Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

We have to carry out a measurement experiment and I have two main ideas that I would like to do. I have asked my teacher and she said both would do, but I'm still confused on which experiment would carry out better.
My first idea is, "Which type of wheat contains the most amount of gluten?"
To investigate which type of wheat (whole wheat, all-purpose wheat and pastry wheat) contains the most amount of gluten, by washing away the excess starch etc from the wheat.
My other idea is "What's the fastest way to cool a soda at room temperature?
To investigate what compartment (made of foam containing ice, ice and water, water) will cool a can of soda (soda can starts at room temperature) the fastest.
I do have the resources needed for both experiments but would like to conduct an experiment which would impress my teacher as well as be fun and maybe teach me something. Which experiment would benefit me the most?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi KatrinaK08,

The two experiments have different merits:

1. The soda cooling experiment is certainly more fun and has more interest to the general public.
2. The gluten experiment is more "science" oriented.

My preference (and this is only an opinion) is that the soda experiment is better, and I'd love to see the results. Note: the experiment may require lots of cans of soda to try all the different scenarios.

I would suggest doing whichever most interests you. As a judge, it really shows when someone is really interested in their project, and to me that's more important than whether or not the question might be interesting to other people. So, that's my advice!

I agree with MelissaB. Do what interests you. The can-cooling is more of a physics experiment. You can do background research on heat flow...does it depend on the temperature difference?...and on thermal conductivity. You really need to do your homework to design the experiment and formulate a hypothesis.

thanks for the advice
i've decided to go with the soda cooling experiment
thanks again

i've decided on an experiment
but I am struggling with writing up an hypothesis
I've researched the kinetic theory of matter and heat movement
but still have no idea where to go from there
Thanks in advance

Hi,
Are you still planning to do the soda cooling experiment, or is this a new topic? Do you have a new scientific question? If you have a question, and have done a little bit of back ground research, then you can speculate about the answer to the question and that answer is your hypothesis.
http://www.sciencebuddies.com/science-f ... esis.shtml
Thanks,
Chris

Hi KatrinaK08,

If you are continuing with the original soda experiment you proposed, then your hypothesis would be a prediction regarding which container (material) allows you to cool a soda the fastest.

One way to compare how materials allow heat to move through them is "thermal conductivity." Here is the Wikipedia article on thermal conductivity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_conductivity

A material with a high thermal conductivity allows heat to flow through it rapidly - it is a conductor. A material with a low thermal conductivity prevents heat from flowing through it - it is an insulator. You can start researching the expected thermal conductivities of your different materials, and then use those values to predict which material will allow you to cool the soda the fastest.

Please keep us posted with your progress, and let us know if you have any more questions!

Cheers,
Heather