Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,

I have recently come back from intel isef a bit distraught at not placing.

But there is hope for next year. Can someone give me some advice on how to create a legitimate project that can compete? I felt my board was too small, and my project was too simple.

Does anyone know about dioxin? have there been any experiments on that yet? Please tell me what you know.



-dlsmadscienctist

Hi dlsmadscientist,
Welcome back. Sorry to hear that you were disappointed with the outcome of ISEF. On the other hand, congratulations on making it to ISEF. You should be proud of that accomplishment.
Did you get comments from the judges or other observers on how you might be able to improve your project? If so, what did they say?
My basic advice for a winning project is (1) find a topic which you have a strong desire to understand, (2) stay devoted to the project and work hard one it, and (3) find a good mentor.
Yes, there have been many experiments on dioxin. For general information, please try an internet search engine. For information about previous research, please try Google scholar or other academic resources.
Regards,
Chris

Hi,

Congratulations on qualifying for the Intel ISEF show! You entered one of the best science projects in the world, so just being in the show was a great accomplishment. There were lots of excellent projects that did not place in this show, so you should not think there was anything wrong with your project. I did notice that the winning projects at this show were truly original, based on scientific literature, and clearly presented, so this is what you should aim for with your next project.

This is a good time to be thinking about next year's project, as there seems like there's never enough time to complete the experiments once you get started. If you are interested in dioxin, I recommend that you start by reading all of the current scientific literature on this topic. Get the original articles and read through the abstracts and materials and methods sections so you can learn what techniques are used in this type of research. Do you have access to a scientific library that has environmental journals?

http://www.scientificjournals.com/sj/espr/Pdf/aId/10651

By reviewing the literature, you will learn about some aspect of this subject that needs to be investigated. Once you can formulate a question, you can design an experiment to answer the question. You will want to develop a topic that has originality and where you will have a good chance of discovering something new. You will want a straightforward elegant experiment, very carefully controlled, that you will have time to repeat, and perhaps modify, if necessary. Some of the best projects at the ISEF show were completely original, but, unfortunately, there were few or no results. Starting very early, will allow you time to ensure that you have some results to present.

Are there any laboratories that do dioxin testing in your area? You should investigate this, and if possible, find a local mentor who is an expert in this subject and willing to help guide you through this project. Dioxin testing requires sophisticated equipment and samples would be too hazardous to test in a high school laboratory, so you may need to select an alternative topic. What are other local environmental pollutants in your local area?

What was your topic for this year's project? Some of the best ISEF projects were continued projects, so perhaps you should consider developing your previous topic.

Good luck! Let us know if you need any more advice for next year's project.

Donna Hardy

Thank you,

I have access to a laboratory that studies environmental pollutants. This is why I did my project this year on triclosan. I wanted to explore how triclosan degraded under uv light.Dioxin is a proven by-product.I am just looking for a better project, because I do not believe any judges at the fair were interested in mine.



Thanks,
dlsmadscienctist

Hi dlsmadscientist,

Did you get any feedback from the judges at all? This was a very good topic, and your access to a laboratory with equipment to use will give you an advantage in doing an excellent project. I recommend that you start a literature search and talk to researchers in your lab and ask for suggestions. Reading the current literature will bring you up-to-date in this field and will make you aware of problems that need to be addressed. This would be a good way to pick an original experiment.

I have a question about your presentation. I noticed that many of the projects had very small type size and were very difficult to read. What type size did you use? You may not realize this, but some judges can't read the really small print and it's easier to judge a project that you can see. Large type size with pictures and diagrams are very helpful to the judges.

Donna Hardy

I did not get that much feedback, nor did they suggest anything. So I would assume it wasn't interesting.

Yes, my board was small, and the font was small about 24. what size would be better?

Is there a free scientific journal site/literature online?


