Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Posted on behalf of student
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Project: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... -for-blood

Hi! I used your website to create my science fair project, "Crime Scene Chemistry: The Kastle-Meyer Test for Blood." I noticed that there was a chart in there to predict, explain, lab review, and results. When I started looking at the chart, I didn't quite understand the lab review part. Neither did my teacher. So, my question for you is, what is the lab review for?

Hi!
The lab review is for you to make hypotheses, write down what you saw from your experiment, and ultimately make a conclusion about your data.

The prediction portion of the table is for you to make a guess as to whether the Kastle-Meyer test will give a positive (it is blood) or negative (it is not blood) value.

A good hypothesis should always have an explanation behind it, so the next part of the table is where you can explain why you made that hypothesis — based on the chemistry behind how the test works/how it identifies positive vs false positive vs negative tests.

The next part of the table wants you to record what you see happening when you do the test (for each trial, for each substance) so that you can then make conclusions from the data. Repeat tests that are inconsistent, but record notes about inconsistent tests as well.

Then you finally write down which substances were identified as blood or not based on the test, and explain why you got those results/why your hypothesis was either right or wrong.

Essentially, the point of the lab review is it helps you make sense of the objective of the experiment and make hypotheses/conclusions about how the Kastle-Meyer test works.