Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi, I am in eighth grade and have to do a project involving "Global Impact". It's not due until March 2010 but I'd like a relatively short project. I have been thinking about repopulating endangered species, why people make choices about food, and if classical music has a positive effect on testing. Most of the projects I find interesting, I don't think impact the world. Any ideas about how global impact relates to my ideas? Thanks!!!

Hi,

Welcome to science buddies. It's really good that you are planning to start on this project far ahead of the deadline. I recommend that you check out the topic selection wizard on the science buddies website and look through the various project ideas and select a specific topic that you are really interested in. You have some good ideas, but you need to narrow down the scope of your project so you can do a carefully controlled experiment to answer a question that you have asked.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml

Your idea about endangered animals is good, but you would need approval to work directly with animals. Maybe you could study some aspect of the environment that affects the survival of a particular species. For example, here's a website on endangered beetles. Maybe you could identify an endangered species in your locale and develop a project idea.

http://www.sbnature.org/collections/inv ... ngered.php

I'm not sure how you would do an experiment on food choices. If you want to pursue this topic, why don't you try to find some literature references on the subject, and try to develop an experiment based on something that has been done before. Here's an abstract about a study on the effect of economics on food choices based on a study done in Seattle. This might give you an idea for a project.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/487906_3

I would not recommend doing a project on classical music and testing. Part of the problem is that there is no prior clear scientific evidence on this subject, and setting up the experiment would be very difficult because there would be so many other variables other than the music. However, here is a 1995 reference where the authors did manage to get some quantitative data on this subject and publish a paper. Let me know if you can't access this and I'll scan it an upload it for you.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_o ... f7400ff4e8

I do encourage you to spend time doing more background reading and try to select a topic that is unique and interesting to you. Please do check back with us if you need more help.

Donna Hardy

Dear anhviolin,

I think it's great that you'll be learning about issues that affect the whole world. Just to clarify, your project is meant to utilize the scientific method (hypothesis, materials, procedure, results, discussion), correct? I am asking because some of the topics you mentioned sound like research projects in which you learn about a topic, mount a campaign and present how it is important to the world. If your project is meant to include experimentation, keep in mind what you are able to do with the resources you have.

For the endangered species idea, see the following website.

http://www.endangeredspecie.com/Ways_To_Help.htm

However, keep in mind that this is an effort to help an endangered species and you will not be able to have "results" in the experimental sense. Like Donna, I suggest reading more about the subject and discussing with your teacher what kind of research question you can come up with that has a scientific answer.

Hope this helps!
Michelle

Dear anhviolin,

You have received some great advice already, and I commend you for your desire to do a project examining global impacts. As Michelle pointed out, your idea about endangered species repopulation has obvious global implications, but is not something for which you can do an experiment yourself. If your project lends itself to a more research-based method, then that topic will work well for you.

Your second topic, why people make choices about food, also has the potential for global impacts. For example, the consumption of fast food in America has been linked to a number of health problems in this country. You might be able to do a *short* experiment having people eat fast food regularly (say, during the course of one week), and have them see how it makes them feel and how their weight changes during that time. This would involve human subjects, which means that your participants would need to volunteer, but you could then relate your results to global issues with fast food. This is just one example, and you could go many different ways with this same topic (e.g., countries that eat a lot of fish vs. beef).

Please keep us posted with your plans, and we will continue to help you on your way!

Cheers,
Heather

I just wanted to add to the great advice you've gotten already: If you haven't seen it yet, there's a group of Swedes that have a website called 'The fun theory'. Their idea is to have people help the environment or do something healthy by making it fun. So far, they turned a staircase into a piano (so fewer people would take the escalator) and made a game out of glass bottle recycling: http://www.thefuntheory.com/ . It might be neat if you could think of a way to make healthy food choices 'fun' and then do an experiment to see if it will really change peoples' eating habits!

Hi! Thanks to everyone who responded. I decided to go in the endangered animal direction. Now, I have to pick a specific animal. I found out I can do a comparison instead of an experiment. Any advice on which animal? I live in the north east and want to do something that might affect my community. I'm thinking about which methods of repopulation have been successful and comparing them to the ones that haven't. Thanks again!

Hi!
Sounds great! Here's a link that might be helpful. The first paragraph contains a list of some of the known endangered species found in the northeastern regions-
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/Endangered/
Best of luck!

Hi,

One extremely successful reintroduction project in the northeast has been the peregrine falcon; you'll definitely want to do some research on this. I'm not certain if the bald eagle and osprey were actually reintroduced in the northeast, but those are conservation success stories too.

One example (not in the NE) with a lot of trial and error has been the California condor. I might also suggest looking at some of the conservation plans in New Zealand, where they use very different methods. (Some species from NZ include the kakapo and the Chatnam Island brown robin.)

Good luck!