Science Fair Project Ideas

[KafudaFish]

Could you provide more information on items such as time frame, budget, and external help such as the DNA analysis?
Also was there anything at the international level that just blew you away? I am sure there will be students who basically copy what won last year and change it just slightly.
Another way to brainstorm is go to some university web sites or research sites such as NOAA and see what they are working on.
If you find something contact the research and ask them questions.
Good luck.

 

[Caleb Kruse]

Well as far as time frame, I have until March, time is not too limiting, and even if it was a great project then you can do multi-year studies. The guy I got second to at state was a senior who worked on his project for 4 years! My budget would probably max at $250, depending on the project though it could be higher, because if I win Grand Prize at regional I get $1000, and at international, the lowest prize is $500, and the highest is $50,000. For external help, my mom and sister have connections at pepperdine university, and most professors are willing to help with experiments. Colorado College that is very close to me has a very good DNA lab. At International, there are so many amazing projects, they range from my brothers project http://youtube.com/watch?v=ur9QNW5pcNY who won third place in engineering, to the grand prize winner who found the first quantifiable evidence that carbon nanotubes are thermodynamically soluble.

 

[kathainbowen]

Perhaps work with natural or uninvasive techniques to stem the overgrowth of invasive species such as the water hyacinth problem in Florida or the issues with caulerpa off the coast of California? It could be interesting to seek out an environmentally sound technique to either stop the growth or at least control it in a better means (such as the reintroduction of species native to the area that consume it, or just barrier methods).

Although, I must admit, I'm very curious about studying simulated seasonal conditions in the captive reef setting and the effects of growth on corals. We often focus so much on maintaining consistent conditions, I'd be intrigued to see how allowing seasonal dips in temperature and slight shift in salinity/nutrient load would effect corals. Would this slow growth of corals or heighten it?

Or, perhaps a study of negative or undesireable behavioral patterns seen in captivity, such as tank pacing (aka zoo pacing) or the refusal of tank raised clownfish to accept anemones. We've all seen tank pacing with triggers kept in too small of tanks and even tanks we consider to be appropriately sized. Perhaps you could study incorporating enrichment to help lessen or completely stop chronic pacing in fish? I mean, even simple changes in mental stimulation has worked with birds, dogs, and even the most addict like of stall-weaving horses.



Iunno.... give us something more direct that your interested in and so we can help you slim down the possibilities.

 

[csb]

Wow, only $250 ... that's going to be tough with a reef related experiment because just basic setup materials for an average tank usually cost more than that.

Are you limited to a certain dollar amount according to rules, or is that simply a limitation of personal resources?

 

[KafudaFish]

So high school students are conducting Postdoc level research to win these fairs. Do you ever see any and think that someone else did all the work such as a parent?
Do the judges seem more impressed with sound research or research that used a large amount of equipment?
I think the best way for you to get ideas from us is to tell us what you are most interested in for a project. I looked at your website and think one of the reasons you did so well was how you presented your research. I have listened to college students to professionals presenting their research and regardless of their level it has always come down to how they made their points of interest and be able to answer questions. I once listened to a student present her work on commerical sturgeon fishing. It was a great project and she did well presenting it. However in the Q&A section she was terrible. For example she could not tell us what the M:F ratio was of caught fish even though the data were in her presentation. Even when she went back to that slide she still could not figure it out. I know that is off topic but something you should think about as you write up.

 

[Caleb Kruse]

No it's personal resources. I've already got a 225g, and 2 12 gallon eclipse tanks that I can use. Also like I said depending on the experiment it can be more.

As far as what I'm interested in.

I like fragging, because it can be applicable to humans. Because ultimately if a coral can regenerate lost tissue, what is stopping us from regrowing an arm? I know that's a far stretch, but why do scientists study planaria for this purpose when you could use coral, that is so similar in structure to a human bone that we are culturing bone cells on dead stony coral skeletons.

 

[kathainbowen]

So, perhaps a study in or fragging and coral regeneration is in order for you!

With your resources, perhaps something nice and easy would be studying the application of different fragging techniques, maybe going into focus with healing and regrowth times?

 

[Caleb Kruse]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10621413#post10621413 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kathainbowen
So, perhaps a study in or fragging and coral regeneration is in order for you!

With your resources, perhaps something nice and easy would be studying the application of different fragging techniques, maybe going into focus with healing and regrowth times?

The problem with that is that it's kind of what I did last year.

Kafuda Fish

It is possible that sometimes the parent does the work, but like you said the judges like people who are able to present their projects well, and have a knowledge of their subject. That's why I like doing projects with my aquarium, I love science, and my aquarium, and I know alot about them already.

Sorry I'm sounding picky not choosing any ideas, you guy are helping me tons by thinking of something, and then I can take your ideas, and morph them into a project I would do.

Thanks!

 

[kathainbowen]

So, how about building on that project and studying shipping techniques?

 

[kathainbowen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10621649#post10621649 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kathainbowen
So, how about building on that project and studying shipping techniques?

In fact, that can be a rather low budget project as all it requires is corals taken from a control tank as stable frags from a colony. Most of the budget would be spent on packing materials, as you can simulate different transit situations by either letting the "shipping box" sit in your home for a few hours, drive around on smooth roads with it in your car, or go bumping around on tough roads. Your overall control group can just be frags you left in your tank.

