Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello,
My son has a science fair coming up and I am not even sure if Life, Earth and Social Sciences is the correct division. However we need help to determine what division his project falls in and if his project is science fair related as some of his teachers think it is more of a study. His project will seek to determine if square pizzas in square boxes will garner more environmental savings than round pizzas in square boxes. We will look at a round 12inch pizza and compare it to a Square pizza of a similar area. Boxes will be built with adequate space for both. As the box of the round pizza will have wasted excess space by calculating its area and researchng how much raw materials are required to produce a box ie. from trees - we would be able to determine that square pizzas in square boxes will be better for the environment and also economically. We will also administer a questionnaire to figure out what is important to individuals about pizzas, interms of taste or shape etc.
Therefore, does all of this sounds like a good science fair project?

Hello and thank you for joining Science Buddies.

My first impression is that this is a highly mathematically/statistically oriented project. Yes, the focus of the question may be environmental, but the methodology is a lot of number-crunching. Area calculations, economical calculations, and questionnaire survey statistics all point me towards mathematics. That said, some science fairs (in my personal experience) are lenient about categorization as long as he justifies it in some way, e.g. emphasizing the environmental cost-benefit analysis aspect to "force" it into the environmental science category. It is up to you and him to determine whether that would be 1) acceptable and 2) necessary.

I am not sure what the teachers mean by "it is more of a study." In my mind at least, science fair projects often mimic real published studies in their design and execution. Are they looking for something more experimental, with independent and dependent variables? In that case, perhaps more emphasis could be placed on building the boxes themselves. Perhaps different shapes and sizes could be considered as well, to expand this aspect.

Hope this helps!

Thank you!!