Need Help with a science fair idea

[Lov2Bsmiln247]

I really need help finding a good rewarding science fair. I need something challenging that has potential to make it to Intel or at least make it to states science fair. I want to do something with something that involves the issues of today, or something involving food. But, I do not want some cookie cutter project. I want it interesting, possible, gets good results, and gets me to state competition. Please help me! Thanks!

[barretttomlinson]

Hi,

Have you carefully browsed the Science Buddies Project Idea Guide?

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

There are lots of great ideas there. Nothing says you should do the experiement exactly the way the writeup suggests - feel free to design your own experiment or variation on the idea. You should also be aware that the science fair judges care very little about how clever or really original your idea or question is. They care intensely how well you carried out the Scientific Method in developing and presenting your project. One idea that few science fair entries seem to follow, but which really impresses judges, is to keep and display a good scientific notebook which records your ideas, plans, experimental designs and results, interpretations, questions, and conclusions - it should be written as you go, be a record of everything you did for your project, including all your mistakes, problems, and successes, a working tool that records you of everything you did. It does not have to be fancy or superneat, but it must be written as you do it and allow you to recreate what actually happened. It should be in ink. A good one can really blow judges away!

You may want to read this Science Buddies Judging Guide to get a handle on how judging is done. There is no guarantee that this is exactly how your fair will be judged, but it should give you a pretty good idea:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... dgingguide

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... gingguideR

Also be sure to read the Science Buddies Project Guide cover to cover (see tab at the top of this page).

I hope this helps.

Good luck!!

Barrett L Tomlinson

[Lov2Bsmiln247]

Thanks. Ok so I took the idea of the vitamin C and the bell peppers... and I researched some and found that vitamin C helps prevent cancer. SO i decided i wanted to incorporate that into my project. So, using a starch indicator, i want to test different fruits and vegetables ( 5 total including bell peppers) for the levels of vitamin C. But, I still cannot grasp how i can fit this into a project. Which fruit or vegetable best helps to prevent cancer. Well how do i find out how much vitamin c is needed to have an effect on the prevention of cancer.. PLEASE help me organize this or something. My project is due the 10th of december. Thanks for your time.

[Lov2Bsmiln247]

And thanks for the tip about recording everything!! I really appreciate it.

[barretttomlinson]

Hi,
Here is a good overview of Vitamin C and disease prevention that is keyed to the original research studies:

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/v ... /vitaminC/

Here are other useful resources:
http://www.ajcn.org/content/53/1/270S.full.pdf+html

http://www.ajcn.org/content/53/1/270S.abstract

I hope this will give you the answers you seek.

Best regards,

Barrett L Tomlinson

[agm]

Hi,

To add on to the advice above... just in case you're wondering how you can test within your project how much vitamin C is needed to prevent cancer, I have to recommend against that. Working with human subjects is tricky, and an experiment to test that would look something like this:

- recruit thousands of people to take part in a study lasting many years, perhaps decades
- collect information about their eating habits and other variables that could influence the risk of cancer; repeat every year or two
- maybe give a subset of them vitamin C supplements to take daily
- over the years/decades, collect information about which participants get cancer and what kinds of cancer
- see if there's a correlation between vitamin C consumption and chance of getting cancer, AFTER accounting for hundreds of other variables (age, family history, other vitamins and nutrients, exercise, environmental risk factors...)

Even if you recruited everyone you know into your study and had half of them take vitamin C tablets for the next few months, you would not have enough data to draw significant conclusions, given the time and resources you have available.

However, you've still uncovered a useful piece of information! Whenever scientists apply for funding to do experiments or publish the results of investigations, we have to explain why the work is important, often citing other studies that provide information beyond the scope of the current investigation. This generally goes in the introduction section of a report. So in your introduction, you can discuss the fact that vitamin C helps prevent cancer and cite some of the resources that Barrett has listed, or others you found. If you find specific numbers, maybe in the conclusion you can do a quick calculation to show for example how many bell peppers per day a person should eat to significantly reduce his or her risk of cancer.

Amanda