Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Think Fast!

Does the speed of your voluntary reflexes increase or decrease after you have eaten a meal?

I wanted to learn more about what affects your voluntary reflexes and your reaction time. I studied about voluntary reflexes and the nervous system. I also learned about why foods that are high in carbohydrates make you sleepy.

When you eat a meal high in carbohydrates, the carbohydrates turn in to glucose. If your body has too much glucose, your brain sends out insulin to help keep it balanced. The insulin immediately produces a protein called tryptophan. The tryptophan then creates a chemical called serotonin. Serotonin makes you sleepy.

Based on my research, I predicted that the speed of human voluntary reflexes will decrease after eating a meal high in carbohydrates.

I used a standard reaction test. I tested how quickly participants could catch a ruler. I conducted the test before and after the participants ate a meal high in carbohydrates.

The results of my experiment proved my hypothesis to be true. I found that when you eat a meal high in carbohydrates, your voluntary reflexes slow down.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] When Are You Full?

Studies have said that most people eat until their plate is empty, even though they might be full. Not being able to see your food could result in how much you eat.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Do Your Eyes Help You Taste?

Does the color of our food affect the way it tastes to us? When a certain food or flavor is not the expected color, is it harder for us to figure out the flavor of the food or drink.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Can You Tell The Difference?

For our project we were wondering if people can really can tell the difference between name brand and store brand prodcuts, so we tested it. We took six items name brand and store brand, cookies, cereal and chips and we put them in cups labeled "A" and "B".We tested 50 people and asked them to try each cup. We asked which one the liked better and which one they thought was the name brand. We recorded the data on a table. We ended up finding out the majority of people we tested liked the name brand product. So we concluded that it is worth it to buythe name brand products.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Does Sight Affect Taste?

I chose this project because I wondered if the color of a food or drink would affect the way a person percieved the taste.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Gender And Art

I wanted to find out if ability in art was effected by gender. I had volunteer boy and girl students sketch a tree, a flower and a mountain and had these drawing rated by an art teacher.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Caution Wet Paint

Painting is my favorite hobby, I usually purchase expensive artists paints for my projects because I feel they make the project look more professional. However, because of the cost I sometimes am not able to finish. So “can cheaper acrylic paints work just as well as expensive artist paints in covering over lines?” I believe that the more expensive the paint the better it will cover because of the amount of pigment. I also believe that the cheaper the paint the worse it will do. I researched and interviewed a painter then set up my project. I chose four surfaces: canvas, fabric, paper and wood and four paints ranging from $.02 per ml to $.78 per ml. Marking off measured areas with a permanent marker on each surface, using the same amount of paint, brush position and pressure, I tried three layers of paint for each surface and paint, to see if one, two or three strokes of the paint would make a difference in comparing the results. Through testing I found that there are other things that create a good paint not just the pigment, and I was able to answer my question. I found that there are cheaper paints that can perform as well and even better than the most expensive and that even though a paint is cheap it does not mean that it will perform the worst. In fact the paint that worked the best only cost 3 cents per ml. So both hypotheses were incorrect.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Can You Get Fingerprints Off Of Skin?

All humans have friction ridge skin on their fingers, palms, and the soles of their feet. This skin is commonly called fingerprints. These areas of skin often leave deposits of sweat on surfaces when touched. A lot of surfaces yield good fingerprints. However, some surfaces are more difficult. These include leather, cloth, rough surfaces, and skin. The reason it is so hard on skin, is that it perspires. The perspiration has a tendency to wipe the sweat deposits away.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Do Acronyms Improve Memorization

I tested 10 people using a random list of words and then a list of words with an acronym. After testing I measured if people memorized any better with acronyms. It turns out that 60% of people had improved memorization skills when using acronyms. It looks like acronyms could be a really effecient way to memorize.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Ready Steady Now...How Does Vision And Hearing Influence Reaction Time?

Reaction time is the time between the stimulus (a gunshot at the start of a race and the response (the person going). Reaction time is important for athletes. Reaction time is also important in other activities like driving and flying planes. My study examined whether reaction time is better when you can see and hear compared to when you can only see or only hear. My results showed that reaction time is better when you can use both your vision and your hearing. My conclusion is that if you want to have a good reaction time, then you need to protect your vision (wear goggles) and your hearing (wear earplugs around loud noises, have volume turned down to medium when you listen to music). It is best if you use multiple senses when you want to have a good reaction time (look and listen to everything around you when you are driving).

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Take It Or Leave It

My project was based on the theory of delayed gratification. I met with 6 children from grades Kindergarten through fourth, for a total of 30 participants. My procedure was for each minute the participant waited they received 1 gummy bear for each minute of the first five minutes, after which, they received 14 gummy bears for the 6th minute, 15 for 7 minutes and so on until 10 minutes (which was the maximum amount of time). I recorded how long the participant stated they would wait and then how long they actually waited. I also recorded their physical behaviors - such as facial expression, lying on the table, etc. .

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Is Tv, Music Or Video Games The Best Distraction For Pain?

Research has proven that distraction can be effective in coping with pain. Distractions that require more attention will be more effective. This study involved ten subjects who experienced the pain of having their feet in a bucket of ice water at three different times. The goal was to see how long the subjects could stand the pain for a maximum of fifteen minutes. At each sitting there was a distraction. The distractions used were TV, video games and music. The results proved that video games are the best distraction for pain. This information could be helpful to doctors and dentists where a distraction to pain could make the medical visit less stressful for the patient.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Can You See, One, Two, Three

ABSTRACT

Purpose:
I never thought that people didn’t understand numbers greater than three as well as one, two, and three. My hypothesis is that people can’t understand numbers greater than three. I think that people can understand six and nine as well, because they are multiples of three. I especially thought six because it is a multiple of one, two, and three.

Procedures:
I took the black cards with 1 to 10 white dots and held them up for about 2 seconds each. The person I was testing had to tell us how many dots they thought were on the card and I had a paper to check if they got it right. How many they got right I turned it into a percentage and everybody’s percentage all together was the overall percentage.

Observations/data:
The key results were that one, two, three, and four were 100%, and then it kept getting lower till nine. Then when it hit the number ten the percentage went way up and I think it went way up because when people saw a big number they guessed ten.

Conclusions:
My conclusions is that people understand numbers up to four. After that the percentage recognized dropped for each number up to nine. Then there was a jump in percentage with ten. This was surprisingly high. My hypothesis was right on I thought one, two, and three was going to be the highest and I was wrong about six and nine was going to be as high as the one, two, and three.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] How Color Affects The Flavor Of Food

Studies have found that the color of a food can greatly affect how its taste is perceived. For thousands of years people have relied on the color of food to help figure out what is edible. The color of fruit can tell you whether it is ripe, the color of meat whether it is rotten.
The color of food can also affect how you think a food should taste. How would you expect a bowl of yellow-colored gelatin to taste? You might think it will taste sour because of your experiences with other yellow foods that are sour, such as lemons and grapefruits. Or you could think it tastes sweet like bananas or pineapples.
In a study by DuBose, it was reported that subjects identified the correct flavor more often when the drink had the expected color. For example, an orange-colored drink that was actually cherry flavored was often thought to taste like an orange drink. DuBose helped to show that the color of food affects the taste of food.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Pavlov's Fish

I wanted to find out if I could train a betta fish to come up to the top of his aquarium to eat when I ring a bell. This is based on Pavlov’s experiment, where a dog salivates at the sound of a bell when he is trained that he will eat right after hearing the bell.

I conducted an experiment using a control fish (Mr. Bubbles) and my experimental fish (Hamlet). I rang a bell only for Hamlet right before I fed him for 10 days.

On the eleventh day, I rang a bell for both fish but did not feed them and recorded their reactions. I did this for 3 days.

I learned that my experimental fish (Hamlet) had been trained to come up and look for food whenever I rang the bell for him. My control fish (Mr. Bubbles) swam when he heard the bell, but did not come for food.

My conclusion is that I did train my betta fish to come to the top of this aquarium to eat when I ring the bell for him.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Processed Verses Natural

I chose to do this for my science because, I had seen that a lot of kids and adults would eat processed and junk food. So, I wanted to show that eating healthy was a better choice. I wanted to get some research to back up processed and natural foods (one for each side). So, I went online and looked at natural and processed reinforcements(with the help of my mom). I may encounter(and did encounter) some difficulties narrowing down my choices to make room for it to all fit on the board. I also, ran into another problem: figuring out how many things to make. Because not many people had responded I only made 16 of each, and still there were some that didn't get any! Before I had actually done the experiment I thought that more people would choose natural because, I would choose natural on all of the choices(except for the orange juice). All of the choices that I had people try were; orange juice, granola bars, oreos/cookies, soup, and applesauce. I was right! I think that by doing this science experiment that maybe more people will eat healthy and realize the importance of it. While doing this science project I learned some additional information: that people tend to like what they are used to eating.So, if you want to like another food better than you should eat it more. I hope that more people in the world will realize how important it is to eat healthy someday.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Blu Ray Or Dvd

Blu-Ray disks offer higher resolution video than DVD. They also cost much more. I wanted to know if people can tell the difference. I performed two different experiments to see if people could distinguish between the types of disks. First, I showed the same segment of the "Percy Jackson" movie on both Blu-Ray and DVD, and asked subjects to rate the video quality 1-10. I then showed pieces of 4 more movies ("Up", "Kung Fu Panda 2", "How to Train your Dragon", and "Cars 2") from one type or the other, and asked them to guess whether they were watching a Blu-Ray or DVD. In both experiments, people really couldn't tell the difference, at least on our setup, which included a 40" Sony TV and a PS3 connected with an HDMI cable.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Science T Shirts

My experiment was social-science in nature. I wanted to discover how specific groups chose pattern preference through survey and data correlation. The results were somewhat unexpected, in comparison to my hypothesis.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Does Color Affect Taste?

I wanted to know if the color of food affects the taste of food. I tested people using clear and colored sodas. Testers tried, in random order, a clear lime soda and a green lime soda; a clear cherry soda and a red cherry soda, and so on. Even though the flavors were exactly the same, it was almost always easier for testers to identify the flavor correctly if the soda was colored.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Jack Of All Trades...Master Of None

Multi-tasking--can the brain effectively concentrate on more than one task at a time

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Advertising: Fact Or Fiction

Hypothesis: Product advertising, specifically that used for paper towels, is complete fiction. I specify each brand's claim and tested each towel for the main quality it was advertised to have. My conclusion disproved my hypothesis, the advertised claims seem to be true but exaggerated.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Orange Twist

This project investigates whether the color orange influences how we smell orange fragrance. I asked 20 subjects to rank plastic shot glasses that were in two groups of five. The experimental group had different shades of orange water in each shot glass along with a different amount of orange fragrance. The control group shot glasses all had the same shade of orange water and had different amounts of scent in each shot glass, the same amounts as in the experimental group. My hypothesis was that my subjects’ minds would be confused by the color, but my results do not support my hypothesis. My results show that the senses of sight and smell can work independently, but sometimes do rely on each other. This experiment could help scientists in the areas of psychology and neuroscience determine whether or not one sense manipulates another in real life events.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Memory Magic

I decided to do my project about memory. The question I decided to focus on was, how is your ability to memorize both visually and with text affected by your age? I wanted to do some research and found out that the ages 25 and 26 were typically the best at memorizing in general. My hypothesis was that I believe that the test scores of the age group 19-25 will be the highest combined score, because they have been in school the longest and many are still in school.
I decided to test ages ranging from 8 to 50. I tested 6 to ten people for each age group: 8-11; 12-18; 19-25; 26-35; 36-50. I prepared a test with 24 random nouns that were pretty simple. Then I gave everyone 1 minute to try to memorize as many words as they could from the list. I gave them 30 seconds to write down as many of those words as they could without looking at the list.
Next I showed them a tray of 24 random objects. I gave them 1 minute to remember as many objects as they could. They then had 30 seconds to write the objects without looking at the tray. I recorded their scores in a notebook. My experiment proved that my hypothesis was incorrect. I predicted the 19-25 age group would have the highest test score overall. The test results showed the age group 36-50 had the highest score.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Stick Or Switch

An exploration of Monty's Dilemma via random survey and controlled experiment.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Can Attractive Packaging Lead To Healthier Eating?

Many foods are packaged colorfully to make kids want to eat them. Most of these foods do not have a high nutritional value for growing bodies. However, fruits and vegetables, which have the highest nutritional values, are not packaged brightly. This project looks at whether or not children would be more likely to eat healthy food if it is packaged attractively. We tested three age groups: Pre-school, 2nd grade, and 6th grade. We had a total of 118 participants. We tested participants using two types of bags: a colored/decorated bag or a plain brown bag. We labeled the bags to distinguish boys and girls. We then placed an unopened bag of carrots in each of the bags. In each age group we tested two classes. One class received the brown bags and one class received the colored bags. After a preset amount of time, we collected the bags and weighed them to determine the amount of carrots remaining. We had three hypotheses: #1) Kids will eat more carrots if the packaging is exciting and colorful, #2) Exciting and colorful packaging will affect younger kids more than older kids, and #3) Gender won’t affect the results. The experiment results supported our first and third hypotheses. The kids with the colorful packages ate more carrots and gender didn’t significantly affect our results. Contrary to our second hypothesis, our results showed that the packaging affected the older kids more than the younger kids.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Music's Effect On Math Performance

We tested the effect that music had on people's ability to perform math problems. Participants were given three math quizzes of equal difficulty--one with no music, one with classical music, and one with hard rock music. We determined from our testing that performance is best with classical music and worst with hard rock music.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] The Effect Of Caffeine On Children

I had some cousins come over and we gave have caffeine drinks and the others caffeine free drinks. Every hour we tested there blood pressure and there pulse and asked them questions of how energetic they are.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Sleep Vs. Math

In preparing for big tests, parents and teachers have always told me to get a good night's sleep so that I could score my best. I have wondered if it was true that if you have more sleep, you will score higher on your test. My hypothesis was that the more sleep you get, the better your test score will be. I used my classmates as my test subject. I made up a test with 100 random muliplication math facts. They had one minute to complete as many problems as they could. I asked them to record, on the top of the test, when they went to sleep and when they woke up. I repeated the test the next day, as a second trial. I scored the papers and figured out how many hours they slept. I graphed the results by grouping them by hours slept, then I calculated an average score for each grouping. It appeared that the very high and the very low scoring individuals were skewing the data, so I threw out the top two and the bottom two scores in hopes of a clearer conclusion. My tests turned out inconclusive, because it appears that a person's math ability matters more than the hours slept in this test. To get a better result, I should have tested one person over a longer period of time. This would have taken away the variable of individial ability and would have given me a better picture of how the amount of sleep you get affects your math scores.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Hang Up & Drive

What do you want to find out?
How Does Being On A cell Phone Affect Driving?

