Science Fair

June 17, 2007 at 3:06 pm | | crazy figure contest, science and the public, science@home

Last weekend I had the pleasure of judging middle school science fair projects. It’s always refreshing to see the kids interested (or at least pretending to be interested) in science. There were a lot of great projects. It was also nice to have a coordinator that wanted us to find a winner, instead of the “everyone’s a winner” approach I’ve encountered judging at some other schools. In honour of their efforts, I’ve put together my own science fair project.

Problem
How do glasses relax? This is important because glasses are important for people with bad site to see good.

Hypothesis
I think glasses will relax. I think this because if glasses didn’t relax, then we wouldn’t be able to see through them. But I’ve seen through a glass before, so it must have relaxed.

Materials
1) Paper
2) Pencil
3) Regeneratively amplified femtosecond Ti:Sapphire oscillator
4) Stopwatch
5) Notebook
6) Something to make things cold

Procedure
1) I ask 5 friends, David, Melissa, Lindsay, Billy, and Rainbow if they thought glasses relax.
2) I wrote down what they said, and averaged the results.
3) Make a liquid supercold.
4) Shine a lazer through it, and see what comes out.
5) Analyze your results.

My independent variable was the number of people I asked. My dependent variable was if the glass relaxed.

Results
These were my results.

As your can see, David, Melissa, and Rainbow all said that glasses relax, while Billy and Lindsay said glasses cannot relax. This confirms my hypothesis that glasses can relax, because more people think glasses can relax than glasses cannot relax.

Conclusions
My hypothesis was correct. If I could do this experiment again, I would see if playing different types of music would make the glasses relax faster. This experiment was important because it shows science works.

Bibliography
100 Great Science Fair Thesis Projects

8 Comments »

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  1. OK, that graph is awesome.

    Comment by sam — June 17, 2007 #

  2. That graph, and the whole post are awesome.

    I especially love the “average” yes-no score, and how that is never mentioned. At all.

    Brilliant!

    Would you mind if I totally scoop this and publish my brand-new thesis right now? I think my advisory committee would be open to such a research path, distant though it may be from evolutionary genetics in some aspects.

    Comment by TheBrummell — June 19, 2007 #

  3. omg i’m actually doing a very similar science fair projcet right now! i also use a lazer and glass. also my glasses are cool

    Comment by ilya — June 19, 2007 #

  4. you should have said “Regeneratively amplified femtosecond Ti:Sapphire oscillator, broken”

    Comment by sam — June 19, 2007 #

  5. I think you might like my recent post regarding sad “science” projects:
    http://lanseybrothers.blogspot.com/2007/06/sad-state-of-science-education.html

    Comment by Eli — June 20, 2007 #

  6. It is summer time here in the United States and kids are out of school. Many believe
    that it is time to play, but science fair enthusiasts know that it is time to
    plan their science fair projects over the
    summer because in the fall they will be ready to meet with their science fair adviser, get approval to
    begin their science experiment, and be ahead of the pack! These are the kids that win the prizes.
    But what is most important is that they will not be stressed out doing their project the last minute.

    Comment by M. D. Binder — June 20, 2007 #

  7. Well, summer is over and it is time to develop your Super Science Fair Projects.

    We are so excited to announce the first EVER Online International Video Science Fair Contest is being held from September 15 – Dec 31, 2007. So hurry, do your project and submit your entry. It is FREE.

    Yes, you can become the 1st International Science Fair Idol by being voted the most popular by your friends, family, teachers and viewers. Find out how to enter the science fair contest! Hope you win a prize…. Primary grades thru College students are eligible.

    Comment by Madeline Binder — September 2, 2007 #

  8. That’s… just… fucking hilarious.

    Comment by Kyle Finchsigmate — September 5, 2007 #

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