-dlsmadscienctist

Hi!
Congrats on making ISEF, that is definitely a great achievement! I know that when I made my board, I used font 32-36 for the actual writing to make it readable. In addition, "free" journal article sites, in my experience, are not quite common, although searching for journal articles on google often turns off links to free copies of articles, so I would still stick to search engines for finding articles. Also, if you could go through university professor websites of those working in your particular field, you might find free pdfs of publications there as well. Best of luck next year!!

dlsmadscienctist wrote:I did not get that much feedback, nor did they suggest anything. So I would assume it wasn't interesting.
-dlsmadscienctist

I would not assume that the topic or presentation was not interesting. There are many other possibilities of why the judges would not give a lot of feedback. A presentation can fail to grab attention if it is too simple or too complicated, or too familiar or too unfamiliar, or too brief or too long, too practical or too esoteric, etc. Or, as Donna pointed out, it can be something as simple as the font size. You would really need some direct feedback to start to figure out how to improve the project and the presentation. If you have a detailed photograph(s) or PDF of your the board, feel free to post a link to the files here and we can give you some suggestions.

This coming year, I'd encourage you to stay in touch with us at Science Buddies throughout the course of your project, and to give us as much information as possible about your progress. The more you keep us involved, the more we will be able to help.

p.s. Most abstracts of peer reviewed articles are available for free, but the full text usually is not. It is definitely worth getting the full text of papers that are closely related to your work. If you can get access to a university computer system, they will have subscriptions to most journals. University libraries will also have paper copies. If all else fails, most authors will send reprints if you ask politely.

Hi dlsmadscientist,

Chris has given you an excellent suggestion for finding literature references on you topic of interest. Besides a local university library, the environmental laboratory that you have access to might subscribe to the journal articles you need access to. Here are some recent articles on dioxin. The first one has a full text that you can download. For your science project, you want to have something similar to a formal journal article. Notice the details in the experimental design, the discussion of results, and the bibliography in this paper:

http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/CFM/recordisp ... deid=54816

Here are some other dioxin-related papers. I am hoping that you will be able to open the .pdf files and see the entire article. Do let me know if you can’t access them.

Toxic equivalency factors do not predict the acute toxicities of dioxins in rats
Pages 341-353
Raimo Pohjanvirta, Mikko Unkila, Jere Lindén, Jouini T. Tuomisto, Jouko Tuomisto
Preview PDF (1032 K) | Related Articles



Evidence for the promotion of positive selection of thymocytes by Ah receptor agonist 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
Pages 413-427
Joachim Kremer, Zhi-Wei Lai, Charlotte Esser
Preview PDF (1284 K) | Related Articles

A unique metabolism of inorganic arsenic in native Andean women
Pages 455-462
Marie Vahter, Gabriela Concha, Barbro Nermell, Robert Nilsson, Fernando Dulout, A. T. Natarajan
Preview PDF (731 K) | Related Articles

Do you understand the science behind these references? Do any of the references give you any ideas for a unique project that you could do with your available resources? You should keep reading until you identify a suitable topic. Most journal articles give the contact information of the author who can supply additional information. Don’t hesitate to send an e-mail to an author of a paper that you think is interesting.

Current news articles could also be the source of an idea for a new project:

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/ol ... 00098.html

http://blog.mlive.com/saginawnews/2008/ ... _goes.html

http://www.innovations-report.com/html/ ... 17839.html (this is closely related to your last project).

Also, professional organizations could provide you with contacts who could suggest ideas. I am not familiar with this area, but perhaps one of the following groups would be a useful resource:

http://www.naep.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home

http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content

You should contact these societies and see if there is a local meeting you could attend.

And, of course, feel free to contact science buddies any time with questions on designing your experiment.

Donna Hardy

Thanks,

That's helpful.

Does anyone know anything about aerosols? How can I find up to date information about this?

How does aerosols affect the environment?

And what kind of project should I look for in this topic??




-dlsmadscienctist

The best way to find up-to-date information about aerosols will be to go to a library and have a librarian help you search scientific databases. If this is difficult, I suggest searching using an engine like google scholar. First, though, I would suggest just googling 'aerosols and the environment'. There's quite a bit of information out there about the effects of CFCs on the ozone layer.

