How to perform a worthwhile diy science experiment?
May 6, 2011 9:27 AM Subscribe
What type of "at-home" experiments that ask "substantive" questions could I do over the weekend?
I'm graduating with degree in secondary education and biology soon and have been finishing up my final projects. Because of student teaching I was permitted to miss certain lecture courses throughout the year.
One of my classes is called "Research Methods". Our assignments sometimes consist of us designing and running our own experiments, usually with the full support of lab equipment. While my non-teaching classmates ran their final "inquiries" (that's what we call them) last week, I was allowed to accomplish mine this week.
Problem: My professor and I forgot to check with the bio department (we both figured it would be open year-round) and all the labs are closed this week since class is ending.
My professor was kind of enough to offer me an "incomplete" for the semester so I could run something in the summer when the labs opened up, but I'd really like to finish the course this semester. All my other assignments are in check and I'd really hate to have to adjust my summer plans. He said if I could come up with anything substantive that could be accomplished at home that he would consider approving it.
Although he's rejected my first offer (environmental temperature of crickets affecting food consumption and possibly relating it to amylase denaturing...a bit of a stretch) for not being substantial enough, I was wondering if there was any creative minds out there that could possible offer hope.
I was supposed to do an experiment involving bacteria in an actual lab at my school, but now all of the labs are closed for finals (professor misinformed me of the times they are open). I do not have the supplies necessary for bacteria culturing at home, so I need to come up with a new experiment.
The experiment is juuuust a little more thoughtful than an "average" high school designed experiment.
It needs:
- To be doable outside of a lab (at home, somewhere outside)
- Be completed within a short time span (over this weekend, deadline is Tuesday)
- Have a control variable (all but one variable stays the same)
- Dependent/independent variables
- Hopefully not be pricey
Any ideas? Year-end desperation!
I'm graduating with degree in secondary education and biology soon and have been finishing up my final projects. Because of student teaching I was permitted to miss certain lecture courses throughout the year.
One of my classes is called "Research Methods". Our assignments sometimes consist of us designing and running our own experiments, usually with the full support of lab equipment. While my non-teaching classmates ran their final "inquiries" (that's what we call them) last week, I was allowed to accomplish mine this week.
Problem: My professor and I forgot to check with the bio department (we both figured it would be open year-round) and all the labs are closed this week since class is ending.
My professor was kind of enough to offer me an "incomplete" for the semester so I could run something in the summer when the labs opened up, but I'd really like to finish the course this semester. All my other assignments are in check and I'd really hate to have to adjust my summer plans. He said if I could come up with anything substantive that could be accomplished at home that he would consider approving it.
Although he's rejected my first offer (environmental temperature of crickets affecting food consumption and possibly relating it to amylase denaturing...a bit of a stretch) for not being substantial enough, I was wondering if there was any creative minds out there that could possible offer hope.
I was supposed to do an experiment involving bacteria in an actual lab at my school, but now all of the labs are closed for finals (professor misinformed me of the times they are open). I do not have the supplies necessary for bacteria culturing at home, so I need to come up with a new experiment.
The experiment is juuuust a little more thoughtful than an "average" high school designed experiment.
It needs:
- To be doable outside of a lab (at home, somewhere outside)
- Be completed within a short time span (over this weekend, deadline is Tuesday)
- Have a control variable (all but one variable stays the same)
- Dependent/independent variables
- Hopefully not be pricey
Any ideas? Year-end desperation!
Can you do anything using the DIY laser microscope?
posted by selfmedicating at 3:46 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by selfmedicating at 3:46 PM on May 6, 2011
Best answer: I am absolutely positive I just finished the exact class you're describing, although obviously at a different university. (the U-Teach program or a derivative?) I did my final experiment on how the source of plant seeds affected their germination rate. Classmates did experiments on the regeneration of planeria, the affect of various drying methods and dessicants on the preservation of blood for forensic purposes, mold growth, crab habitat preferences, affects of acid rain on plants. Something like the dessicant experiment would probably be doable by Tuesday. Others that could be usable...someone used a mechanical swimming fish and changed the size of it's fins to see how it would affect the speed at which it swam. Someone else used different colors of hair dye on real human hair and tested the relative strength of each color of hair. My course was integrated science/math, if you're allowed to do that there were a lot of people that used Wolfram or something similar to calculate the probability of something (hands in cribbage, board games) and then tested the games to see if the expected probability held up. I'll see how many other experiments/suggested experiments I can remember, unfortunately I don't have access to the course site at the moment but I'm sure I'll be able to remember more.
posted by kro at 8:26 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by kro at 8:26 PM on May 6, 2011
How about studying how milk sours as a function of time and temperature? Use glass bottles and some pH indicator.
posted by springload at 6:29 AM on May 7, 2011
posted by springload at 6:29 AM on May 7, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
What kinds of lab-esque materials do you have at home? Reliable weight scales, a thermometer, litmus paper, rubbing alcohol, etc.?
What sorts of experiments have your classmates run? (That'll give us a sense of how substantive yours needs to be.)
posted by brainwane at 2:42 PM on May 6, 2011