spices, etc. She wants to do a science fair project on it...and we need some help landing on how we should test this...how many people, etc. Are there resources you can suggest? Thank you.
Project Due Date: Feb 2014
Project Status: I am just starting

Re: Potential project idea

Post by AKM »

Hi again,
I decided on a different project. A place in my town is doing a study and asked the public to help. It is to count barrel cactus seeds in fruit to find pollination hot spots. I'm very interested in this in my neighborhood, but can you give advice on how to make it my own project? A little different?

Thank you.
tdaly
Former Expert
Posts: 1415
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2003 11:27 pm
Occupation: Planetary Scientist
Project Question: N/A
Project Due Date: N/A
Project Status: Not applicable

Re: Potential project idea

Post by tdaly »

Hi AKM,

This sounds like an interesting study your town is doing! To make the project your own, you will want to come up with a specific hypothesis to test. For example, you might make a hypothesis about where you think the pollination hot spots will be and then collect fruit from a few locations (a mix of hypothesized hot spots and hypothesized non-hot spots). You could count the seeds and then see if your predicted hot spots were correct based on the number of seeds. You can test other hypotheses as well. For example, you could test whether larger fruit have more seeds.
All the best,
Terik
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