Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am conducting an experiment on energy drinks for my eighth grade science fair. I have over a month to conduct it and have asked four of my friends to help me. As far as my friends know I am simply seeing how energy drinks affect teens; what I have not told them is that while one of the drinks they will be testing is in fact an energy drink, the other is Sprite mixed with Hawaiian Punch. I am curious to see if the human mind can be fooled. For example, tricking someone into thinking they are drinking an energy drink to see if they show signs of drinking one; irritability, nervousness, etc. I will be measuring heart rate, mood, and blood pressure. I am wondering if there are any tips someone can give me, or any suggestions to make this project better. Thank you for your time. -Mikayla

You probably want to read the Science Buddies' guide to science fair projects; you can find a link to it up at the top of your screen.

A few suggestions:
You should consider getting a larger sample size. Four may not be enough to see differences, especially since people tend to vary a lot in their reactions to energy drinks (personally, I can't drink them...they make my heart race!).

Have you run this by your teacher? You may need to obtain permission to do these sorts of tests on humans, especially since you are not giving your experimental subjects the entire truth!

Note that sugar may produce some of the effects you're measuring on its own, so your sprite/hawaiian punch mixture might not be as much of a control as you're expecting. Can you perhaps use Diet Sprite and Diet Hawaiian Punch, or something similar? Of course, some people will taste the sugar substitutes in those and might figure out what you're doing, but that's why you need a large sample size!

Otherwise, it sounds like a great project .

Thank you. I have asked my teacher and made sure none of my friends have any sort of allergies that could be affected by the drinks. I am planning to ask a few more students to help me out. Thank you once again!!!!!

You're welcome! Good luck, and let us know how it goes!