What do you think will happen?
When Someone Is Distracted When Driving, They Will Crash More.

What do you need to use?
• Driving Video Game
• Cell Phone
• Pencil & Notebook To Record Crashes
• List of Questions to Ask
• 5 Volunteers

What will you do to find out?
1. Choose a Video Game That Is a Driving Game In Which We Use A Steering Wheel.
2. Have First Volunteer Play the Video Game 3 Times To Get The Hang Of It.
3. Take a Short Break and Then Have the Volunteer Play The Game Three Times Not Distracted.
4. Have a Helper Record The Crashes of Those Three Games.
5. Repeat Steps 2 Through 4 with Four Other Volunteers.
6. Repeat Steps 3 Through 5 With All Volunteers While Talking On A Cell Phone & Being Asked Open-Ended Questions.
7. Analyze Results.

What Happened?
When volunteers were talking on the cell phone, they crashed 66% more than when they weren’t.

What did you learn?
It is very important to never, never, never drive while talking on a cell phone!!!

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Painless Tune

This experiment was about how music affects pain perception. A study was done where participants were asked to hold their arms out until they reached a perceived pain level of six. The time endured was recorded in sessions where the participants listened to music and when they had no music. The results showed that they could endure more pain with music than without.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] The Effect Of Music On Birds

to see if diffrent types of music would change the behavior of birds.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Memory Madness: What's Going On Inside Your Head?

I asked people to study a sheet of randomly placed numbers and the see how many they could remember. I then asked them to study a sheet of numbers grouped in three and in straight rows and columns for the same amount of time and then see how many they could remember. I wanted to see if organization increased our ability to remember. I was most interested in part of my research that talked about "chunking." That is the grouping of numbers in to sets of three or four to aid memory. This is why phone numbers are grouped into three or four numbers. My hypothesis was proven correct. Most people could remember more numbers from the organized sheet.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] A Look At Optical Illusions

People have seen and encountered many optical illusions throughout their lives, and these puzzles meant to fool your brain may indeed succeed with some people, but not with others…..So, in my science fair project I had 20 children (aged 7-12), 20 teenagers (aged 13-19), and 20 adults (aged 20 and over) take an optical illusions test with different types of optical illusions that are meant to fool your brain in different ways.
The ways these optical illusions work is by your brain misperceiving information it is shown because of what you are used to happening and seeing. Your brain would then make it out to be what you are used to, and not what it really is. This is what the testers experienced, and though my hypothesis was right in saying that the adults would do the best. On some problems the simple mind of a kid was better than that of a calculating and diligent adult’s, in fact, it would not think of other possibilities, because it was not used to many things, and simply responded with the correct answer.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Pick A Winner

The purpose of my experiment was to determine the best picking device for a guitar which gives the maximum sound. I hypothesized that the thickest device would have the maximum sound.
My independent variables were the various picking devices such as a pick made out of tortoise, a metal pick, a thick Fender pick and my fingernails. The constant variables were my guitar, strings, same tune, and cords. The other constant variable was the form of measurement I used which was GarageBand. This determined the wavelength of sound made by each picking device.
In conclusion, the data proved that my hypothesis was correct as the metal pick measured the largest wavelength and was supported by my data. By completing this experiment, I will utilize a metal pick while playing my acoustic guitar. If I were to conduct this experiment again, I would complete the experiment on an electric guitar. I would like to determine if a metal pick creates the maximum sound on an electric guitar as well as the acoustic guitar.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Short Term Memory

Do 5th graders have a better short term memory than adults? Everyone needs to remember something for a short period of time, such as the groceries they need to buy or the homework they have been assigned. Can you remember your friend's phone number? We want to find out who has a better short term memory! We compiled a list of numbers and a few words and asked 5th graders and adults to take our test. We gave each participant a specific time to study the list and then asked them to recall the list of numbers and retell a few words. Let's find out which group of participants had a better short term memory!

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Charting The Affects Of Sugar Subsitutes In Sugar Cookies And Determining Whether Normal Eating Patterns And Preferences Affect How People Like The Sugar Cookies.

Every time I cook in the kitchen with my mother, we try to find a sugar substitute to make our desserts healthier, while keeping the same great taste. This purpose made me further wonder what would make a person like the healthier cookies more. As a result, the purpose then changed to seeing how eating habits are related to our taste for sugary foods. My hypothesis is that people who eat healthy will be more likely to like the sugar substitutes in the sugar cookies.

In the project, I baked four batches of sugar cookies, purchased one batch of non-frosted sugar cookies, typed a short survey, found some people available to take the survey, and analyzed and charted the data in Excel.

In my results, I found that the more sugary foods that you eat the more you will like the sugary cookies. Also, the more fruits you eat the more you will like the sugary cookies that have no sugar substitute. In my conclusion, my hypothesis was correct and my Null hypotheses was rejected.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Mystery Box

Will kids look in a box that says "Don't Peek?" Will more boys or girls peek? Will younger or older kids open it? Do older or younger kids require more supervision? A hidden camera was set up in a place where kids are not under strict supervision and no adults around. A box with the Don't Peek sign was placed there and the reactions were filmed. Only kids that actually noticed the box were included in the results.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Shoot For Accuracy

Which position is most accurate for shooting a gun. Standing, kneeling, lying prone?

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Verbal Vs. Visual

Tested to see if memory serves better by hearing or seeing.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] The X Factor

Tested students to see if playing violent video games affected the brain's ability to focus by timing their speed doing sudoku puzzles after playing the video game in increasing time increments.

[Behavioral & Social Sciences] Will Watching Sponge Bob Create Problems With Concentration?

A study was done out of Chicago that showed problems with concentration in 4 year-old children after they watched episodes of SpongeBob. I wanted to see if that was really the case with "age appropriate" children, kids 7 and up. I gave subjects a timed test, had them watch an hour of SpongeBob, and then gave them another timed test. My hypothesis was that the subjects would do worse on the second test, the one given after watching SpongeBob. The results showed that all the subjects actually improved on their second test! I didn't find that SpongeBob negatively affected their concentration at all.

[Biology & Biochemistry] M&M Survivor

I used colored paper to camoflauge M&Ms to compare how predators can find food.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Vocal Chord Testing

My question was, “What are some foods and drinks that are better for maximizing and minimizing your vocal range?”
My hypothesis was, "“I think the citrusy and salty foods and drinks will be better for maximizing your normal vocal range, while dairy and sugar will minimize it.”
I was interested in this topic, because I love to sing, and know many singers who have their own beliefs to what is wise to eat/drink before a performance, and what is not. I wondered if they were true, so I tested them like this: participants set aside four days in sequential order, no days in-between. On day one, they tested their normal vocal range. On day two, they followed the instructions I gave them on how to prepare the food/drink assigned to that day, and to either eat, drink, or gargle it. Same story on day three, just with the next food/drink. Also same story day four, just with the last food/drink. Each day they recorded their results, and I found the average notes gained or lost above and below middle C for each food and drink, and that gave me my results! I was surprised to find that lemon water made you lose the most notes on average both above and below middle C. I was also surprised to find that milk and salt water both made you have a higher vocal range. I was right in thinking that oranges would help, and M&M's and toast would not help at all.

[Biology & Biochemistry] How Well Do You Smell?

The purpose of my project "How Well Do You Smell?" was to determine wether or not the sense of smell increases or decreased with age. My hypothesis was that a younger sense of smell would be better.

I had 44 people smell eight very common items while blind folded. Eleven boys and eleven girls ranging in age from 8-14, and eleven men and eleven women ranging in age from 18 to mid fifties (most were 30-45). The items smelled were vinegar, lemons, oranges, bananas, chocolate, coffee, cinnamon and peanut butter. Women did the best with a score of 80/88, men were next with 65/88, then girls with 63/88 and last were boys with 61/88. The adults totaled 145/176, the children totaled 124/176. My hypothesis was wrong, the adults sense of smell was better than a childs and the womens was best of all.

If I were to do this project again I would include senior cittizens, to see if their sense of smell would continue to increase or decrease.

[Biology & Biochemistry] How Does Temperature Affect Yeast's Ability To Produce Carbon Dioxide?

From the process of dinner roll baking, I noticed that temperature affects yeast growth. I took this further as my experiment of how temperature affects yeast growth. My hypothesis was that the warmer the temperature is, more yeast will grow and more carbon dioxide will be generated.
In my experiment, I mixed milk, water, and sugar into 4 bottles. Then, I pre-incubated each bottle in a water-bath of 40, 66, 105, and 128 degrees.Then I added yeast and tied a balloon to each bottle. I let the yeast grow in their desired temperatures for a period of time and recorded my observations. Finally, I measured the volume of carbon dioxide produced. To do this, I referred to this story:
Once, someone named Archimedes had to determine the volume of a crown. There was no way to mathematically measure the crown’s volume,so Archimedes put the crown in a container full of water and measured the amount of water that overflowed. This was the crown’s volume.
In my experiment, I put each balloon in a container full of water. I pressed a flat board onto the container and measured the amount of water that overflowed. This was the amount of carbon dioxide generated.
In conclusion, my hypothesis was partially correct. From 40 to 105 degrees, as the temperature rose, more yeast grew and more carbon dioxide was generated. But as the temperature rose from 105 to 128 degrees, less carbon dioxide was generated.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Fingerprints Inherited Or Independent?

Fingerprints are unique to each individual. Genetical traits are inherited. Fingerprint patterns are genetically inherited.

[Biology & Biochemistry] The Effects Of Caffeine On A Daphnia's Heartbeat

Daphnia are small crustaceans common in freshwater environments. They are mostly transparent, which allows their heart to be easily seen. In this project, I studied the effects that different concentrations of caffeine had on the heart rates of two different species of Daphnia: daphnia magna and daphnia pulex. Because caffeine is a stimulant, my hypothesis was that caffeine would increase their heart rates, and that higher concentrations of caffeine would increase it even more. I made 4 solutions of caffeine and water with concentrations from 0.1% to 0.4%. For each trial, I placed a new daphnia into the solution for one minute, then put them under a microscope, and counted their heart beats for 10 seconds. When the daphnia magna were put in the caffeine solutions, their heart rates increased, but higher concentrations did not increase their heart rates any more. For the daphnia pulex, their heart rates did not increase in the 0.1% solution, but in the other solutions I found that the higher the concentration was, the more their heart rates increased, as in my hypothesis.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Why Did My Lettuce Turn Brown?

The purpose of this experiment was to see if a regular shopping bag, a green bag for produce, or a Ziplock bag would keep a head of lettuce fresh the longest. The three heads of lettuce were put in a Ziplock bag, a green bag for produce, and a regular shopping bag for a 5-day period. The hypothesis given for this experiment was that the green bag for produce would keep the lettuce fresh the best. To conduct this experiment, the heads of lettuce were put in the 3 different types of bags inside of the fridge for 5 days, and observations were recorded each day. The variables explored in this experiment were how long the lettuce was able to stay fresh, and which bag would keep the lettuce fresh the best over a five day period of time. Using these variables, the results of this experiment were that the regular shopping bag kept the lettuce fresh the best over a 5-day period. The hypothesis was not supported by the data. The reason that the regular shopping bag worked better than the rest of the bags was that it was more breathable, and let the ethylene that was produced in and out of the bag, slowing down the process of decay. In the future, this experiment may be conducted using different foods or different types of bags.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Bacteria

I thought natural cleaners would clean better than store bought cleaners. I gathered four cleaners and swabbed the toilet and phone and used sensitivity squares to put cleaner on to see what would repel the bacteria.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Sports O Zone Busted

Athletes may get infections from dirty equipment. Cleaning and sterilizing equipment can be difficult. The Sports O-Zone is a machine that claims to sterilize sports equipment using ozone gas. The purpose of this experiment was to test the germ killing ability of the Sports O-Zone. Our hypothesis was that the Sports O-Zone would kill germs. We went to Steiner Aquatic Center to test the machine using hockey equipment. We collected swabs of equipment and inoculated these onto sterile blood agar. We verified the presence of ozone in the machine. We exposed some plates to the Sports O-Zone and used other plates as controls. We counted bacterial colonies on both. The colony counts for exposed and unexposed plates were similar. The Sports O-Zone did not kill bacteria.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Bacteria

Where is the most bacteria in your house? This project tested five different high use areas in my house; remote control, bathtub, kitchen faucet, iPad, and door knob to the garage. My hypothesis was that the bathtub would have the most bacteria. I believed this to be true because the water would wash the bacteria from your body to the bottom of the tub. I grew bacteria in petri dishes for seven days. I recorded the results with a camera. I recorded my observations in a log. The results from the experiment did not prove my hypothesis. The location that had the most bacteria was the kitchen faucet. I was surprised when I saw the results. It is kind of gross to know there is bacteria all around you. The iPad had different types of bacteria colonies. The iPad is the item the kids played with the most. The experiment showed that it is important to wash your hands often during the day to get rid of the bacteria.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Dairy Microbiology: Dyeing For Oxygen

I hypothesize the number of microbes in milk will increase over time. In my experiment, I use methylene blue dye to test for the presence of oxygen on the pretense that microbes consume oxygen and the more microbes, the quicker the oxygen is consumed. The results of my experiment are inconclusive but tend to support my hypothesis.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Fingerprint Tracking

I collected all of the fingerprints of my family and extended family. I had 19 people do finger prints. I was trying to determine whether or not fingerprint patterns have genetic correlation. I learned that fingerprints don't change over your lifetime. My research supports my hypothesis that fingerprints are inherited. More research is needed to really support this hypothesis.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Mummification Of A Hot Dog

3 separate hotdogs. 1 in salt, 1 in baking soda, 1 in control. Which one is the best preserved?

