Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

What are some good things that you should research on a project????

Hi Haley,

The question "What are some good things to research on a project?" is quite general, and we would probably be able to help you more if you gave us more specifics, but in general before starting a project you'll want to research:
1) possible safety concerns and necessary safeguards
2) background information on your topic: background information is often necessary before you've even decided on exactly what your project will be. It can be quite general or more specific, but it will help you decide what project is interesting to you and what questions still need to be answered.
3) previous experiments done in this area/field: For example, you might discover that someone has already answered the question that you are interested in asking. In that case, it might be best to change your experiments slightly so that they do not only repeat the previous experiment, but instead expand on it. You also might decide that it is worthwhile to repeat the experiment while including important controls someone else left out. Previous experiments can also give you a lot of help on how to do your experiment. Things like how long to leave things, how hot to heat things, etc. don't have to be determined from scratch each time necessarily. Instead, you can use someone else's work to give you a starting point.

I see that you are doing a project on putting certain items on dry ice. In the other board you posted on, people gave you some good suggestions on what to research, like background information on the chemistry of freezing and carbonation. You'll also need to know the necessary safety precautions for working with dry ice (good that you are working with an expert!), and if anyone has done similar experiments in the past. If someone has already put blueberries (for example) on dry ice, then those experiments could help you plan your own (putting strawberries on dry ice) and make your hypothesis. They might tell you how long you should put the strawberries on dry ice, and what kinds of changes to look for and how to measure them.

Hope this helps, and feel free to post with more specific information or other questions!
JMP

Hello haleybarham408,

JMP gave you some excellent ideas for getting started on your research. I have some additional information that you can follow. Here is the full list of the steps of completing any project, including how to do research: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml. Be sure to look specifically at the "Getting Started" and "Doing Background Research" sections to get you started. The checklist in the "doing background research" section is a great tool: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#keyinfo

Also, JMP mentioned safety concerns, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ines.shtml, you can read about them there. And having an adult or teacher work with you is important since you are working with dry ice.

Hope that helps, and please make sure to repost in this same thread for further questions so we can help you better. Let us know how your project goes.

Thank you for the help!

JMP, how can we responsed only to you and not everyone so we can get more information on our project???

I'm not sure it's possible to send me a private message. Is there some reason you don't want to post your project details on the forum? If you do post questions here for everyone to see then you will get much better answers since all of the experts will be able to chime in.

Hello haleybarham408,
Glad we were able to help! How is your project coming along, and what other questions do you have?

I'm not sure why you want to do private messages, but JMP is right, if you post here, more of us can help you, and more quickly. Most of us are assigned to 1 or 2 days per week in each forum, so the more of us helping you, the better off you will be. We have different levels of expertise and different ideas for how to help. As volunteer experts, we are not supposed to form personal relationships (i.e. emailing outside of the Science Buddies forum), to protect the students. As a volunteer, I find it really useful to have other experts help answer questions so that the student can get as many ideas about his or her project.

Please keep posting your questions in this thread so that we all can help you. If you are looking for a follow-up to what one of us has posted, you can direct your question to him or her, such as "hello JMP, you suggested doing ___, what do you mean by that?" That way the person can follow up with you specifically.

I hope that helps! We really do want to help you the best way we can. Please let us know how we can help you better.

Thanks Saralaugtug will do!!!