 

[Caleb Kruse]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10621664#post10621664 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kathainbowen
In fact, that can be a rather low budget project as all it requires is corals taken from a control tank as stable frags from a colony. Most of the budget would be spent on packing materials, as you can simulate different transit situations by either letting the "shipping box" sit in your home for a few hours, drive around on smooth roads with it in your car, or go bumping around on tough roads. Your overall control group can just be frags you left in your tank.

I think I'm going to just do this as a fun project. It's not quite good enough to make it to ISEF, but it would be interesting to see the results.

 

[kathainbowen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10622635#post10622635 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Caleb Kruse
I think I'm going to just do this as a fun project. It's not quite good enough to make it to ISEF, but it would be interesting to see the results.

Well, you could always just get creative in the wording!

Talk about how it's a study branching into the possibilities of a more viable, widespread aquaculture industry through improving transportation techniques (or something smart sounding).

 

[thejrc]

hmmm, given that corals are well, virtually undiscovered when it comes to info about them I'm sure you'll be able to think of something. It would be interesting to see more in the study of RTN, light cycles, and bleaching though!

 

[greenbean36191]

There is a big crisis in coral taxonomy right now. Historically, it's almost all been based on skeletal structure, but now we're realizing that that can be fairly plastic. There is a lot of talk about how what we thought were several hundred distinct species may actually just be a handful of morphologically plastic species. The answer would have a major impact on how the effort of reef conservation is divided.

You could take frags of corals from common parent colonies and grow them out under different flow, light, or nutrient regimes (I would go with flow) and then do a statistical analysis of the variation between all the characters used to identify that genus (Acropora and Montipora would be good choices). You could determine how many of the characters used for identification are consistent and how many are too variable to be of use and use that to make an assessment of the utility of morphological taxonomy in corals.

You could also do a project looking at how widespread palytoxin is within zoanthids as a group and whether it's still produced in captivity since it's thought that it's the product of a dinoflagellate and may not persist.

 

[KafudaFish]

How about this and I just thought of it so it is a little rough but let me brain storm off of what was said. As greenbean was saying about the number of coral species, get people from RC to donate some SPS frags, the same 2 -3 species, and use DNA analysis to determine if they are the same species or not. People would have to include things such as age of colony, if wild or if it was a frag from a cultured colony.
Or you could do something using stress on wild vs. maricultured corals and monitor their growth rates vs. temperature (stable vs. flux as seen in the wild vs. our consistant tank aquaria.

Bean are you a DI derelict? Just curious.

 

[Caleb Kruse]

I like these last three ideas. I like to think big! And coral taxanomy would definetly be a big project, but it would be so helpful. I think its funny with the palytoxin, I wouldn't need any kind of special approval from the Scientific Review Committee, but I needed to submit a dangerous materials page to them for using a scalpel. Whats more dangerous

 

[kathainbowen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10623057#post10623057 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by greenbean36191
You could also do a project looking at how widespread palytoxin is within zoanthids as a group and whether it's still produced in captivity since it's thought that it's the product of a dinoflagellate and may not persist.

I was actually thinking about this in the car earlier (I was on a Wal-Mart run to buy plates for my own fish-related project). There's definitely something very interesting about the toxin. And, I'm certain you would spark a heck of a lot of interest if you to describe the toxin as smartly as the Wiki does....

Palytoxin is an incredibly complex marine natural product containing 71 stereochemical elements. Palytoxin, isolated from soft coral, is considered to be one of the most toxic non-peptide substances known, second only to Maitotoxin. Palytoxin was originally isolated in 1971 in Hawaii from the seaweed-like coral, "Limu make o hana (Seaweed of Death from Hana)".

... makes it sound utterly devilish of a project to work on.... or totally humanitarian depending on how you word it. :strooper:

 

[yellowslayer13]

i might have to do the mantis shrimp project

 

[Fenton2]

I don't know diddly squat about science, but I know a little about marketing and I know a little about educational politics. And hence, if the competition involves writing any sort of paper to discuss the experiment, my advice would be to do two things:

1. Stress that the issue at hand is relevant beyond the aquarium hobbyist. Try to tie it to a larger environmental issue.

2. Discuss potential policy implications.

Packaging's important. Sounds like you have some great ideas though.

 

[thrillreefer]

1) You rock, little man. I am freshly out of college and wish I had half the drive you do to analyze captive reefkeeping.

2) I think it would be interesting to study the effects of an oil spill on a reef. You could set up two aquariums: use rock from the same established tank to set these up, and match the aquascaping as nearly as possible. Then, add frags of the same corals and allow the tanks to mature for a period of time (a few weeks, etc.). Once the corals are well established, begin to add a daily amount of petroleum to the tank (crude oil would be best since this is what often spills, but refined gasoline from the station would also work). Add say, 100 microliters daily to a tank (or alternatively determine what concentration would be found in the middle of an oil-slicked reef and use that). Document health of the corals and the system using some assay that you develop (the hard part) and compare over time to the control aquarium that receives nothing.

Whatever you choose, you are a badass. Keep up the good work