Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I wasn't that familiar with YSAP so I took a look at the website before answering your post. It looks like a great opportunity - and a lot of fun too! Actually, fun is one of the things that is really important in deciding what project you want to do. You should pick a project that is interesting to YOU. If you aren't interested in the question, then the project will just drag on. But a project that you think is interesting will be easier for you to do, and you'll probably end up doing a much better job too.

The two projects you highlighted are very different in the types of science they focus on. They are also radically different difficulty levels (the difficulty level is show in the grey Project Summary box at the top right hand side of the project page) The Levitating Magnets project is a level 1, which means it is built for younger kids in early elementary school; it probably isn't appropriate for YSAP since you are in high school.

The Forensic Science project is a good difficulty level (7-9) for high school. I think you're right, to have the best shot at placing at YSAP it would be a good idea to modify the Forensic Science project a bit and chose a different variable than food coloring. At the end of the project is a section called Variations. It has a lot of great ideas about how to modify the project. Again, what you chose should be based on your interests. If you're curious about plants and the types of pigments they use to color their flowers then try experimenting with whether flowers with similar colors have the same pigments. If you're interested in the process of how electrophoresis works, experiment with ways to make the gel electrophoresis box (the "forensics tool" in this project) work better.

Or, if none of those seem interesting enough, use the Science Buddies topic selection wizard (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... gister.php) to find a project YOU are really excited about.

Once you have a project in mind and know what your variables are it'll be easy to come up with your hypothesis. Essentially you'll use your background research to come up with an educated guess about what you expect to happen in your project. The hypothesis describes exactly how you're going to change your independent variable, and precisely how you expect that to impact your dependent variable(s). This guide from Science Buddies explains more about how to write a hypothesis: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... esis.shtml And the scientists have also all contributed to a blog post about it too: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/blog/201 ... thesis.php

In general, as you proceed with your project I'd recommend consulting Science Buddies' Project Guide: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml to make sure you've hit all the important points in your project. And you should feel free to post any other questions you have here on the Ask an Expert Board too!

Good luck with your project, we'll be excited to hear how it progresses for you.