Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am did my experiment on hair strength. I exposed four different hair colors (blonde, black, brown, ginger) to uv radiation and used a spring scale to measure which color hair was the weakest. My results were that black hair is strongest, brown hair is next, then ginger hair, and blonde is the weakest. My teacher asked "What conclusions can you draw from your data? What does the data mean?" I do not understand what my teacher is asking...can anyone please help me understand? Thank You!

Hello, your project sounds very interesting! Your data results sound just like I would hypothesize about hair strength in response to UV radiation. I think what your teacher is asking you is to draw a conclusion based on the results that you have:

black hair is strongest, brown hair is next, then ginger hair, and blonde is the weakest

. In other words, why do the darker colored hairs have more resistance for UV radiation? You may want to do some research on melanin, which is the dark brown to black pigment found in hair, skin, and the iris of the eye. Melanin protects the skin from harmful UV rays, so the more melanin the hair has, the stronger it is. The same applies to darker skin and eye colors.
I hope this clears up your question and please don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions.