Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My 6th grade daughter has chosen to do a science fair experiment on Mars. She is studying dust and volcanoes. Her hypothesis is that the volcanoes affect where the wind goes and therefore affect where the dust collects.

To test her hypothesis, she is downloading data from JMARS (MOLA elevation maps, TES surface dust abundance) and analyzing it in various ways.

My question is: Since she is not actually doing her own experiment, is there any point writing this up for a science fair project or is this just something we should consider a "just for us" project? We are homeschoolers, so there is no particular requirement that she participate in a fair. If we do go to a fair, how do I make this look like an "original experiment"?

Based on past years experiences, the judges seem to place a VERY high value on originality--students are supposed to come up with creative experiments, and she doesn't really have an experiment at all. Using the JMARS tools provided by NASA is real world science and a good educational experience, but it's not particularly original. She didn't design an orbiting instrument, collect any of the data, or write any of the software herself. Where's the originality?

Thanks for your feedback!

Hello janet_425,

I don't know the rules of a particular competition that you might enter, but I can make some comments on originality in science.

Being original does not require that you collect your own raw data. Many years ago, when science was done pretty much only by individuals, often funded by the individual or a rich patron, a single person usually did everything. Maybe he had one assistant. Today, some projects are small and simple enough that they can be done by one person, but most experiments are complex, costly, and involve equipment and operations scattered around the globe or even in space.

Experiments at the LHC sometimes involve up to 2000 researchers, not even counting the huge number who built the accelerator and the other large equipment. Large telescopes are so complex and expensive that only a few exist. At best, a researcher with an idea asks the telescope operators to obtain certain images, and sometimes, the researcher just looks for existing images that contain what he needs.

In this modern environment, collecting your own data is not a requirement for being considered original. The scientific community judges originality by whether the result of the research is original. A project that simply verifies a known result is not considered original. If a researcher took an existing data set that had been used to conclude X, but he analyzes it differently and more reliably or more believably, or he points out an error in the original work to conclude the opposite of X, then that's also original--and original in a very special and valuable way since it corrects a previous error that might have led future researchers astray.

So, the question for your daughter is, "Is the question proposed for your project original?" Have other researchers already determined whether "the volcanoes affect where the wind goes and therefore affect where the dust collects" or have you asked a question with a currently unknown answer?

Good luck, WW.

WW,

Thank you for your very thoughtful reply!

So, the question for your daughter is, "Is the question proposed for your project original?" Have other researchers already determined whether "the volcanoes affect where the wind goes and therefore affect where the dust collects" or have you asked a question with a currently unknown answer?

I don't suppose that she is the first investigator to notice that mountains block wind, but it seems like an age-appropriate hypothesis to test (she's 11), so I suppose we'll just keep going on and see what happens. I've also put a similar email into the homeschool adviser for the science fair, so hopefully I'll get a more specific reply on whether doing an experiment is required or if testing a hypothesis by analyzing existing data is acceptable.

--Janet