Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My daughter and I are struggling with how and if you can create a chart or any sort of data analysis on her project.. The results for her project are a yes or no answer. She is testing if she can make a flower glow in the dark by feeding it different liquids. We found we can make it glow with one of the 3 liquids (indep variable I assume). Is it possible to represent in a graph and maybe I am just doing it wrong?

Hi,

Sounds like an interesting experiment. I'm assuming you took photos of the plants after administering the various liquids and can see the glow in the one out of three. So, why don't you just make a display of the photographs with the names of the liquids below them?

In order to make a graph you need numerical data. If you had a light meter that measured the intensity of the glow and gave you a readout then you could plot the results as a bar chart with the glow intensity on the y-axis and the name of the liquid on the x-axis under each of the three bars.

If you are curious, do a search for light meter apps for smart phones and you will find that there are a lot. The problem is their lack of sensitivity to low light levels. There are ways around this but you have to experiment with different apps until you find one that allows you to do a longer exposure so that the camera's light sensors have time to register the intensity. The phone has to be on a stand so that it does not move during the long exposure, and the room has to be totally dark--including any tiny lights from electronic gadgets.

I hope this helps. Please post again and let us know how you made out.

Good luck!

Sybee