Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am wanting to do my project this year on dehydration but just need a little help getting started. Is this a good topic?

Hi,

I moved your post to the life sciences forum, since I think we know more about dehydration than the physical science experts.

Science Buddies has a couple projects that are related to dehydration. Take a look at these and see if they interest you:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p053.shtml (Note: this one may be a little too challenging for you; I'm not sure what grade you are in.)
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p022.shtml

Is this what you were thinking?

Hi Victoria,

This would make a unique topic for a science project, and getting an early start is an excellent idea. The projects that Melissa has suggested are good ones. For a science project, you need plan to do an experiment where you can measure results of a carefully controlled experiment. I recommend that you look at the guide on the science buddies website: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml

The first step in a science project is asking a question. What question do you want to ask that can be answered by doing an experiment?

Donna Hardy

Donna,
From your question, it sounds like you want to know what happens to a human when they become dehydrated. This is a very interesting question but probably needs to be a little more specific. You may also want to try to ask something that will be easier to measure. When you use "Human Subjects" it sometimes gets a bit complicated. Some schools also don't allow elementary students to do projects involving humans. You would need to check on this. As a nurse, I know that there are blood tests you can do that tell how some things in the body change but, again, this might not be possible for you to do (such as drawing blood samples and performing blood tests). Let me ask you this. Do you think heat affects dehydration? Is this something for which you could design an experiment to find the answer? Does dehydration cause a loss of weight? Could you answer this with an experiment?

Could you use an invertebrate (insects are good subjects) to measure the effect of dehydration? I like to use mealworms for experiments. Sometimes you can get them at a bait shop or from a teacher. You don't want to use the ones from a supply house or a pet store because they are usually the kind that don't go through metamorphosis. I wonder if dehydration affects the rate of metamorphosis in caterpillars. Earthworms might also be an animal you could use for an experiment on dehydration.

As you get older you might want to expand your project to humans (perhaps in high school). The projects that go to national and international competitions are usually those that a student has been expanding over several years. As you get older you can go into greater depth and might even want to look at new and different ways to prevent or treat dehydration.

I encourage you to look at dehydration. You just might not want to start with a question about humans.
Carrol
Good luck!