Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
My project is about Bio plastics and if they are a better alternative to carbon based plastics. My problem is that this topic isn't really very popular and I can't conduct the correct experiment. Last year I did the same topic but made "bio plastic " using cornstarch, oil and water, I went to two competitions and my project did not qualify for either of them. The plastic that I made was hard and well it wasn't really plastic.

Do you guys have any advice as to how I can improve my project (it would really helpful if you can recommend any ways to make the plastic). I don't wanna let this project go and peruse another one. Bio plastics can save our environment and get rid of water pollution caused by the toxic materials from carbon based plastics.

Thank you.

Hi Ilhan_dirie,

This seems like it should be an excellent topic for a science project. I definitely think you are right in deciding to continue the topic. Through the years, I have seen many projects that are not successful when presented the first year, but are greatly improved when they appear the second year. Repeating a project idea can definitely improve the outcome at the science fair because you can fix whatever went wrong. In the case of your project, that might involve improving the quality of the plastic polymer you decide to work with.

I have a few questions. Did you get any feedback from the judges last year on why your project did not win? Did you look at the winning projects in your category and see any differences in the project execution and presentation that you could adopt for your project? Did you have a well-defined question that you answered with a carefully controlled experiment? Did you have data that you measured and presented in graphs? Did you enter your project in the right category? Please answer as many of these questions as you can.

If you don't know exactly what happened, please post a description of your project and what you did, and what your results were. If you wrote a paper describing your project, add that as an attachment to a reply message. I will provide some feedback for you with specific suggestions.

In the meantime, you should also be doing as much background reading as possible for your project. What you want to do is to identify one specific problem with traditional plastics that you can solve with a controlled experiment. You will need scientific references to use as a basis for designing your experiment.

Also, please look at this project idea from the science buddies website for a plastic that can be made with milk protein.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... to-plastic

Please let me know if you have any other questions and let me know what you are thinking about doing this year for your science project.


Donna Hardy