Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi, I'm a 4th grade student at a school in Whitehall and I have to do a science fair project. The topic I chose is How does a spider get it's food?


I would like some ideas as to how to do my research for my written report do I need to do a hypothesis and show bar graphs and charts for this topic, or is my research about spiders and food sufficient? I would also like some resources about spiders and how they get their food and also some project ideas as to how I can show my work.

Thank you

Fatemah

Fatemah,

This is an interesting project, and it seems like a very research-heavy one. I'd say that you don't necessarily need a hypothesis for this, as it will be an investigative study of the research that is already available. This is in contrast to an experimental setup where you have an unanswered question and you formulate your hypothesis based on the research that you can find.

How you want to present the data is up to you and can be done in many formats: a table, chart, etc. I would start with just doing a simple search of reputable sources through Google (you can even try Google Scholar) and come up with a list of different species of spiders that you want to study. Then categorize each into their methods of trapping food and what kinds of food they eat. If there are similarities between the species, you can create bar graphs and such to represent this data as a whole.

Let us know if you have further questions. Best of luck!

-Pharma