Survey Volunteers Science Projects (Page 2)

The Case of Mistaken Identity

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Mysteries and detective stories have been popular since the time of Sherlock Holmes. The solutions to these fictional cases often involve untangling seemingly contradictory evidence from eyewitnesses. This project studies one procedure used in the real-world process of eyewitness identification of criminal suspects: the lineup. How accurate are eyewitness identifications using various lineup methods? Read more

The Power of Suggestion

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Can an authority figure make someone question their own memory? How reliable is eyewitness information? This project looks into these questions. You'll need a poster-sized image that includes many faces, and a volunteers to act as "eyewitnesses." The volunteers are tested individually. The instructions are that they have one minute to examine the poster, and then a fixed amount of time (e.g., 5 minutes) to write down brief, accurate descriptions of all the faces they can remember. They'll… Read more

Picture This: How Visualizing Data Can Lead to the Right (or Wrong) Conclusion

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Big data is one of the most promising and hyped trends in technology and business today. Big data refers to data-analysis jobs that are too large and complex to be analyzed by applications that are traditionally used. Big data sets hold valuable information. Many publicly available data sets have the potential to improve our everyday lives by giving us insight into the things we care about. How well-equipped are we to extract information from the data? Visualizations and aggregations (or… Read more

Testing for Bias in a Photo Lineup

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

You may have read about criminal cases where innocent people have been wrongly convicted of a crime. Sometimes, modern DNA analysis techniques have provided the evidence to exonerate these innocent people. In many cases, mistaken identification by eyewitnesses provided strong evidence for the original conviction. How can prosecutors and defense attorneys make sure that photo lineup procedures used to identify criminal suspects are unbiased? This project shows you how to conduct an objective… Read more

Evolution of Friendship Groups Over Time

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

This project asks the question "How do friendship groups change over time?" The results may support inferences about how "people skills" develop. What types of changes would you expect to see? Do you expect friendship groups to grow larger over time? Do you expect that individuals will belong to more, less or about the same number of friendship groups as they get older? Do you think there will be more or less exclusivity among groups (and how would you measure such a concept)? Do you… Read more

Can You Make a Happy Song Sad?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Are there some songs that always make you feel sad when you hear them? How about "Scarborough Fair," George Gershwin's "Summertime," or the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby"? All of these songs are in a minor key. Minor and major scales both use the same number of notes and include the same number of semitones (also called half tones), but in a different pattern. Some musicologists (people who study music) maintain that minor-key songs are more likely to be perceived as sad, while major-key songs are… Read more

Classical Music and Cognitive Tasks

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Does listening to classical music help or hinder concentration and performance on cognitive tasks? You'll need help from a teacher to design two short, age-appropriate worksheet tests for this experiment. The tests should be of equal difficulty. You'll also need the cooperation of several additional classroom teachers in order to test enough students (at least 50-100, see the Science Buddies resource: How Many Participants Do I Need?). Half the students will take test A while listening to… Read more

Does Birth Order Affect Grade Point Average?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Is there a correlation between birth order and grade point average? Design a survey study to find out. How many completed surveys do you need for a representative sample of your school? If you limit your survey to one school, would you expect it to be representative of a larger population (such as your county or state?) How do you control for potential effects of parental age at birth? (In other words, younger siblings will have a higher probability of being born to older parents. If there… Read more

The Eye of the Beholder and the Mind of the Beheld

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

The concept of beauty changes over time and often differs among societal groups. How strongly do societal conceptions of beauty shape an individual's self-image? There are many fascinating questions you could choose to explore with surveys on this subject. For example, how well do girls' ideas of what is attractive in boys agree with boys' expectations about what girls find attractive (or vice versa)? Try your survey with different generations to see how conceptions change over time. If you… Read more

Decisions, Decisions: Judging a Book by Its Cover?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

This project challenges you to think like a politician (and a scientist!), and try to ascertain what factors are most important as individuals make their decision on how to vote. For example, is it what is being said, or who is saying it? Read more

Survey Volunteers Science Projects (27 results)

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