Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

hi my name is sabrina and i have a science project that is due sometime in May. i am a 9th grader. i have a science project in mind though. i want to know firsthand if music is an appropriate or relateable topic for a science project.
this is my science project idea:
i want to research if people can function better or worse with music or without it, and how music affects their performance.
i do not have access to any instrument to actually do a fully,better project so i am at a loss at that note.... but does any one have any suggestions and thoughts as to what i should do or should i just decide on another detailed but easy project? HELP ME OUT!!! PLEASE...

Hi,

It sounds to me like you have a very interesting idea. Have you seen this ScienceBuddies Project Idea?

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... g&from=TSW

Your idea sounds like it could be developed into an extremely cool project. I would vote to go for it if that is what you are passionately interested in. Here is a writeup of someone else’s project along similar lines:
http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2004/Projects/J1716.pdf

Here is some other background material:

http://www.ericdigests.org/2004-3/cognitive.html

http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.ed ... ts/303.php

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=19882201

http://www.education.com/reference/arti ... struction/

You can find lots and lots of stuff using google with a search like “ Does classical music affect X” where X is the influence you are interested, for example “cognition” or “performance on tests” or whatever. It will turn up interesting stuff.

Have fun!

Barrett Tomlinson

Hi Sabrina,

Music is a great topic for a science project, and you have many ways you can use it!

I noticed that you are interested in ways that music affects performance. From your title (music versus memory), I would assume that you are thinking about having people play music while they are studying, and then you will test them. However, there are other aspects of "performance" that can be affected by music. For example, some people find that they perform better when they work out (e.g., running or biking) when listening to music. You could also investigate whether different TYPES of music affect performance - whether it be for testing or athletics. Do people perform better when listening to music without words compared to music with words? Does listening to songs they like (and might sing along with) work as a distraction or actually help them?

As you can see, there are several interesting ways you can go with this. Please keep us posted as your project develops!

Cheers,
Heather

I actually did a project like this one, and I'm currently writing a paper on it so I kinda know a bit about this.

A very famous project related to this is The Mozart Effect: testing mozart/classical music vs other styles of music and/or no music at all. Even though some people claim the effect exists, on my research I've found that there are flaws on the original experiment that made this so called effect so famous. Apparently, it depends what kind of test you want to do like memorizing words under the influence of music, remembering numbers under the influence of music, remembering the name of songs after listening to about 30 different songs.

There are several experiments you can do, but I'm pretty sure that no matter which one you do you'll find the following: music does play a roll on things like helping you focus or distracting you, but there is no such thing as a better style of music - since everyone is difference, we all react to different styles of music due to things like culture, life experiences, sex, age, etc.

If you want to do it, try limiting your sample to a very specific group of people like 9th graders for example. From what I've read, there are some people doing experiments to test why teenagers tend to memorize things better under the influence of energetic music. Apparently there is something on the way our brains keep developing or something.

So there you have a few ideas. Also, I'd to a questionnaire after the experiment to compare things like sex, musical preference, musical background(do they play any instruments or sing), do they usually work/study with music, etc.


I hope this helps. Good luck. =)