[Biology & Biochemistry] Germs

I grew 3 of my germs at my house and then printed 2 other pictures at my house. I then researched the germs on various websites.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Which Hairspray Works Best

I curled hair, sprayed it and look at which hair spray works best.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Rotten Apples

Testing household products to preserve apple slices.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Play Land Germs

Propose
To see if the top of play lands slides are dirtier than the bottom of the slides or the other way around. A lot of kids play in play lands and so with that, the germs on their bodies are spread.

I selected 5 restaurants with play lands and went to each of them during a busy lunch time on a Saturday. At each restaurant I took one swab and a bottle of broth and dipped the swab in the broth and wiped the top of a slide. I would do the same process on the bottom of the slide. At home I took the broth and put about a teaspoon of it into a Petri dish, and labeled it ”top of slide”. I did the same thing on the bottom test. I put everything under a heat lamp and had it grow for 72 hours [three days]. After three days I looked at them and analyzed the results.

[Biology & Biochemistry] The Strength Of Gelatin Gels

Gelatin is used in medicines and tissue engineering so it is important to study it. We had two hypotheses. The first was that a more concentrated gel would be stronger than a dilute one. The second was that gels made with Type B gelatin would be stronger than those with Type A. We made gels with 4 different concentrations and both types of gelatin. We put a weight on the gels to see how much each would compress. We then found how much weight it would take to fracture each gel. Our first hypothesis was correct and our second was partially correct.

[Biology & Biochemistry] Cholesterol: Fad, Fact Or Fat?

I want to find out whether or not products have misrepresented facts about cholesterol and also whether or not there are other things (such as fats) which could be more harmful to the body

[Chemistry] How Tempatures Effect Battery Life

We put batteries in dry ice and regular ice and left it at room tempature. Then we would record how long the car battery lasted.

[Chemistry] Electric Liquids

Which liquids are the most and least conductive?

[Chemistry] Cooling Sodas

You just come in from a hot summer day and you'd like a cold, refreshing drink. You find there are no soda's in the fridge, they are all still sitting in the cupboard at room temperature. What is the fastest way to get the soda down to a cold, refreshing temperature?

[Chemistry] Sweetners And Yeast

I wanted to find out which sweetener made yeast rise the fastest. I had a control bottle that was just water and yeast, and then 4 different sweeteners. White sugar, Artificial Sugar, maple syrup, and corn syrup. Artificial sugar made it rise the fastest. But it also disipated the fastest. White sugar was the second fastest and it also lasted the longest.

[Chemistry] No Burn Zone

This project is testing different types of flame retardants and the effect they have on wood. We used 2 different spray-on types, and also a chemical called sodium silicate. The treated wood and the control pieces were put to the flame and timed to see how long it would take to start burning.

[Chemistry] Bubble

Project meant to determine what effects Corn syrup, and glycerin have on the out come of simple bubble solution. Do the adding of these ingredients prolong the "life" &/or size of the bubble.

[Chemistry] A Pretty Penny

The project determines whether the myth that taco sauce can clean a penny is true or false. It was proven to be true. It then discovers which ingredients or combination of ingredients does the actual cleaning.

Equally tarnished pennies were placed separately into the three main ingredients of salt, vinegar and tomato paste. It was found that the ingredients alone had very little effect on the pennies.

The pennies were then placed separately into a combination of two of the ingredients. The combinations were salt & vinegar, vinegar and tomato paste & tomato paste & salt. It was found that the vinegar and salt were the 2 ingredients that did the cleaning.

The analysis was that salt and vinegar mixed create a chemical reaction. The vinegar dissolves the salt and breaks the salt down into sodium chloride ions. The sodium chloride ions work with the copper oxide to clean the tarnish.

The conclusion was that you can use common household items to replace expensive cleaners.

[Chemistry] Melting The Ice

I want to find out which substance will melt ice the fastest. I used "Ice Melt #1", "Ice Melt #2", pepper, sugar, table salt (with extra minerals), and a control to try to melt the ice. I think this project is important because it could help a lot with seeing which product would melt ice the fastest. This will help people not slip on ice in the winter time since the ice will be melted. I enjoyed this experiment and had a lot of fun!

[Chemistry] Metals And Liquids

This great project digs deep into the world of liquids and the effects that it has on metal. You will find it interesting to see what happened to the metal with the different liquids!

[Chemistry] Fabric Burn Rates

Testing the difference between man-made fabrics and natural fabrics and the speed they burn comparing to each other to determine flammability. The same size samples with open flame to determine difference between the speed of burn and affects on different fabrics from melting, smoking and turning to ash.

[Chemistry] Calorimeter

Abstract:
The science fair project chosen to learn and understand a method for measuring how much calorie of energy is available in different types of nuts. I built my own Calorimeter in home to capture the calories released by burning various nuts such as Almond, Cashew, Chick Pea Peanut and Walnut. In conclusion, I was able to calculate the number of calories in each nut. My hypothesis was that the peanut would possibly contain the highest number of calories per nut, but my experiment yielded the cashew nut being the highest of all the nuts tested.

[Chemistry] The Ice Cold War: A Salty Race To Safety. Which De Icer Melts Ice The Best?

There are over 1,500,000 weather related accidents each year. These accidents not only cause injuries and deaths but they also hurt the economy. Since winter road safety is important, cities and citizens alike use sodium and calcium chloride based de-icers to melt the snow and ice off of roads. This experiment was designed to test "Which De-Icer Melts Ice the Best?" There were three de-icers tested: Morton Salt; the City of Riverton Department of Public Works Mix and Redmond Mineral's Ice-Slicer; there was also a control variable which was no de-icer. There were 3 different phases of the experiment: Phase 1 - 60 minutes; Phase 2 - 45 minutes and Phase 3 - 30 minutes. There were 4 trials per phase. The hypothesis was that Redmond Mineral Corporation's Ice-Slicer would melt ice the best. The test results showed that Redmond Mineral Corporation's Ice Slicer melted ice the best. The Riverton City Mix melted the second most ice and Morton Salt melted the third most ice. The conclusion was that Ice-Slicer melted the most ice by .8 ounce over the Riverton City Mix and 5.6 ounces over Morton Salt.

[Chemistry] Tie And Dye

Question-
1. Do natural food dyes work as well as store-bought dyes?
2. Which fabric dyes better—natural or man-made?
Hypothesis-
1. Food dyes are not as bright as store-bought dyes.
2. Cotton fabric will dye better than polyester fabric.
Procedures-
1. Gathered materials:
a. Onion skin water
b. Beet juice
c. Carrot juice
d. Spinach water
e. Kool-Aid
f. Grape juice
g. Coffee
h. Tea
i. Rit dye
j. Vinegar
k. Cups
l. Rubber Bands
m. Cotton fabric
n. Polyester fabric
2. Prepared dyes: boiled onion skins for 20 minutes, added 1 T vinegar to all dyes. The vinegar acted as the mordant that makes the dye color fast.
3. Prepared fabrics: cut 4”x4” squares of cotton and polyester. Folded, twisted, and wrapped each square with a rubber band.
4. Soaking: soaked fabric squares in dyes for 30 minutes each.
5. Drying: dried fabrics squares until completely dry
6. Compared samples by observation
7. Recorded data
Conclusion-
As predicted, store-bought dyes produce a brighter color than food dyes. The dye color in a natural fabric, such as cotton, is brighter than a man-made fabric, such as polyester. I was curious as to why the cotton fabric had a brighter color than the polyester fabric. If I were to do this project again, I would test more different types of fabrics with one type of dye to see the effects of dye on more fabrics. I would test fabrics like silk, nylon, cotton, linen, and spandex.

[Chemistry] Melting Crayons

For my project I melted crayons. I wanted to see if the color of the crayon affects how long it takes the crayon to melt. My hypothesis was that that darker the crayon, the faster it will melt. At 1 minute, none of the crayons had melted. At 3 minutes, red, green, brown, and black all started melting more than the others. At 5 minutes, blue and purple had caught up and started melting also. At 7 minutes all the colors were melted about the same amount. My hypothesis was incorrect because there was no significant difference in the amount all the different colors melted.

[Chemistry] Which Detergent Really Works?

Which detergent really works? If I were to put some greasy cloths into cups with 1/2 cups of water and 1/4 cups of detergent which one would work the best. I used the following detergents:Tide, Ultra Purex,Baking Soda,and Joy Ultra and mixed them in with the greasy cloths.I did three trials and then found out that Ultra Purex won. I measured how far the grease spread out and measured it in inches and ultra Purex had the least amount that was spreading out.

[Chemistry] Pop To The Oil

I LOVE popcorn but HATE all the old maids. So, I decided to do a science experiment to see if different oils pop more popcorn. My question was, “What is the effect of cooking oils on how many popcorn kernels were popped?” I got four oils with different smoke points: canola oil, olive oil, corn oil, and coconut oil. My hypothesis was that corn oil would pop the most kernels because it has the highest smoke point. I researched about it and found out a lot of cool things, like popcorn kernels have tiny drops of water in them so they can pop.

When it was time to start my experiment, I did three tests for each of the four oils. When I was done with each test I would count out all the kernels that didn’t pop. My average results were: 60 for olive oil, 79 for canola oil, 69 for corn oil, and 56 for coconut oil. When I was all done I found out that my hypothesis was incorrect. There was no pattern in the oils smoke points and if they popped more kernels. This was a fun experiment. I learned a lot. The biggest thing that I learned though was what the scientific method is. Next time I would like to hold the doors of the popper down for like thirty seconds or a minute and see if that would change my results.

[Chemistry] Sweet Science

Hypothesis: I believe that extreme changes in temperature will affect the taste and texture of chocolate. I tested four batches of chocolate. The first batch I heated to 120 degrees F, then cooled at room temperature. The second batch I heated to 120 degrees F, then cooled in a freezer. The third batch was heated to 160 degrees F and cooled at room temperature. The fourth batch was heated to 160 degrees F and cooled in a freezer. I recorded changes to the taste and texture for each batch using two test subjects. Batch 1 resulted in the best chocolate. My experiments showed that my hypothesis was correct.

[Chemistry] Shimmy Shimmy Soda...Sprite?

using the ingredients of baking soda, citric acid,sugar, lemon-lime mixture and water I made a more natural soda in comparison to sprite

[Chemistry] Which Temperature Is Best For Crystals To Grow?

We decided to experiment with crystals because we both interested in how crystals are formed in different temperatures. Our purpose is to find which temperature is best for crystals to grow. This is important because temperature affects the growth of Borax crystals; which affects how it cleans. Our question is which temperature is best for crystals to grow? Our problem was finding out which temperature would grow the most crystals. We hypothesized that room temperature would grow the most crystals. We took 3 glasses, filled them with saturated Borax solution, then placed strings hanging in the glasses and waited for 12 hours. We observed the crystal growth and found that the ice water bath grew the most crystals. Our hypothesis was incorrect. We believe that ice water grows crystals better because when the ice water cools, the microscopic pieces of crystals sink, stick to each other and build up faster more because of the cooler temperature. The application for our experiment is that Borax is more effective in warmer water because the borax crystals won’t stick together as much, making them smaller in size. This will cause them to be able to get in between smaller spaces in your clothing fabric, which will help Borax to clean better.

[Chemistry] Static Electricity

I decided to do this project to learn more about static electricity. I was curious to know what would happen if I rubbed a balloon more times if it would attract heavier materials by the static electricity.
I did some research and found that everything is made of atoms and that inside those atoms there are even smaller particles called electrons, protons and neutrons, some materials have more tendency to loose electrons than others and they can interchange between materials. This exchange creates imbalance between negative charges the electrons and positive charges the protons. This imbalance is called static electricity. The negative charged materials would attract materials that are neutral or positively charged. They got to even stick to each other.
My hypothesis was that if I rubbed a balloon more times it would attract heavier materials.
The materials I choose to test where: another balloon, an empty soda can, a magnet, a kitchen faucet, a small stream of water, a sheet of paper, a sticky note , a one gallon zip lock bag ,a ¼ gallon zip lock bag and a piece of a kitchen plastic wrapper.
I than rolled my sleeves and went to work. We eliminated some materials that were not attracted at all and worked with those that were able to be attracted. I rubbed the full balloon against my robe ten times, and tested all of the materials and took note of the results including pictures with the help of my mom. I did the same thing after rubbing the balloon twenty times and recorded the results. After that we did review the results, I made the conclusion and compared it with my hypothesis. I concluded that my hypothesis was correct. The more the balloon was rubbed the heavier materials it could attract.

[Chemistry] Effects Of Chlorine On Swimsuit Material

I am a swimmer and have wondered why my swimming suits seem to wear out so fast and whether some swimsuit materials last longer than others. There are three major types of material used for swimming suits: polyester, polyester-spandex blends, and nylon-spandex blends. My background research revealed that polyester is considered more resistant than other materials, but there was no data online about whether this resistance was in color-fastness, elasticity, or thickness of the material. I hypothesized that the polyester and polyester-spandex blend would be more resistant to multiple washings in chlorine than the nylon-spandex blend. I used our washing machine to agitate 12 gallons of water with different doses of bleach (1 cup, 2 cups, or 4 cups) and washed the materials on the vigorous cycle for different times (1 hour, 2 hours, and 4 hours). I controlled the experiment by using five equal 3-inch square pieces of black material of each type in each group (three material types, three doses, and three time points). I also tried pre-treating the material with Rit SunGard. I evaluated the color, the weight, and the elasticity of each square relative to the control samples that had not been treated with bleach. The polyester and polyester-spandex blend was more resistant than the nylon spandex in terms of color fading and elasticity, but the weight measures were inconclusive. The Rit SunGard made no difference in outcome. Future experiments would include exposure to sun or ultraviolet light to see if it makes any difference.

[Chemistry] Using The Science Of Electricity To Remove Rust

I built an electrolytic de-rusting bucket that uses electricity to remove rust from metal objects. My experiment involved testing the effectiveness of the electrolytic de-rusting bucket versus the effectiveness of chemical stripper. My hypothesis was that the bucket would work better than chemical stripper. I used rusty horseshoes as the objects for rust removal. I tracked my results over 5 days and determined that my hypothesis was correct. The electrolytic de-rusting bucket I built worked better and faster than chemical stripper.

[Chemistry] Is Washability A Possibility?