Do you have a mentor? One easy way to get involved in groundbreaking research would be to do research with a university faculty member in environmental sciences or a similar discipline if you're interested in the effects of chemicals in the environment. I know there is currently a great deal of ongoing research on the effects of estrogen-mimicking chemicals (and estrogen itself) in the water supply; perhaps this is something you might want to look into?

HI dlsmadscientist,

I completely agree with Melissa; you should start with a complete literature search on this subject, and select a topic that you are interested in. Your project should be original, but you should use the current published literature as a basis for your experimental design. There is a Journal of Aerosol Science that should be a good place to start with; the index in the following website includes a wide variety of topics:

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journa ... escription

Good luck!

Donna Hardy

Thank you,

can anyone give me any internet sites for the topic of mimicry?

I would like to investigate this area, have there been other projects done like this?

What are some potential problems?

Hi,
Are you referring to biological mimicry? Wickipedia has a decent overview and list of references of previous experiments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimic
That should be a good place to start.
Chris

thanks,

Can someone direct me to some other forums about 'sustainability'?
My teacher likes that idea.

Sustainability is an extremely broad topic that could relate to almost any field of science. It often is used to refer to the feasibility of a certain type of use or abuse of some resource, which could be plant, animal, or mineral (e.g. "how long will we be able to use oil as our main energy source"). The term has become popular among scientists these days to try to convey that their work has some long term implications, though I'd say it is used more for effect than it is used as an actual focus of study. Sustainability can be a difficult topic for science, because it depends on many unpredictable social and political factors that may not relate to the science of the resource itself.
That's my 2 cents on the topic. Do you have an interest in some particular natural resource?

ahh. i have so many topics to choose from. In any of your expert opinions please leave an opinion about which direction is relevant to society today. I would like to hear your imput on these topics.
thank you in advance

This book deals with one of my favorite topics:
http://www.amazon.com/Dirt-Civilization ... 0520248708
Good reading for a summer vacation.

First of all congrats having qualified for the Intel ISEF! I was also there as a Finalist -- have I seen you in the fair at all?

As for the wide range of topics that are available, for many people choosing the topic is one of the more difficult part of the project. When I am thinking about what to choose, it's really more about what you want to do -- you see a problem, and you aim to solve it.

My project wasn't the most relevant to "solving society's problems", but when you think about it, if you really enjoy the project you're doing and it is something original, wouldn't the problem help out society anyway?

I am currently facing a similar problem (of not knowing what project to choose) but here are a few things to consider:

1) Have you considered continuing your previous project (which must have been good because you qualified as a Finalist!) for a Phase II that you see some people have the fair? What this helps is that you can almost go straight to the experimentation as the background research you are already familiar with.

2) If you don't want to continue your project, have you considered joining a mentorship/fellowship/internship at a local research facility? I am attempting to get one of those, and while the research facility I may be getting into isn't really related to microbiology (the field that my last project was based on), it has some relationships. Thing is, when you are helping out and learning with the rest of the professors/helping out with the research, you might just get an idea. My theory goes that when you stop searching sometimes, the ideas will come to you , and some of those ideas are the best ones.

Good luck in searching for a "good topic", though remember, it's really about what you really want to do (in my opinion) -- chances are, through its originality and innovative aspects, the project will have its unique contributions to society

Excellent advice, Trader. I completely agree.

hi dlsmadscientist,
You've already gotten some great advice and I don't know if I can improve on any of it. I would suggest that in your search for a subject-do some reading on a variety of subjects. If you spend time volunteering or interning at a lab, there are bound to be a variety of folks with a variety of interests. Some of them may suggest some journals or books for you. If you're an omnivore of literature, you may be surprised what subject piques your interest.

ok...

does anyone know the locations for the intel isef 2011? and beyond?

Nope, I only know that the Intel ISEF for 2010 (next year) would be in San Jose CA... don't know about 2011.

I think they won't decide until later?

Either way, look forward to seeing you there again! I'm having trouble getting a topic to start as well... and I'm trying to get some individual research done over the summer but without any luck.

I find that reading articles related to my previous project is quite helpful... and emailing the authors especially. They are very helpful.