Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My 7th grade daughter would like to complete a science fair project on this subject for her junior high school science fair. However, she is not sure how to conduct an experiment on this subject "Heartworm's life cycle stages and its affects on Canines". Her favorite topics are on Microbiology, Zoology and Pharmacology / Toxicology. As she loves watching programs regarding medical mysteries and Animal Planet.

The science project would include the subjects: mosquitoes, heartworm, and canines. The project information would include United States regions affected by Heartworm on Canines; heartworm life cycle stages and its affects on canines; heartworm prevention control for canines.

The science teacher was unsure of the experiment to conduct on this topic and our daughter does not want to give the topic up to another subject.

Do you have any advisement on an experiment that could be included on this topic?

Thank you,

Teri Herndon
(Jacqueline Herndon's mom)

Ms. Herndon,

First of all, I thank you for caring enough about your daughter's education to be involved so early in the science fair process. I've chaired and judged at science fairs where students have not had one ounce of support from their parents.

It is great that your daughter knows what she wants to do; I've found that the best projects come from students who are really interested in what they are doing.

Your daughter's chosen topic: heartworm's life cycle and its effects on canines sounds very interesting. However, because heartworms are a parasite, I don't think that she will be able to physically conduct an experiment with them for safety reasons, unless she gains access to a lab facility at a veterenarian's office or univsersity. Also, she probably will not be allowed to purposely get a dog infected with heartworm for ethical reasons.

So, I reccomend a different approach to your daughters project. There are two options that I see: 1. Find a researcher who is willing to work with your daughter, or 2. Instead of doing an experiment, have your daughter study the research of others and write a paper on her topic.

If you daughter's teacher requires that she actually do an experiment and you do not want to go through the hassle of finding a professional to work with your daughter, please let me know so that we can discuss similair projects that would have fewer safety/ethics concerns.

Mrs. Herndon,

The science project would include the subjects: mosquitoes, heartworm, and canines. The project information would include United States regions affected by Heartworm on Canines; heartworm life cycle stages and its affects on canines; heartworm prevention control for canines.

I agree with Terik that it will be very difficult for your daughter to perform an actual experiment on heartworms and canines. However, if she is able to find survey information, for instance on regions of the US with a high incidence of heartworms, she can do different analysis projects based on the data. She can consider questions such as, "Does the climate of an area affect how often heartworm infections appear in that area?" or "Do heartworm infections appear more often in rural or urban areas?" or "Does a high rate of heartworm infections in canines correspond to a high rate of heartworm infections in other species?"

This kind of project is less hands-on than an experiment and would involve a lot of time at the computer, comparing graphs. It might also be difficult to find the survey data; if she has trouble with that, we may be able to help out. However, if Jacqueline is reluctant to give up this particular topic, it will give her another option inside of it to consider.

I wish you and Jacqueline the best of luck--picking a fun, interesting topic is often the hardest part of the research!
Sonia