For my project, I wanted to see if washable art supplies are really washable. I chose to do this because I'm always doing art and I wanted to know if the commercials are correct. To find this out, I washed denim, fleece, and cotton swatches with washable marker, paint, and crayon stripes on them. I also washed them in different temperatures of water and I used bleach in half of the loads. Once I washed them, I judged them using a one to four scale. One was the cleanest it could be, and four was only a little fainter than when I first marked it. To help me organize my results, I put all the numbers in a spreadsheet. I also totaled each row and column so I could compare each of the art supplies and fabrics to each other. As it turned out, denim and crayon were the least washable and fleece and marker were the most washable. Also, bleach didn't make a difference.

[Chemistry] Rockets Are Out Of This World

Our science project is about actual rockets,how they work, and what we learned about during making our rockets.Just to make sure our observations and test results were accurate we tested multiple times just to make sure.

[Chemistry] Nail Busters

The effect that soda, particularly Cola's has on 2 different types of nails. Trying to prove, or disprove a common myth that Cola can eat away a nail in 4 days.

[Chemistry] Borax Crystals

Does the temperature of water make a difference in how crystals grow?

If we mix borax in hot and cold water then the crystals will grow faster in hot water because it has faster moving molecules which are spread further apart than the molecules in cold water, and so more molecules can fit in between the water so more dissolves. The borax in the cold water doesn't dissolve because they are closer together.

[Chemistry] Does Salsa Eat Through Metal

I wanted to see if the salsa would dissolve metal nails. I put the nails in container of salsa and then put lids on the containers and put them in the fridge.

[Chemistry] Is Expensive Always Better?

We compared the effectiveness of different hair conditioners from the least expensive to the most expensive. We asked people to wash their hair using the same shampoo each time but changing conditioners three times. They then filled out a survey rating how their hair felt and looked. We found out that the most expensive conditioner was the favorite and at least in this case, expensive was better.

[Chemistry] Rockets

In our project, we found different ways to launch bottle rockets. We made three different rockets from soda bottles, one using baking soda and vinegar, one from Mentos and Diet Coke, and one from water.

[Chemistry] Which Grows Fastest?

Do crystals grow faster from a saturated solution or a supersaturated solution?

[Chemistry] Iodine Titratable Vs. Clorhine Dioxade

In my project I am testing which chemical purifies water quicker.My hypothesis was that the Iodine would purify quicker. My Hypothesis was incorrect.My water source that I used was snow melted into water.I found out that Clorhine Dioxade purifies water quicker. My project helps the world,because it helps campers know that the Clorhine Dioxade tablets purify water quicker.

[Chemistry] Absorption Power

I tested which paper towel brand was the most absorbent.

[Chemistry] The Effect Of Water Temperature On Alka Seltzer Tablets

In this project, I will demonstrate how much time it takes for an Alka-Seltzer tablet to create a gas. I will do this by taking a plastic bottle, filling it up to a line with water, dropping a tablet in the water, twisting on the cap, and watching the pressure from the tablet push the end out of a syringe.

[Chemistry] How Sweet It Is?

I tested sugar density in soda and juice using a hydrometer.

[Chemistry] Popcorn Wars

Josh loves popcorn and thought it would be fun to determine which brand of microwave kettle corn pops the highest percentage of its kernels. He chose five different brands of kettle corn, popped three bags from each brand, counted a lot of un-popped kernels and also performed mathematical calculations necessary to identify the winners and losers. Josh's analysis concluded that the Western Family brand was the "best value" because it had the second highest percentage of popped kernels and was the least expensive brand.

[Chemistry] Fizz Factor

will submit this evening

[Chemistry] Surface Tension

We used boats made of transparency paper and sponge to study the strong bonds formed between water molecules and to look at what kind of household products added to water would change its surface tension. We discovered that amphiphilic things (one end is hydrophobic and the other end is hydrophilic) had the biggest effect on the surface tension of water because hydrophobic part floats on top of the water while the hydrophilic part gets in between the water molecules

[Chemistry] Chemistry Kitchen

What effect do eggs have on a regular yellow cake?

[Energy & Transportation] Warming A Room In Winter: A Simple Solar Sponge

Introduction: Utah has long and cold winters. We wanted to reduce our heating bills by building a simple solar air room heater from household items.
Materials and Methods: The materials used were a styrofoam board, black paint, paint brush, plastic wrap, string, pushpins and duct tape. The control unit was not painted with black paint. We mounted the experimental solar air heater (painted black on the window facing side) on a south facing window of a bedroom. We recorded the temperatures of the upper and lower vents of the styrofoam box on sunny and cloudy days. We also recorded the difference in temperature of the room. The same was done with the control unit.
Results: We found a one and half times difference in average temperature between the upper and lower vents of the sample solar heater on a sunny day while the difference in temperatures in the control was marginal. On a cloudy day there was no difference in temperature between the vents on the control as well as the sample heater. On a sunny day the sample solar heater could increase the temperature of the room by 2 degrees F which did not happen on a cloudy day or using the control solar heater.
Conclusions: We were able to build a simple solar air heater using household items and observed that it could increase the temperature of a room on a sunny day.

[Energy & Transportation] Batteries & Flashlights

To determine which AA Alkaline battery would last longest in a flashlight out of Duracell, Energizer, and Rayovac. Then I did some research. My hypothesis was: Based on the Rayovac advertising I think that the Rayovac AA Alkaline battery will last the longest.
Next I got my experiment plans. Then I did my experiment, Then I did my observations. From this I learned that the Duracell AA Alkaline battery lasted the longest in a flashlight. Last I did my conclusion/analysis. I think that it will be better to buy Duracell AA Alkaline batteries because they last longer.

[Energy & Transportation] Green Electricity

I raise turkeys and have lights on in the shed at night, that can be expensive. Turkeys will eat at night if they have light and they will grow bigger. In order to save money I am investigating how to use wind power to generate electricity to charge batteries to light the shed. Spending money to buy a large windmill would not save money so I am looking for a way to use recycled materials as much as possible. That will be better for everyone. I have experimented with turning electric motors into generators and have built a model to show that it can work.
In order to show this will work in my turkey shed I am experimenting with different motors to find how much energy each can generate. Using constant rpms I can can turn different motors to find a generator that will produce enough electricity to charge car batteries. I use electric drills to turn the motors and I use a multimeter to measure how much electricity they generate.

[Energy & Transportation] Cold Is The New Hot

In my project I wanted to find out if the temperature that a battery is working affects how long it will work. Batteries are very expensive and I thought people would want to know this so they can save money and decrease waste. I thought that hot and cold temperatures will change the outcome of the batteries life because heat is energy and cold sucks energy. To do this expirement I placed four flashlights in different temperatures and turned them on. I watched to see which flashlight went out first and so on. I had a flashlight in a freezer, refrigerator, oven (with a space heater with a thermostat to keep it at a consistent termperature), and one at room temperature. My hypothesis was incorrect, I thought heat would make the flashlight go longer but the freezer flashlight stayed on the longest so I learned that cold is better for batteries that heat. This was consistent with my research which explained that batteries work by a chemical process which is slowed down the colder the temperature. It appeared as though the warmer temperature the brighter the light which was what my research said would happen. It would be interesting to do another test to measure the total amount of energy pulled from each battery at different temperatures to see what the most efficient temperature is.

[Energy & Transportation] Crashing Cars

The purpose of my experiment is to find out if talking on a cell phone affects how you drive. My hypothesis is that cell phones will distract the driver and cause him to crash. For my procedure, I tested three friends on Mario Kart with the same person, cart, and driving course each time. I tested them three times without the cell phone and three times with it using the Wii wheel. What I noticed as I did my experiment was that the cell phone distracted the driver causing him to crash more often. I also noticed that the time when they took out the cell phone, they crashed the most. While they were doing my experiment, they swerved the car a lot while talking on the phone. My hypothesis was correct. The cell phone did affect drivers based on my test. Based on my experiment results, I discovered that talking on a cell phone made people crash more often or lose control.

[Energy & Transportation] Storing Static

Storage of electricity is useful for a wide variety of applications. Capacitors store electricity, like a battery, but without the potentially dangerous chemical reactions. In this experiment I tested how much electricity is stored by using aluminum foil, tap water, and salt water as the inner conductor in a type of capacitor known as a Leyden Jar. The test method could be used to test many different materials to determine their suitability for storage of electricity. My hypothesis was that aluminum foil would store the most electricity.

[Energy & Transportation] Energy From Waste: Wasted Energy?

I am always open to finding energy sources that are clean and sustainable, so I decided to experiment and see if energy from waste could be substantial in comparison to traditional energy sources. To experiment, I used charcoal as my control, and banana peel and paper briquettes as alternate fuel. I bought the charcoal from the store. To make the paper briquettes, I packed water and shredded paper together and added sawdust. To make the banana briquettes, I packed ground up dried banana peels and wet banana peels, and also added sawdust.I would add a small amount of lighter fluid to the fuel, burn the fuel underneath a can of water, and see how much the temperature of the water changed over time. I also measured temperature change per gram of the briquette. I did 3 trials, one briquette per trial. After experimenting, I found that banana heated fastest, but was the least efficient (it would take a lot of briquettes to make enough energy). Charcoal heated more evenly and efficiently, but not as fast as banana. Paper had the same efficiency issue as banana, and didn't heat very fast or evenly. As a conclusion, banana can make a good fuel source if we can find an efficient way to use it, and obtain enough.

[Energy & Transportation] Pennies And Boats

The capacity of clay boats with different shapes

[Energy & Transportation] Passive Solar Energy

Abstract:

Use of passive solar energy in buildings and exploring if it is really possible to use Sun’s Energy to heat and cool buildings simply and economically?

Avoiding or reducing use of heavy-duty mechanical and electrical systems and equipments for the purpose of easy maintenance and operation.

In the process saving energy and keeping the environment clean, because of its abundance, simplicity, low maintenance, and most important it’s free!

[Energy & Transportation] Got Pressure?

While campaigning for the Presidency of the United States, Barack Obama said in a speech that if people would keep their car tires inflated and service their cars we would be able to save a lot of energy and need to use as much oil. Many people criticized him for this statement and thought it was a joke.
Sophie’s dad is a bike racer, and he was told that having less air pressure in your tires actually allows you to go faster using less energy.
We decided to test these theories to find out if using proper air pressure in tires uses less energy by rolling better. We thought it would be a good idea to test this on both cars and bikes.
We read multiple studies that said a properly inflated car tire rolls around 3.3% better than under-inflated tires.
We tested cars and a bike at different air pressures, through multiple tests, on varying terrains. Our tests showed that properly inflated tires do actually use less energy because they roll better.
This is a good reminder to keep our tires properly inflated, not only for safety reasons, but because we can also save energy.

[Energy & Transportation] Wing Design

How does wing deisgn effect lift

[Energy & Transportation] Copper & Salt: Utah's Untapped Energy

Copper and salt are two of Utah's natural resources. By combining copper and salt in a kinetic energy experiment as well as using a volt meter in a separate experiment, I wanted to find out if a clean energy source could be generated. Using five different salinity levels (including a sample from the Great Salt Lake and distilled water as a control), I combined different metals (copper, gold, aluminum, magnesium, silver, zinc), carbon and each water sample to try and generate energy. My kinetic energy experiment combined a carbon plate, four metals, each water sample and a motor to run wheels on a small car. My voltmeter test measured volts created when a combination of two metals were immersed in each of the five water samples. Aluminum with the highest salt water solution was the only metal that worked on the kinetic energy test. Copper, carbon and a 12.5% salt water solution worked the best, and copper and silver with the Great Salt Lake water sample worked second best on the volt meter test. I discovered that two minerals mined in Utah, copper and silver, did create energy when used with salt water as a conductor. My project showed how resources found locally can create clean energy.

[Energy & Transportation] Thunder Bird Super Sonic Catapult

Me and my partner Jakob Fulton had desided to have our project Thunder bird catapult from the internet cause we had no ideas.Thunderbird jets are real in fact it is a very easy way to do transportation sure it dosnt go that far but the real deal is super fast but the project we are doing goes 28 feet and 2 feet out of bounce but yes it was a easy project to do all we really needed was the jet launcher.

[Energy & Transportation] Boat Races

The purpose of this project is to find out which boat material will go the farthest. Three different boats with different material basswood, plastic folder, and paper folder. The hypothesis was that the plastic folder will go the fastest. We made the boats then we put them in the water and timed them. We put out three water tubs and put one boat in each. Then timed them to see how fast they went by using detergent as a motor. We found out that our hypothesis was refuted. The basswood boat went the fastest and the plastic folder went the slowest. The basswood average travel is 15.75 seconds fast.

[Energy & Transportation] Give Me Your Best Pitch....

I built a wind turbine out of PVC pipe and a small DC motor. After researching that the two main components of producing the most power from a wind turbine is the wind speed and the pitch angle of the blades. Therefore, I wanted to see how the pitch angle of the blades had an effect on how much power the wind turbine made if I kept the wind speed the same.

[Energy & Transportation] Insulation Madness

Introduction
The purpose of my research was to determine which type of insulation maintains temperature best. Insulation helps stop this natural movement and keeps the warm air in your house when it is cold outside.  There are five types of insulation used for buildings. I have chosen to compare three types of insulation:  fiberglass batting, rigid insulation, and cellular plastics spray insulation.  
Hypothesis
I predict that the fiberglass insulation would maintain heat inside the box the best. I based my prediction on the information, that fiberglass insulation is one of the newest and most improved types of insulation currently made.
Experiment
I compared rigid polystyrene, cellular plastic foam and fiberglass batting insulation by lining the inside of each box and left one box empty for a control. Each box was placed in the refrigerator for 30 minutes and  temperatures were recorded every 5 minutes.  At the completion of three runs, I calculated an average temperature for each timeframe.
Analysis
In my hypothesis I guessed fiberglass batting insulation would hold heat better than the others.  After analyzing the data I found the fiberglass perform better than the rigid insulation but the cellular plastic spray performed best in maintaining the heat within the box.  
Conclusion
I believe the cellular plastic spray must have a more air tight seal than the other types of insulation.  There are several other insulations used for homes I did not compare. Therefore, I cannot conclusively say plastic spray is the most efficient.

[Energy & Transportation] How Does Friction Effect The Speed Of A Toy Car?

