Fighting the Flu: project question

[nimtiaz]

Hello,
I am a new member here. My school science fair is coming up and I chose a project from this website. It is called "Fighting the flu: how your immune system uses its memory." I am really interested in doing this project, but the project is more of making a model and learning how the body system works with the flu using antibodies. There is no question that is being answered. My sister is helping me and she looked at the "Make it your own tab" as well, but we didn't really understand how we could form a question and answer it by doing the experiment using the ideas given in that tab. Also, I am in 7th grade so I wanted to know if this would be a good grade level project for me. My sister was telling me that this is an intermediate easy project, which is for 5-6 graders but if we could change it a bit to make it a bit advanced, it would be fine. I am confused. If someone could please help me with this problem, that would be great. Here is the link to the project also:

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

[SciB]

Hi and welcome to Scibuddies! You have brought up a great question—what constitutes a ‘science project’? In the opinion of most scientists a true science project centers around a hypothesis that states a proposition testable by experiment. Projects that involve models that illustrate scientific principles but don’t test a hypothesis are more properly called demonstrations.

The flu project you cited is an example of a demonstration to illustrate how antibodies and cells of the immune system recognize foreign antigens like those of the influenza virus. The analogy with iron filings as the flu virus attracted to magnets as antibodies is good but the immune system is way more complex and fascinating. Immunology is my field of research and I speak from experience as a scientist when I say it is still one of the most exciting areas to study.

With regard to your chosen project I can see no way to create a real hypothesis using this model. Hopefully the other experts can come up with some ideas here. Researchers use models all the time to study immune cells and their interactions but we use either human cells themselves in culture or we use mice which have an immune system that is reasonably close to that of humans.

Since you don’t have much time to develop an experimental project I would suggest sticking with the model for now. You can do the analysis suggested in the Make-it-Your-Own section where you determine how much of the salt adheres to the magnets along with the iron filings. This represents what is called an autoimmune response. Antibodies and immune system cells are not supposed to recognize your body’s own proteins, but sometimes the mechanism fails and an attack does occur. As you would imagine having your immune system attack and destroy some of your own cells can be pretty bad!

If you are interested in learning about the immune system, here’s a great textbook: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK27138/
It is a college-level book but it is very clearly written and will give you the basic idea of what the innate system consists of compared to the adaptive system. If you want simpler explanations you can google ‘immune system’ and you will get zillions of hits.

I hope you will find the immune system amazing and exciting and choose to do a later project when you have more time and resources. Any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us.

Good luck!

Sybee

[nimtiaz]

Thank you for the information and all your help. I have been thinking if I do the analysis, what would be my question? Would it be, how much salt adheres to the magnets along with the iron filings? I am not sure how this question would work. I have also taken a look at the textbook link to learn more. My last question is about how long it would take if I developed an experiment project and actually performed it?


I hope to hear from you soon and thank you again for all your help.

[SciB]

You are welcome. Glad to help.

As far as I can tell, there’s no question in that project that you can ask or answer. The iron filings represent flu virus, the salt is the cells of the host and the magnets are the antibodies. They are a weak analogy to how the immune system actually works and there’s no way to get any meaningful data from this sort of model. It is useful as a teaching tool but it is not an experimental system.

If you are serious about wanting to learn how to do research on the immune system you first need to learn as much as you can on your own about it and then try to find a mentor in a university research lab who will take you on as a volunteer to learn and perform experiments. Biomedical research is a great career in my opinion and working in a lab is a great way to find out firsthand whether it is right for you. Even if you decided to study some other area, the training you received doing experiments in a professional lab would be extremely valuable.

Scibuddies has information about finding a mentor here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tors.shtml and you can check the websites of any colleges or universities in your area to find out which professors are doing research in areas that interest you. Read as much as you can and also check youtube for videos related to your interests. Then you will have a much better idea what kinds of experiments life scientists do to answer questions.

Many of the experts on this forum work in research labs and can guide you in general ways, but to ask interesting questions about complex physiological systems such as the immune system and get real answers you need to have training and access to a cell biology lab. We have undergrad and high school students in our lab every summer doing interesting projects, so this is something you can aim for. We’ll be here to give advice and suggestions.

Good luck!

Sybee

[nimtiaz]

The immune system is a very interesting topic, but I guess I won't be able to do this project because we are not testing any question we have. I did find another project though. I have to test how microwave radiation affects different organisms. The materials ask for sterilized potting soil and I wanted to know if someone could tell me where I could find this soil. At first I thought it was regular soil, but now I am not too sure its regular soil. The materials also ask for four small containers. I believe four small pots could be used, correct? Here is the link to the project as well in case its needed:

http://www.education.com/science-fair/a ... organisms/

[SciB]

Hi,

Sorry you couldn’t do an immunology project this time but you can still plan for it later.

This microwave project sounds like a good one with interesting questions.

Most potting soil that you buy in bags in the garden section has been sterilized. Read the labels to find out more information or go to the manufacturer’s website. And yes, four small plastic flower pots would be ideal.

The only other tip I would give you is about the bacterial plates. I have found that you get more growth if you moisten the swabs in water before you rub them on a surface. After you do this, be sure to rub the swab around carefully on the agar surface so as not to dig into it, but you also want to cover as much of the surface as you can.

Put the plates in a location that is at least 80F so you will get good growth. Note that there will probably be molds as well as bacterial colonies growing on the agar. Some of these could be harmful pathogens so leave the lids on the plates. In fact I always tape the lids down so that they can’t come off accidentally when people are looking at them.

If you want to photograph the colonies, and you should to document the experiment, you can remove the lid temporarily and tape it back on afterwards. Be sure to sterilize the plates after you are done by immersing them in a pail of 10% Clorox (10 oz of Clorox bleach plus 90 oz of water).

Good luck and do let us know how your experiments come out.

Sybee

[nimtiaz]

Ok. Thank you for the tips. The swab should just be a bit moist with regular drinking water and rubbed all around the agar, correct? Just wanted to make sure. I plan on putting the tapped plates in the oven, a turned off oven. Since we don't open the oven often, I think that would be a good place because it is dark and warm. I also have to warm the plates, so should it be alright to warm them in the microwave with the lids on?

[SciB]

That's right. The swabs should be moistened with tap water but not dripping wet. As you swab whatever surface you choose, rotate the swab so that you collect as many microbes as possible on the whole cotton tip. Also, when you rub it over the surface of the agar gradually rotate the tip so that all the material from the swab is transferred. Touch every part of the agar and you will get the most colonies.

An oven will work ok but you really should check the temperature with a digital thermometer just to be sure that it does not go over 100F (37.5C) or you may kill some of the microbes. E coli grows best at 37C but many bacteria and molds prefer a cooler temperature so i would try to keep it between 75 and 82F (24-28C).

You could use the microwave to warm the agar but you would have to be very careful so as not to melt it. When I am doing bacterial work, I just take the plates out of the fridge an hour or so before i need them and put them lid side down in the incubator at 37C. If there is a lot of water droplets condensed on the lids I carefully shake them off into the sink. Water from the lid can run down onto the agar and make the colonies smear together in places.

Good luck!

Sybee