My Project is on the study of how different material surfaces effect the speed of a Toy Car. Each of the different surfaces used,has a different amount of friction with the wheels of the Toy Car. To Test each material I sent the Toy Car down the ramp from the top to bottom. Three different materials were used in the testing.(Carpet, Sandpaper, and Aluminum Foil.) Each of the surfaces provided a very different result. The smoothest surface tested was the Aluminum Foil, which had the least amount of friction with he Toy Car's wheels. As a result the Aluminum Foil had the quickest time. The most rugged surface tested was the carpet, which had the slowest time. As a result, I am here to say,"Friction DEFINITELY Effects The Speed of a Toy Car."

[Energy & Transportation] Paper Airplane Test

The student made ten different paper airplanes, each with a different size paper weight, and folded design. The student then decided on one plane, which would fly the furthest. Then four individuals threw each plane four times. The flight distances for each plane were then averaged out. To show which plane truely flew the farthest, the student constructed some graphs, and charts to show the results of the flights.

[Energy & Transportation] Blow Up Before You Fill Up

The purpose of my project was to know how proper tire pressure affects gas mileage. I thought the pressure in the tires would make a difference in gas mileage because if the pressure is high the tire is harder so it would get better gas mileage and if the tire pressure was low it would sag, which would make it harder to move which would make the car slower and the gas mileage would be worse. I did this project by tracking the gas mileage in six cars over a three week period. My data after the three weeks showed mixed results. To look at just the test you would think the recommended pressure of 35 psi would be the worst on your gas mileage. However, the car that we didn't change the pressure on, still had change to its gas mileage. This would lead me to believe that something outside of changing the tire pressure was having an affect on the gas mileage during the test. In order to have a more consistent test I would have to either find a way to make things like, type of driving, weather, weight(full car vs. empty), gas (the octane mixture), and length of test, the same or run the test long enough that these affects would average out. In conclusion, tire pressure may have an effect on gas mileage but it was not a large enough effect to be seen in my expirement. My findings were inconclusive.

[Energy & Transportation] Going Bananas For Renewable Sources

Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to determine other suitable fuel resources that are renewable.

Procedure: Dried banana peels were chopped and fresh banana peels were pureed. Using the pureed banana peels as glue we molded them together to make a briquette and compared times and temperatures between wood, coal and my homemade banana briquettes after setting them on fire with equal amounts of lighter fluid. We measured the temperatures with an infrared camera at 15,30,45,60,90,150,210,270 and 300 seconds.

Observation: Wood, coal and banana briquettes all performed well. The coal recorded the hottest temperatures and maintained a good flame throughout the burning cycle. The flame began large then seemed to distribute across the briquette. The lowest temperature was recorded by the banana briquette. At the end of the 5 minute cycle the banana briquette completely went out. The wood held a medium temperature but seemed to have a higher flame throughout.

Conclusion: The most effective fuel source appears to be the coal. After coal, wood held the next highest temperature. Last but not least was the banana briquette. They all put off temperatures that exceeded 600 degrees Fahrenheit. The wood and coal were the longest burning with the banana briquette losing its flame at exactly five minutes.

[Energy & Transportation] Battery Life

I wanted to see what brand of battery would last the longest. I thought that Rayovac would win. After I conducted my tests Duracell actualy won. I took a survey and most people thought that Duracell would win and they where right.

[Energy & Transportation] Hovercraft Time

I build 2 sizes of hover crafts and used 2 different sizes of ballons to find out which combination of air force and size of hovercraft would hover the longest.I wanted to find out if the amount of airforce would make a difference in how long they would hover.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Woofers Play Bass. Tweeters Play Treble. How Do They Know The Difference?

My science fair project will investigate how different capacitors can filter out frequencies such as in a radio tuner or television de-multiplexer (i.e. DIRECTV receiver). I will use a simple circuit to determine what capacitors filter out what audio frequencies. I will filter out low, medium, and high frequencies. Then I will combine three of these circuits to flash LEDs to music when a certain frequency is filtered out.
I prototyped circuits on a breadboard and a circuit simulator and tested them with different capacitors. I also used mathematical formulas to determine what frequency responses each capacitor would have. The results showed that the smaller capacitors passed higher frequencies and the larger capacitors passed lower frequencies.
Finally, I built a version with 3 channels and high brightness LEDs, so I could demonstrate my results. There where 4 LEDs for each channel (treble, mid range and bass). Each channel had its own color (Bass-blue, Mid range-red, Treble- yellow) and lit up when the correct frequency was put into the filter.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Which Cup Keeps Your Cocoa The Hottest?

I was determined to find out which cup to use for my hot cocoa. I hate drinking hot cocoa and before I am even close to being finished it goes cold.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Best Airplane Design: What Wingspan Flies The Best?

Paper airplanes are a common toy for boys to play with. It's a boys dream to have an airplane that flies farther than anyone else, since that's what makes it fun. I thought an airplane with the longest wingspan would fly farther than shorter wingspans. However, my hypothesis was incorrect: the shortest wingspan flew the farthest. So, if you want to have the longest flying airplane, the wingspan must be short.

[Engineering & Computer Science] The Electric Motor

This project shows the complexity of the electric motor. Electric motors can be made using insulated wire, conductive wire, magnets, and batteries. The current comes from the batteries. It passes through the conductive wire and then the insulated wire to complete the circuit. The insulated wire is attracted to and repelled by the magnets. The insulated wire rotates in a clockwise direction. This project proves and demonstrates the concept of the electric motor.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Compressing Columns

I completed this project because I wanted to understand what affects the strength of columns and foundations built under buildings and bridges. I tested the strength of columns using various materials inside a toilet paper roll. I was hoping to find a material that would support my weight and I did. I learned that smaller the particles and the more compact those partials can be made the more weight the column will be able to support. I observed the angles of stresses in the columns and the way the columns collapsed.

I found that large smooth hard objects were unable to interlock together to support loads. I also observed that hollow columns were most likely to collapse in on themselves. During my experiment I found that some softer materials like cookies performed better than harder materials like beans and marbles. The beans and marbles were not able to interlock and transfer my weight, the pressure caused them to press out against the toilet paper roll and split the roll.

Sand was the best filler material I tried in my experiment.

I was even able to get the sand filled toilet paper rolls to support the weight of my dad.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Shapes Of Chutes

I wanted to test different shaped parachutes to see if the shape mattered in the effectiveness of it slowing the fall, and what shape would be most effective. I tested a circle,square,and triangle in the same environment and eliminating all outside influences-weather,ect. I had fun and learned that my suspicion of which was most effective was correct!

[Engineering & Computer Science] Perfect Personal Protection

There are many different types of body armor that are designed to protect the human body from impact. The three I used in my experiment are: high density foam, Hexpad and now a new product on the market called D3o. The reason why I chose to do my experiment on testing different armor is because my family has a business that sells armor to people needing or wanting top quality impact protection. We sell our armor to special education teachers that have problems with aggressive students that bite, punch, kick, and even throw things at them. We also sell our armor to Hollywood stuntmen and famous actors. I wanted to know which armor would provide the best protection against impact.

I used 1/4 inch thick ceramic tiles to simulate human bones or any fragile parts of the body. I then dropped 6 ounce weight tied to the fishing line from varying heights to determine which pad protected the tile from breaking. I was able to show that D3o protected the tile at more than 4 times higher than the traditional pads provided yet D3o was thinner than the other pads.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Kill Your Vampires

The differences in power consumption between a computer that uses a screen saver and one that uses a sleep/hibernation mode.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Robotic Arm Strength

My project involved finding out what the maximum weight a Lego Mindstorm servo motor could lift and what the effect of adding additional motors and changing the power settings would have. I believed that by adding each motor that the amount of weight the robotic arm could lift would be doubled. My conclusion was that the increase in the number of motors amounted to almost double with each added motor. I learned what the maximum capacity of each motor was and was surprised by how little the motors could actually lift.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Block The Sound

I was curious to see how much certain materials block sound. First, I measured a constant sound with a sound generator and sound meter. We cut a slit in a styrofoam box to slide a 3mm piece of cardboard, Plexiglas and wood. We placed each one in the slit one at a time and re-measured the sound several times. I learned that Plexiglas blocked the most sound and therefore was the most dense material of the ones I chose.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Lego Structures & Earthquake Survival

What type of Lego structure can survive the best during an earthquake (lateral movement)?

[Engineering & Computer Science] Blade Vs. Material

The title of my progect is Blade vs. Material. My question was out of Dyneema, Polyester, Kevlar, Tuff'n'lite what is the most cut resistant? I thought that the tuff'n'lite would be the most cut resistant because it was a level 5 cut resistance and everything else was level 4 or lower. The way I thought of this project is that when I was getting my speed skating equipment I learned that there is a variety of cut resistant materials used. But the main reason I did this project is safety. J.R. Celski nearly died because he was only wearing a thin skin suit. He got cut by a deadly sharp blade that almost hit his main artery. If he had have been wearing a safer suit he may not have gotten cut at all. From then on it has been required that you wear a cut resistant suit underneath your clothing. My conclusion was incorrect because the Dyneema was the most cut resistant. There is no clear reason why the dyneema was the best. It could have been some small variable had a huge impact and somehow caused the dyneema to work the best. Either way the Tuff'n'lite was a level 5 cut resistance and should have worked the best.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Cold Temperature Vs. Curing Concrete

The reason I chose this for my project was because I was walking my dog and asked my dad" Why are some driveways cracked and brittle and some driveways are new even though they are old" my dad said "Maybe the cracked and brittle driveways were curing in the winter and the new ones were cured in the summer". For my project I got cement and put them in the fridge, freezer and my dad's office(three of each)to cure. After one week I took one brick from each position and tested its sheer strength. After another week I took one from each position then tested it then the last week was the same, but not the same results. My results were that the room temperature was the strongest and the freezer was the weakest.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Faraday Fanatics: Can Vibration Harvest Energy?

This science fair project is centered on the use of vibration as an alternative energy source. One particular technology that is demonstrated to ‘harvest’ vibration energy is a Faraday device. It is based on the concept of Faraday’s Law and is summarized by the fact that a magnetic source moving through a coiled wired will induce a current. With focus on applications that use a Faraday Device, the project team was interested in how the movement of the magnet through a coiled affected the current induced. This led to the team’s hypothesis: How does the speed of a magnet through a coiled wire affect the current measured? Based on this information, the team could gain insight on the types of vibration sources that are best candidates for harvesting vibration energy – whether natural or man-made.

[Engineering & Computer Science] How High Will My Hovercraft Go?

In this project,I built a hovercraft using vacuum cleaner engines and then I did experiments to test how high my hovercraft can go. I used different weights and even made a smaller version of my hovercraft to test my hypothesis.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Seeing With Sound: Using Ultrasonic Sound Waves To Create A Near Field Radar

The goal of my project was to create a visual map of proximate objects using high frequency, or ultrasonic, sound waves. It measures the distance, and then converts and plots it into rectangular coordinates. I programmed a microcontroller to control the sweeping motion of the sound measuring device so that both an angle and a magnitude could be obtained. This is a continuation of my project last year, where I used sound to measure distance. This year I am using a different sensor, and I have added programming to move the sensor and to read the angle and magnitude in order to then plot it in rectangular coordinates. It has been challenging to find a reliable ultrasonic sensor to use with my design. Most of the sensors within my price range are of low quality and can only measure at short distances. I will probably continue this project next year by researching and developing my own ultrasonic sensor design in the hope of making a more reliable sensor that works at greater distances. This years project was successful. I have created a device to measure and plot vectors. However, there is more that I would like to do in the future.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Fluids In Hydraulic Systems

I chose to do my Science Fair Project on fluids in hydraulic systems. I chose this topic because I wanted to learn how hydraulics work and I wanted to make a hydraulic system myself. Hydraulic systems are used in airplanes, automobiles, earth moving machines, and manufacturing equipment.
I was trying to find out if water, canola oil, and diet Pepsi would produce the same hydraulic power in a hydraulic system. My hypothesis was that the Pepsi was going to have a different result from the oil and the water because of the carbonation.
I made a system with syringes and surgical tubing for the experiment. I attached the system to a base that I made and put a scale under the system. I tested each liquid and read the force produced by the system in pounds on the scale. After three tests of each liquid I averaged the data and found out that the water and the oil made about the same pounds of force. The Pepsi’s power expanded dramatically during the experiment from 13.6 pounds of pressure to 36 pounds of pressure and the Pepsi’s power was 66.2% higher than the oil and the water. I did some research and found out that the carbon dioxide in the Pepsi was expanding inside the syringe because it was outside the high pressure of the can. The extra carbon dioxide added volume to the syringe which made higher pounds of force when the plunger was pressed.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Which Robot Program Will Best Shovel Snow

I. Purpose
The purpose of this experiment is to find which program will work the best for a robot to shovel the driveway.

II. Procedure
1. Build and program the robot.
2. Lay down duct tape on the ground to make a rectangle.
3. Place cotton balls on the area inside the duct tape.
4. Have robot shovel driveway three times for each program.
5. Determine which program did the best by getting an average.

III. Results
After doing the experiment you could easily spot the difference in each program. The color program had an average of 85% cotton balls cleared. The timer program had an average of 66% cotton balls cleared. And the remote control had an average of 95% cotton balls cleared.

IV. Conclusion
The remote control program had the highest percent making my hypothesis true. Therefore if I had enough money I could build a bigger robot and use the remote control to shovel my drive way.

[Engineering & Computer Science] What Goes Up Must Come Down

My project was to determine which type of building would best withstand an earthquake. I built a shake table and designed different buildings, then tested each design on the shake table.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Title..."Is Your Home Quake Safe?" Or The Offical Testable Question..."How Can You Make Your Home Less Vulnerable To An Earthquake?"

We wanted to learn more about and see how a structure could withstand an earthquake.

On a cub scout citizenship outing, we visited the newly retrofitted Salt Lake City Capitol building and saw their giant base isolators used as part of the foundation.

We met with the engineer that worked on this project and he taught us about the "rolling" effects of base isolators. This design keeps a structure more secure during an earthquake by allowing the building to move along with the lateral forces a foundation would experience.

Since SLC sits on a fault line, we learned more about building codes and what our environment might be up against someday for residents in SLC and the Wasatch bench area.
It could even affect the Wasatch Back area where we live in Park City.

We each did an individual base isolation experiment at home. Some variables that were tested were height of structure, materials of the structure and how those materials were put together. Another test involved how many base isolators might be needed to support a structure.

We met with a builder who helped us put together a reinforced concrete foundation (with rebar). He showed us how to build a shear wall panel that attaches to this foundation. This wall uses hold downs to minimize any lateral movement that might be experienced during an earthquake.

A simple leverage test taught us about the relationship between the height of a structure and the strength of the corner hold downs that structure would need.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Crystal Radio

My science project is on how do radios work and are radio waves affected by the weather. These questions came about when my CD player quit working. So I unscrewed the bottom of my radio and inside I saw a lot of neat little things. I began to wonder how my radio worked, so I started to do research on radios.
I have learned a lot about the history and components involved as well as several vocabulary words. I have made a crystal radio so I can demonstrate the basics of a radio and hopefully pick up a radio station.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Jug Drop

I wanted to find which brand, out of three different brands, makes the strongest milk jugs. The brands I tested were Hy-top, Mountain Dairy, and Kirkland. To test this, I filled milk jugs of the three different brands with water and left them overnight in a refrigerator set at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. In the morning, I took them outside and dropped them on concrete at successive increasing heights in half-foot intervals. When the jug broke, I recorded it. Finally, after I had dropped several of each brand, I averaged the height at which jugs of each brand broke. I found out that Hy-top was the strongest brand, with an average height of 2.6 feet. This is applicable in real life because when people carry milk from the store, they will know how high to carry the jug and not have it break. Also, people will know what brand to buy if they want to avoid breakage.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Where's My Wifi?

Wireless internet connections are everywhere, from the home to the fast food restaurant. What types of materials can block or reduce the power of a wifi signal? This project looks at six different types of materials, wooden crate, aluminum foil, stoneware pot, metal pan, plastic container, and compared them to a control test to determine how they impact the signal strength of a wifi access point. My hypothesis was that the thick wooden crate would have the greatest impact on the wifi signal. My results showed that my hypothesis was incorrect since the aluminum foil had the greatest impact on the wireless device.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Cracking The Arch Mystery: The Strength Of Eggshell Arches

A few months ago, I went to see the LDS Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. I was told the design of the Tabernacle was inspired by an eggshell. I was interested to know how the Tabernacle stayed standing and how eggs played a part of its design. I was surprised to discover that there is something about the structure of an egg that makes it very strong. An egg is arches of varying shape connected together. I wanted to see which side provided the most strength.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Cup O' Danger

In the USA hospitals and emergency rooms see a lot of injuries from instant soup cups because they can be easy to tip over. I was interested in finding out which brands of cups tip over most easily and the angle they tip at. I hypothesized that taller, skinny cups with a high center center of gravity would tip over the easiest. I measured the angle seven different kinds of instant noodle cups tipped over when full.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Can The Shape Of A Building Minimize The Impact Of A Tsunami

This experiment was created to find out if there are ways to make stronger and safer buildings in tsunami areas. The building designs were based on the theory of aerodynamics, except for our control building which was a rectangular prism, a basic building design used today. The amount of damage and number of deaths can be reduced significantly if buildings in tsunami areas can be designed to redirect the water. A tsunami was simulated by making a wave tank with a wooden plank that created a powerful wave that struck the shore which was simulated by using a Styrofoam base (compact earth) covered with an inch of sand. Variables included experimentation with sand, gravel and Styrofoam to find the most accurate representation of the shore. Based on the results the next stage of the project should be to test variables of rebar and the foundation.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Aerodynamics

My project is about different airplane wings and how they do under certain categories. I tested lift and drag just two of the four components of a wing profile. I tested six different wing profiles out of Styrofoam and constructed an armature to hang out our car to test the profiles lift or drag as we drove. For every test I drove at the same speed to make sure there weren't any profiles that did better under higher speeds.

[Engineering & Computer Science] Fun With Bridges

The purpose of this project is to find out weather triangle bridges are stronger than square bridges. The hypothesis is that triangle bridges would resist higher loads than the square bridges. To prove this hypothesis both bridges were tested three times using different materials. For the tests the bridges were loaded until they collapsed. All three times the results proved our hypothesis correct. Triangle bridges are stronger because their parts only carry tension and compression forces and it is harder for them to break.

[Environmental Sciences] Waste Not, Want Not

Are you flushing electricity down your toilet? Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology uses bacteria to change organic waste material (most often raw sewage) into electrical energy. MFC technology could offer an alternative to burning coal or gas. In addition, the process is environmentally friendly and allows the utilization of organic waste to produce electricity. How does this work? Essentially as the bacteria replicates, the MFC will produce power indefinitely providing there is a food source to nourish the bacteria.
In this science fair project, an investigatiion of the ability to generate electricity from waste water was conducted. The material used was benthic mud and water from a secondary water system. Benthic mud contains a large amount of decaying material such as plants and bacteria that feed on them. The bacteria, through their digestion process produce electrons and protons. These negative and positive charged particles then seperate. The negative charged particles (electrons) pass through a salt bridge and into the water side of the fuel cell while the positive charged particles (protons) remain in the mud side of the fuel cell. The seperation of these particles create an electric potential and resembles a battery in how it functions. After construction of the fuel cell, voltage readings were recorded on a daily basis to monitor voltage produced by the fuel cell. Additionally, (over time) I introduced different variables (food sources) to my fuel cell to determine if I could produce a change of electricity.

[Environmental Sciences] My "Dense" Science Projecy

I went to Hawaii last year on a family vacation. I could not wait to swim in the ocean! When I got in the ocean I found that I floated like never before! Do objects float better in salt water versus fresh water?

[Environmental Sciences] Evaporating Utah Waters

I was curious to see which of the waters Utah citizens had to be worried about evaporating the fastest because we live in a desert climate where it does not rain much. The first step of my experiment was to collect the water. I went to the Spiral Jetty area of The Great Salt Lake and got 2 liters of salt water. Then I collected samples of both Jordan River water and mountain stream water to use in my experiment. The final sample I used was Draper City water run through the filter on my refrigerator. I set the samples in one place in my house for three weeks, taking daily note of the temperature, humidity, and water levels in the measuring cups I had placed the four water samples in. The data I collected illustrated the rate of evaporation for the four types of water I used in my experiment. The data showed that the Jordan River evaporated the fastest, proving my hypothesis to be incorrect.

[Environmental Sciences] Get Down & Dirty

Background: The Salt Lake Valley has frequent winter-time inversions leading to accumulation of pollution that looks very much like a bowl of soup. I wanted to know how the pollution varied in the soup bowl by elevation and traffic volume. Since the inversion pollution appears to worsen at lower elevations, I called this "Get Down & Dirty".

Methods: I made pollution detectors from plastic squares cut from a milk carton. I covered these on one side with petroleum jelly. I hung them from trees along 45th South every 5 blocks from 5th West to 40th East. I also put one in my backyard (25th East) and bedroom for control groups. They hung for two weeks (12/22/11 - 1/5/12) during an inversion. I collected them and then had 5 independent observers rate the pollution on each detector on a scale of 1(least) - 100(most). I averaged the results and presented the data.

Results: Pollution levels were highest at the lowest points in the valley (5th West=82, State Street=100, 5th East=84). The levels were the lowest at higher elevations (40th East=30, 35th East=17, 30th East=46). The bedroom detector was the lowest at 1 and the backyard detector was also low at 26.

Conclusions: Pollution on the detectors is dependent on street elevation and traffic volume. State Street had the most pollution due to the most car traffic and low elevation. Inversion pollution varied by elevation since the inversion haze became heavier as one goes down the 45th South hill.

[Environmental Sciences] Air Polution

The purpose of this experiment was to test the air quality of the salt lake area. There were six posters that tested the air quality that we hung around the salt lake area. The goal was to find out the air quality of Salt Lake City. The hypothesis was that the air quality would be worse in areas with more traffic. The posters were made out of six small squares of white poster board. Right before they were hung up, Vaseline was put on them. They were taken down in a week. The hypothesis was that emigration canyon would be one of the least dirty. It was not.
The studies underestimated the amount of traffic in Emigration canyon. There is actually a highway on the other side of the canyon. The hypothesis was partly right because it said that the areas with the most traffic would be the dirtiest. It was right because Costco has the most traffic and Costco is the dirtiest. It was wrong because Emigration canyon was the second dirtiest, and studies underestimated the amount of traffic.

[Environmental Sciences] Oil Spill

Oil spills are happening all the time, so what would be the best sorbent to clean up the oil? I tested five different sorbent materials to see which one would absorb the most oil while leaving the most water. We had three cups of water and one cup of oil. We tested each material three times and then averaged out their ratios. Ratios are the remaining water divided by the remaining oil. My hypothesis was that the polyester would win because it is made with petrolem product which is made with oil and oil sticks to oil. We averaged out their ratios and the polyester had the highest number so it won. (If the number is lower than three, then it absorbed more water than oil. If it is higher than three it absorbed more oil than water.) This experiment proved that polyester was the best material for cleanig up oil on water.

[Environmental Sciences] Seismic Waves And Soils

I tested 4 different types of soil ( gravel, alluvium, bedrock and sand) with test houses and a shake table that I made. The test houses were made with sugar cubes stuck together with peanut butter and the soil from mixtures of cornstarch and water, grape-nuts and playdough. I determined which type of soil is best to build a house or building on if there were an earthquake using 3 trials per soil and 20 seconds of shaking. I counted the number of walls that fell down during each trial and averaged the three numbers to reach my conclusion.

[Environmental Sciences] Oil In The Soil

OBJECTIVE:
In 2010 there was a significant oil spill in Red Butte Creek, in Salt Lake City. We wanted to find out whether the soil in Red Butte Creek changed after the oil spill and its cleanup. Our hypothesis was that it had.
PROCEDURE:
We collected soil samples 1 mile upstream from where the spill occurred as our control, as well as from 3 sites downstream (just below spill, 1 mile downstream, and 1 ½ miles downstream). To test for oil, we visually inspected the samples for an oily sheen. We used a soil testing kit to test for pH, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus levels, to find out if the spill affected these at all.
RESULTS:
We saw oil in every single sample. We saw the most oil in the soil just downstream from the spill. The soil upstream, our control, had the next largest amount. The sample about 1 mile downstream was next, and the one 1 ½ miles downstream had the least. The pH of the soil was generally neutral to slightly alkaline. The nitrogen and phosphorus levels were very low (more so below the spill), and the potassium levels were high.
CONCLUSION:
We found out that our hypothesis was correct. We think that low nitrogen and phosphorus levels may have been caused by the spill. The oil upstream might have come from oil shale, a naturally occurring rock. Most importantly, we learned there is still oil in the soil in this area.

[Environmental Sciences] Which Color Of M&M Candies Melt Fastest? Does Color Make A Difference?

You often hear the saying the m&m's melt in your mouth, not in your hands. I have twin baby sisters who got into my m&m/s recently. The m&m's did melt in their little hands and they had blue and red coloring all over. This got me thinking. The purpose of my project was to determine if one color of m&m melts faster than another. I wanted to see if the color of the m&m made a difference. I put each color of m&m on a clear dish and put them, one by one under a reflector microscope. The light from the microscope converted to heat and caused the chocolate to melt. I timed each m&m with a stopwatch to see how long it took for each to begin melting. I performed my test five times for each color and took the average to determine my results.

[Environmental Sciences] To Be Restored Or Not To Be

The reason our project is important is because many people care about the Jordan River. Some people think it’s just a piece of trash. We are trying to show them that it has a giant human footprint and that it's pollution affects wildlife. We could save the lives of animals by restoring and taking better care of the river. We studied bird guides, mammal guides, track books and bird calls. We went to the Jordan River once or twice a week and observed and recorded the animals or animal evidence in both the restored and unrestored areas. We graphed our data and compared the numbers of animals on both the restored and unrestored part of the river. We ended up seeing that the restored area had more overall diversity than the unrestored side. We believe this is because the restored area was taken care of and had greater plant diversity and bank area.

[Environmental Sciences] So His Cactus Walks Into An Oil Spill...

There are alot of oil spills around the world.There are some plants that can soak up oil and not die right away. Oils spills hurt a lot of things including environments. And if plants can soak up the oil and not die right away then people can plant these plants where an oil spill happens. All you have to do is pour the same amount of oil and water into the plants' roots. Measure regularly. So the plants that were tested were cacti, leafy palm, and pansy flowers. The hypothesis was that the leafy palm would live the longest.The flowers died first, then the cactus started to dry out. And the leafy palm is still alive.The conclusion was that the leafy palm lived the longest and the healthiest.

[Environmental Sciences] Geothermal Heat Transfer

My science project is about geothermal heat transfer. I demonstrated how different materials affected the efficiency of a geothermal heat pump system. I did this by creating seven different earth bin models with a heat source and water tube, each containing a different earth material; water, sand, gravel, stones, clay, woodchips, soil. I found that gravel was the most efficient material because it created the most even surface and was one of the best conductors. This information has direct applicability to the real world by making geothermal heat pumps more efficient.

[Environmental Sciences] Windtastic

Our purpose is to find out if the number and shape of the blades used affects the voltage of a windmill. If it does, what is the best result. We will change the number of blades, and the shape of the blades, in our experiment to create data that will support our purpose.

[Environmental Sciences] How Liquids Effect Erosion

This project was designed to investigate the effect of certain liquids on the erosion of different rocks and minerals.
Three hypotheses were tested: 1. The softer rocks and minerals (according to Mohr's Scale) would show the greatest effect of erosion; 2. The Orange Juice liquid would have the greatest affect; and 3. Specimens placed in the containers with "flowing" liquid would show the greatest difference.
This experiment was conducted over 21 days. Five different rocks and minerals were tested in two liquids: Coke and Orange Juice in both stagnate and "flow" states.
Results proved the hypotheses correct. Both of the softest rock specimens (Sandstone - hardness zero) showed the greatest erosion affect. Secondly those in Orange juice, especially in the "Flow" OJ containers showed the greatest affect or change. Thirdly, three of the specimens in the "flow containers"; especially orange juice developed an interesting slimy substance that both clung to the rock, and built up in the container.
This study is useful to understand how more acidic conditions in liquid form, such as acid rain and in our water supply can contribute to a greater erosion of the softer rocks and minerals in our planet.

[Environmental Sciences] How Does Soap Affect The Growth Of Plants

I chose several plants to use biodegradable soaps vs non-biodegradable soaps to see the effect on how soaps damage the environment. Every morning, I would add 1 t of soap and 1/4 c water into each plant, except the control (just water) and observe what the soaps did to each plant for seven days. I would measure heigth, observe leaf damage, and mark it down in my journal. The harsh chemical detergents killed the plants quickly while the biodegradable plants sustained live, even today.

[Environmental Sciences] What Wood Would You Use?

I compared four different wood products(Cedar, Pine, Thermally Modified Wood, and Plastic Wood) to see how they would react to different conditions in the environment. I performed six tests on the wood inluding heat, temperature, and stress tests. I determined which wood products would be most reliable in which applications and environments.

[Environmental Sciences] Magnetic Growth

Plants need water and warmth to grow. Each seed has the potential to grow but it is dependent on it's environment. What would happen if each seed is placed on a magnet or frozen before it is planted? Thats what I wanted to see when I did my project on plants. I found out that the magnets actually help the seeds sprout faster and made the roots stronger. This technology would help plants live in a harsh environment. The seeds I put in the freezer did well but had shorter roots and a weaker stem. In my research, I found one person actually planted their tomato plants with a cow magnet in the ground with the plant. He reported that the fruit grew quicker and that the taste was better. with all these benefits, magnets could help grow crops in desserts and harsh environment and aide third world countries who struggle with food production.

[Environmental Sciences] Lead Lead On The Range Where The Deer And The Antelope Roam

ABSTRACT:
In 2011 Soil at the Bountiful Lions Club firing range was found to be contaminated according to a study done by AMEC Earth & Infrastructure Inc. Soil at the gun club is contaminated with higher-than-acceptable levels of lead and arsenic. The club is on the city’s east bench at 1350 N. Skyline Drive, near the B on the mountain. The city owns approximately 1,680 acres, an area that has been called “environmentally significant” on the mountainside, east of the city. My project investigates whether or not soil containing lead from the toxic gun range is moving down the mountainside.

[Environmental Sciences] Measuring Static Electricity

Many people wonder about the amount of static electricity in certain things. In this experiment I took some items and tested the static energy of them. The experiment was done by rubbing a balloon on hair, polyester, carpet, cotton, nylon, and ceramic tile. Then I tested the number of paper pieces the balloon could pick up after being rubbed on these items. My hypothesis was that after rubbing the balloon on human hair it would pick up the most pieces of paper. My hypothesis was proved right. Human hair had the most amount of static electricity. My hypothesis also showed me that tile had close to little or no amount of static energy.

[Environmental Sciences] Develop A Low Cost Water Filter For Developing Countries

In many developing countries citizens have access to very poor quality of water. During my last visit to India my grandma got bottled water that said "purified" and yet she boiled it. That made me wonder why she did that? I found out that the water quality there was really poor, and causes a lot of people to get sick. I decided to better understand the environmental health effect of water quality, and build a water filter that is inexpensive so the poor can afford to have clean water. I also decided to test the water before and after it is filtered to ensure that the water is potable.

[Environmental Sciences] Eco Foam Friendly Or Not?

Is eco-foam really environmentally friendly to our water ways?

[Environmental Sciences] An Incontestable Experiment To A Deliberate World Of Stratospheric Contamination

This project compared the level of particulate matter air pollution in City Creek, Emigration, Mill Creek, Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood canyons. It was hypothesized that the busier canyons will have more air pollution. Particle catchers were made and hung at the five canyons. These consisted of two Vaseline coated slides taped inside of plastic cups from which two sides had been cut out. The catchers were changed at the beginning and end of two successive weekends. The number of particles on each slide was counted with a microscope and reported as particles per hour of exposure time. The highest particulate rate was recorded at Little Cottonwood Canyon and the least at Mill Creek Canyon. There was more particulate matter observed during the weekend then during the week. The data from the experiment supported the hypothesis that more traffic in a canyon correlated with a greater particulate count.

[Environmental Sciences] Magnetic Wind Energy

I built a permanent magnet wind generator and tested what would happen if I changed the amount of enamel-coated magnet wire coils. I wanted to know how many volts each number of coils(1, 2, and 3) would generate, as well as the brightness of the light-bulb with each number of coils.

[Environmental Sciences] The Biogas Contest

We were seeing which combination of biomass, (or trash that can't be recycled) would make the most biogas. The combinations were cow manure, cow manure and vegetable peelings, and cow manure and mashed bananas. We put the combinations in soda bottles with each combination having three bottles. Our hypotheses is that we thought that the combination cow manure and mashed bananas would produce the most gas because bananas rot quicker than vegetables do, so we thought that with cow manure and rotten bananas working together would produce a lot of biogas. We then put the bottles in the garage and kept them there for a couple of days. The bottles didn't produce very much gas at all, so we moved them inside the house. They started producing gas, and soon, to our surprise, the cow manure combination produced the most biogas. We think this happened because of the cold temperature. We think that because it was cold, the bananas and vegetables didn't rot very much.

[Environmental Sciences] Is There Acid In My Water

Batteries are often thrown into the garbage and into landfills. My hypothesis is batteries leak acid into the soil in the immediate area and cause changes in water acidity. I put different types of batteries into terrariums with soil and seeds and watered them weekly. Over a period of one month I tested the pH of the ground water. My results showed regular batteries caused a lowering of the groundwater pH but rechargeable batteries did not.

[Environmental Sciences] Filtering Filters From The Landfill

The effectiveness of a reusable furnace filter compared with a disposable furnace filter is shown. To do this a paper towel was attached to the end of a vacuum acting as a secondary filter. Simulated dirt was placed under the filter and vacuumed through it. A Vernier Light Probe was used to measure the amount of light that would transfer through the secondary filter indicating how much had made it through the actual filter. Results of the light transfer were compared between the disposable filter and the reusable filter.

[Environmental Sciences] Is The Green House Effect Real?

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether the greenhouse effect is real. The greenhouse effect makes the Earth livable but an enhanced greenhouse effect is a problem for living things on Earth. If more people understand how greenhouse gases build up, then maybe more people can help cut down the energy they use.

The steps for this experiment were to make a model representing the build up of greenhouses gases using a shoebox, black paper, electrical tape, three sheets of glass placed at different levels inside the box, and three thermometers. The temperatures in each chamber of the model were recorded at three different times each day. Room temperature was recorded too. When recording the temperatures it was noticed that, in direct sunlight, the top thermometer was the hottest. But, when there were clouds or pollution, the middle thermometer was the warmest. The bottom thermometer was always the coldest.

[Environmental Sciences] Rain, Rain, Go Away!

My science project is about the effect acid rain has on the environment. As we continue to pollute our air by our use of fossil fuel (factories, cars, motorcycles, etc.), our rain will become more and more acidic. My project illustrates the environmental damage that can be done by even a small amount of acid in our rain. Why should you care?! During the winter season, Salt Lake City has one of the highest pollution rates in the country.

Hypothesis: Even a small amount of acid in our rain will destroy our environment.

I used five different types of solutions with different percentages of acid to test what affect acid would have on a sea shell, representing our environment. Sea shells are composed of calcium carbonate, a common element found in many different types of stones, and rocks. I observed and recorded my observations of the shells in their solutions over a period of 10 days.

My results show that if our rain has even a small amount of acid in it, it will cause damage over time. The solution that was 100% acid caused the sea shell to dissolve in under 20 minutes.

Through my research, experiment and display, I hope to raise awareness about how much irreversible damage can be done by the pollution in our air. We all need to make efforts to reduce pollution in our community.

[Environmental Sciences] The Role Of Insulation & Heat Loss

The purpose of our project was to test different types of insulation to see which would perform best in retaining heat. This is important because insulation is used in nearly all homes in America. Our hypothesis was that the insulation with the highest "R Value" would perform the best in regards to heat retention. An R Value is a numeric measure as to how efficient an insulation type is in retaining heat. A higher R Value equates to higher efficiency. Specifically, our hypothesis claimed that closed cell foam insulation would retain the most heat because it had the highest R Value. Our hypothesis was proved false through two testing trials where Rock Wool insulation out performed the other insulation materials including the closed cell foam. We created a sealed cardboard chamber with an insulated roof that we heated for specific times and then measured the temperature change over a 10 minute period with intervals every 1 minute with the use of a digital thermometer. In conclusion, we determined that R Values are very important, but equally important is the installation and proper fit of the insulation materials in determining its capacity for heat retention as determined by our results

[Environmental Sciences] Storm Windows Vs. Double Pane Windows

The topic of this experiment is environmental windows. This was an experiment to see what window was more effective. The project was considered an attempt to see if Storm Windows were more effective than Double Pane Windows. The problem statement was: “Which is more effective in heat loss and insulation: Storm Windows or Double Pane Windows?” The project was mainly to educate the public. The method that was used was: Use two model homes, one with a Storm Window, the other with a Double Pane Window, and both with a light bulb inside. See which window traps more heat into the box. The controllable variables were considered and abolished, although the final data did not support the hypothesis. The results proved that Double Pane Windows are more effective than Storm Windows.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] The Grease Effect

Which chips contain the most grease,and which ones have the least amountof grease.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Power Balance Bands: Fake Or Real

My science project is about whether or not Power Balance Bands enhance your athletic ability. I tested several different people doing different activities not knowing whether they had a Power Balance Band bracelet on or just a plastic bracelet. As you look at my project you will find my answer to this question.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] My Water's Blue How About You

Every country needs clean water. This experiment was designed to find the best way to get purify water for developing countries. The experimenters wanted to know which water purification method killed the most microorganisms, was least expensive, and required the least amount of work for all developing countries. The purification method was the variable. There were five methods to be tested; SODIS (Solar disinfection), boiling, iodine, chlorine and seychelle. The control had no purification method done to it. The hypothesis was that SODIS would do best because sun is free, it cost no money and many microbes have difficult time surviving the sun. The data did not support the hypothesis. In fact SODIS was one of the worst methods. This might be because SODIS could have done better during a different season. When doing the live microbe count under the scope, as expected, the control had the most microbes with 12.666 on average. SODIS was the worst purification method with an average of 4 microbes. Iodine was quite effective at purifying water having only 1.3 average live microbes found on average. Seychelle and boiling was a tie with an average of 1 microbe. It is recommended that people who don’t have access to clean water to boil their water because it is free, everyone can do that and it is one of the most effective methods. In the future other water purification methods could be examined.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] The Swimmer's Dilemma: Will Going For A Dip Make You Sick?

Because people love to swim in many environments,I want to discover if harmful microbes lurk in bodies of water. My hypothesis was that harmful microbes will be present in untreated freshwater. I thought salt water & hot springs would not have dangerous microbes and warm climates would have the most. I traveled to Northern Utah and a Hawaiian island to take water samples from two climates. I filled mason jars with water and sediment and tested 4 controls using treated tap water from different areas of Utah and Hawaii. This proved water treatment does kill microbes. I took experimental samples in two states from rivers, streams, a waterfall, lakes, and beaches. I tested samples for pH and minerals using home water quality test strips and then a microscope to look for microbes. I took photos and videos of the microbes I found so I could identify them. My experiment proved my hypothesis was partially correct: Salt water had the least harmful microbes with the ocean having the cleanest water of all. Chemicals in hot springs did not prevent harmful microbes from growing, and climate made a difference. Tropical freshwater had the most dangerous microbes of all my samples (Twin Falls Waterfall). I found chemical problems in two different bodies of freshwater in Utah and dangerous microbes in all my freshwater samples. My project proved it is not safe to swim in untreated freshwater, but the ocean is very safe to swim in. I recommend swimming in swimming pools or the ocean.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] P.E. 4 I.Q.

In my project, I wanted to see if exercising would affect academic test scores. I tested to find out if exercising before a test would affect how well you would perform on the test.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Burned

Which level of spf sunscreen protects the best against skin cancer.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Practice Makes Perfect?

Our question was "Does how often you practice push-ups affect how many you can do?"
We got together 12 people who could do at least 5 push-ups each. (6 girls and 6 boys). We divided them into 3 groups randomly. Control Group: they did as many push-ups as they could on the first and last day of the 10 day testing period; Every Other Day Group: they practiced about 80% of their first day max every other day; and 6 Days a Week Group: they practiced about 80% of their first day max 6 days a week. We sent home instruction papers that told what group they were in, how much to practice, and it gave a place to fill in the data. We collected the results (some over the phone, some by collecting the sheets) and found the average of each group on how many push-ups they could do at the start and the end. Then we found the difference. The group with the greatest difference improved the most. The 6-day group improved by far the most.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Antioxidants; Fighting Rad Radicals

The purpose of this science fair project is to find antioxidants that fight free radicals. Oxidation occurs all around us, from metal that rust to scabs that turn brown. One of the most common occurrences, however, is when cut apples turn brown. This project, therefore, will be to see which kind of fruits and vitamins will best prevent an apple from browning. This gives a visual indication of what kind of antioxidants would be best for human bodies.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Sugar Vs Sugar Substitutes

OBJECTIVE:
To find out if sugar and sugar substitutes taste the same.

METHOD:
Without knowing which cup was sugar and which was sugar substitutes, testers drank Kool-aid made with sugar and sugar substitutes.

RESULTS:
28 Tests. Two testers said the Kool-Aid tasted the same. One tester said sugar substitutes was sweeter and the rest chose sugar.

CONCLUSION:
In this taste test sugar was found to be sweeter than sugar substitutes when mixed in Kool-aid.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Who Has A Larger Lung Capacity: Swimmers Or Non Swimmers

I wanted to know who had a larger lung capacity: swimmers or non-swimmers. While researching lung capacity on the internet, I discovered how to build a homemade spirometer, an instrument which measures lung capacity by displacing water with air. Friends and teammates, both swimmers and non swimmers, volunteered to have their lung capacities measured using my spirometer. I made up a questionnaire to collect personal data, amount of exercise, and whether they train and swim competitively. I created a spreadsheet and organized the data. Through my analysis, I noted that lung capacity increases with height, true for both swimmer and non swimmer. In conclusion, I found that swimmers have a larger lung capacity than non-swimmers.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] That Fish Needs Air!

As a member of a swim team, I wanted to know if there is an optimal ratio of strokes per breath for a 50 yard freestyle swim. I had thought that 3 strokes per breath would be the best. I tested 10 swimmers with 1, 2, 3 and 4 strokes per breath and found that for 70% of the swimmers, 3 strokes produced the fastest time. However, for the three fastest swimmers, 4 strokes per breath produced the best time. While my hypothesis was correct for 7 of the 10, I would like to continue my testing to determine whether the same results would be true for longer swims (100yd, 200yd).

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Slippin' Through Your Fingers

This project is a study of reaction time.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Does Your Gender And Age Have An Effect On Your Memory?

I wondered if my age or gender affected my short term memory. At which age is your short term memory best, and do males or females have a better short term memory? In a box I put 40 random items. I then tested people's short term memory by allowing them to look at the contents of the box for 45 seconds. Then, I gave them 1 minute to write down as many items as they could remember. My results showed that memory was best in the age group 26-35 year old men, peaking at age 27. I found out that your memory increases until late 20's and gradually declines as you get older. Women had a better short term memory in every other age group, especially as they aged.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Let The Chips Fall Where They May

I looked at the amount of grease found in one serving from four popular brands of potato chip/potato crisps and researched the daily amount of fat allowance found in a serving of chips, the effects of eating too much fat, and it's relation to obesity.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] P H Balance And The Body

Exploring how pH levels change after eating or drinking different substances and how it affects the body.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] What Does Soda Do To Your Teeth?

My mom is always telling me that soda pop is really bad for you. I thought I would see if she was right. I chose to do an experiment with soda pop and teeth. The dentist tells me sugar is bad for my teeth and soda has lots of sugar, so I decided I would see what soda pop does to your teeth. I found out that eggshells are very similar to your teeth and eggshells were easier for me to get than teeth, so I poured different types of soda pop over eggshells and let them sit for 7 days. I checked on them daily and made observations. I found that soda pop is bad for your teeth and that some are worse than others.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Do Sight Or Sound Affect A Person's Balance?

I had 20 people participate in my experiment. I had each person balance on one foot, then balance again with earplugs, then balance again with a blindfold. This was repeated three time for each person. I then compared the results to see if vision and hearing affected balance.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Beat Of The Music

This project has been chosen to understand what type of music would be best to listen to when sleeping and what music would be best to listen to when exercising. The big difference between the two was the heart rate so it was decided to see which music raised / lowered the heart rate most.
Test subjects’ heart rates were measured. They were then measured again after playing a genre of music. The dependent variable was the resting heart rate of the test subjects. The independent variable was test subjects’ heart rate after listening to a different genre of music. Most and least favorite genres of music were not included in the data analysis, for it would be changing another variable.
The data shows that the genre of music that most lowered the heart rate was pop. Pop lowered the heart rate by an average of 7.77 BPM. Blues raised the heart rate by an average of 6.77 BPM.
The data shows that the genre of music that most lowered the heart rate was pop, and the genre of music that most raised the heart rate was Blues. Girls’ heart rates were generally higher than the boys’ heart rates. Favorite and least favorite genres of music affected the heart rate. These results may not change the world, but they were still successful. It will help many people get better exercise, and will help people fall asleep faster.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] What Is The Affect Of Grooming A Horse After A Ride

I wondered if grooming a horse was relaxing to a them or if it was a task to keep a horse clean. I decided to do a project to see if grooming a horse after a ride made their heart rate lower than with no grooming at all. I rode 5 different horses, two different times, on different days. The first time I took the horses heart rate right after a ride and then groomed it for 5 minutes and then took the heart rate again. The second time, I rode the horse, I took the heart rate, and then waited for five minutes and took it's heart rate with no grooming after the ride.
I found that grooming the horse lowered it's heart rate more quickly than with no grooming, by at least two beats. So, grooming a horse is important not only for keeping it clean and healthy, it helps it to relax as well.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Stop Dizziness

My project investigates the human mechanism of balance as it effects the brain and motion sickness. I used nystagmus as my objective measurement of dizziness, twirling in place as my motion and observed/measured/documented the amount of dizziness when testing subjects with both keeping their eyes open and closed during twirling in place.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Can Playing Exergames Be Considered A Form Of Exercise?

It's a proven fact that people are more likely to exercise if they are doing something that they enjoy so I decided to see if by playing exergames you can raise your heart rate enough to be considered exercise. When I play exergames on the Xbox Kinect my heart is always beating fast so I believe that most of the kids will meet their target heart rate. I tested eight kids on the same game for 20 minutes. First I took their resting heart rate before playing, then took their pulse again immediately after playing, (controlled variable). I found out each person's target heart rate based on their age and resting heart rate. I also tested these same eight kids on the elliptical trainer for 20 minutes on a different day to compare, (experimental variable). In my experiment, I found that five out of the eight volunteers met their target heart rate on Xbox Kinect Boxing and only four out of eight met it on the elliptical trainer. So my hypothesis was correct that it can be considered exercise although it is still important to get exercise in other ways also.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] How Much Sugar Are Kids Eating?

Have you ever wondered how much sugar kids are eating these days? My project will tell you just that. I went around to kids about my age and asked them what they had eaten throughout the day and/or the day before. We logged in snacks, breakfast, lunch and dinner and look to see how much sugar they had. The answers will surprise you. You can also stop by my project to learn about sugar and how it effects the body.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] To Breathe Or Not To Breathe?

Salt Lake City, Utah is the fifth most polluted city in the United States. So, how does that affect us?

The goal of this experiment was to determine the effect of inversion air quality on our lung function. My hypothesis was that poor air quality would have a major effect on the way our lungs work, with “green” air days having a positive effect and “red” air days having a negative effect.

Participants each received one Peak Flow Meter (donated by McKesson and Microlife), a device used to measure the strength of a person's lungs. When you exhale forcefully into a Peak Flow Meter, it measures your Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF). Peak Expiratory Flow is an objective indicator used to determine the power of a person's lungs.

Each participant measured their PEF every evening from October 15 through December 15 and recorded their score. At the end of the testing period, the data was analyzed and compared against the air quality on the given day.

We measured the data three ways. In every test, the results were the same. Children and adult women had higher PEF scores on the days with better air quality, which conformed to my hypothesis. Adult men, however, had higher scores on days with worse air quality. I believe that may be because adult men generally spend more time indoors at work, and therefore are less affected by the quality of the outside air. Most people had better PEFs on days with less pollution.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Who Is The Most Full Of Air

Trying to decide who has a bigger lung capacity. Both Males and Females were tested and of varying ages. I used a spirometer and had each person perform 4 different tests to determine their lung capacity for each. I then tallied the totals to determine my findings.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] How Well Do You Know Your Burger?

My project is about what hamburgers do to your health. I took three of the same burgers from four different places and I weighed each burger. I then put the hamburger patties on a paper plate and heated them in the microwave to render the fat from the patties. The paper plates absorbed the grease and the grease stains expanded bigger than the patties. I then weighed the hamburgers again and compared the weight from before. After I researched what grease was and I figured out that it was a type of lipid and a lipid is a type of fat that comes from an animal. It comes in all dairy products and meat. If you have too much cholesterol than it can clog your arteries and lead to heart desease. Your liver, produces about one thousand milligrams a day! You consume about one hundred-fifty to two hundred-fifty milligrams just by a regular diet. There are two types of cholesterol, (HDL) cholesterol and (LDL) cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is the worst for you because it clogs the bloodstream. Then, the HDL cholesterol goes into the bloodstream clears out the LDL cholesterol and send it back to the liver, then the liver processes it and sends it back out to the bloodstream. And that's what hamburger or any greasy food does to you.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Step To The Beat Of My Heart

I did my project based on heart rate and exercise because I exercise alot, so I thought it would be good to learn more about it.
My hypothesis is that jumping rope would make heart rate change the most from the resting heart rate. To investigate, I tested each person's resting heart rate. Next, I had each of them do exercises, then I tested their heart rate again and I recorded it on a graph. Next, I looked at the graph and decided which exercise changed heart rate the most. After my tests were over, I made my conclusion. My conclusion was that I was incorrect. Jumping rope did not make heart rate the highest, it was actually jogging.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Got Lead?

My project is on what works as good as led to sheild X-rays. There isnt but their are some that are very close like wood,steel, and medal.I also took pictures of everything we did. We used steel,medal,wood,cotton and of course led.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Does Caffieine Affect The Human Heart Rate

My project was about how caffiene affects the human heart rate. It does, I've found out that it does because the caffiene acts as a stimulate.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Balancing Act

The purpose of my project is to see if using different arm positions or holding poles of different lengths would affect a person's balance. I think that holding a longer pole would help someone keep their balance like how tight rope walkers use long poles to help their center of gravity while balancing on a little rope, so it would probalby help people too.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] What Video Game Makes Your Heart Beat Fastest?

My purpose for this experiment was to find out how your heart rate changes when you play video games, and what Wii video game makes your heart rate raise the highest between "Big Brain Academy", "New Super Mario Brothers", and "Excite Truck."

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Peripheral Vision

I researched peripheral vision. I formed a question, which is "What color is easiest to spot with peripheral vision?" My hypothesis was that people could see yellow most easily, then orange, green, and finally blue.
I conducted the experiment with a vision protractor. I asked people of different ages to hold the protractor to his or her nose. I asked each volunteer to focus on a red tack on the protractor while I moved colored objects around the protractor. The volunteer was to tell me when he or she could see the object and when he or she could see the color. I noticed the angle where the object stopped when the volunteer saw it. The I recorded the results in a notebook. Usually people could detect the object first and the color second. My hypothesis was found to be mostly true. On average, the volunteers saw the colors in this order: yellow, orange, blue, and then green.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Do Certain Foods Affect Your Heart Rate & Blood Pressure?

This study analyzes how foods from different food groups affect heart rate and blood pressure for people of different ages.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Heartrate Increase

Thet determined which activity increased their heartrate the most.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Lazy Skills Vs. Crazy Skills

How does fatigue affect people while participating in fine motor sports skills?Does accuracy in sports specific skills increase or decrease as we become increasingly fatigued?

[Medicine & Health Sciences] Is Bottled Water Really Better For You To Drink?

Most people think bottled water is better for you to drink than tap water. I wanted to find out if this was true. Using nutrient agar plates, I took samples from a bottle of Arrowhead Spring Water, water from my kitchen sink, and water from a Brita filtered pitcher. I watched the samples for three days and took pictures each day to see if there were any changes. There were changes to the bottled water.

[Medicine & Health Sciences] What Increases Pain Tolerance The Best

My project tries to determine which will increase pain tolerance the most, a visual distraction or an auditory distraction.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Shape Up Or Ship Out

My project involves the making and testing of balsa wood boats with three differently shaped hulls to determine the shape that is most hydrodynamic (moves through the water with the least resistance). I tested the boats using the same mast and sail on each boat and the same "channel" of water in a vinyl rain gutter with capped ends. The "wind" for the sail was produced by a gauged air compressor so that each boat was acted upon by equal wind forces. Several tests of each boat, proved that the boat with the triangular bow is the most hydrodynamic.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Incline Planes Simple Machines That Aren't So Simple.

Can two incline planes work together and will one dominate the other?

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Parachute Plunges

What is the effect of different sized parachutes on flight time.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Vortex Velocity

When an air vortex occurs, it is because a puff of air is released. The puff of air is called a vortex. An air vortex pushes air out its center forward and then sucks it back inside through the other end while moving forward. The velocity and acceleration of the rotating part of an air vortex is quite high but the exact calculations are yet to be found out in this experiment.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Fabric Shrinker

This project discusses what fabric type (100% -cotton, rayon, nylon, polyester, and wool)shrinks the most when washed and dried and under what type of washing and drying conditions the fabrics shrink the most. The different conditions I used was hot water vs cold water and air drying vs dryer drying. I also tried to answer if repeated washing and drying would continue to shrink the different types of fabric.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] What Makes The Utah Olympic Oval The Fastest Ice On Earth?

Research into what makes the Oval ice so fast. Experiment 1 shows how hot water freezes clearer than cold water to make the ice faster. Experiment 2 shows the purity of the water used to make the ice at the Oval also making the ice faster.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Parachutes: Does Shape Matter

Does the shape of a parachute effect the time of it's descent? To answer this question I selected four parachute shapes, formulated equal surface areas for each shape, and prepared each parachute. I conducted five timed trials with each parachute, calculated their averages, and determined that yes, shape does effect the time of a parachutes' descent.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Mixing Light To Make Color

The purpose of this project was to find out how the cones in our eyes produce different colors. When we were deciding on a project, we looked on sciencebuddies.com. It gave us a list of things to choose from. The one that we picked was “Mixing Light to Make Colors”. For the experiment, we used flashlights, colored transparencies, food coloring, plastic cups, water, and wax paper. We used websites such as… askabiologist.asu.edu and www.exploratorium.edu. We needed to find out what cones and rods were and how they worked. We also needed to find out what caused them to work. We thought that the experiments would make different colors just like wavelengths and cones. They did end up making different colors, but when we dimmed some of the colors; it made an entire different color.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Weight In A Gravity Sport

The Olympic sport of Luge is a gravity based, timed speed sport where it is assumed that the heavier you are the faster you go. This experiment attempts to test if this assumtion is true and if so how much does weight really matter (in terms of time). My experiment took place at the Olympic Luge Track in Park City over a 3 week period. I took 14 runs, 7 with an additional 9 kilogram of weight and 7 without. The times were then analyzed to see if there was a benifit to having the additional weight. I found that there is a significant benifit. The additional 9 kilograms of weight allowed me to me travel an average of 0.808 seconds faster per run. In a sport timed to the thousandths of a second the weight provided a huge time benifit.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Surprising Strength

Arches have shown to be the typical shape of many bridges. From research this seems to be that the pressure from weight on an arch pushes not only down, but outward as well. In this experiment this was put to the test by seeing how much weight three eggs could hold since eggs have an arch shape to them as well. Eggs were placed in a triangle using 2 liter bottle caps as stabilizers. Weight was then applied 2 to 3 pounds at a time until the eggs broke. Time to consider; how much will three eggs hold?

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Red Laser L Ight Absorption

A red laser was used to determine if it could pass through different colors of water. This was done by placing drops of food coloring in a plastic cup filled with water. The laser was turned on and a black box was was placed behind the cup to help see the laser light. A picture of the laser light was taken after each food coloring drop was added. The images were opened with Adobe Photoshop and a formula was used to calculate the intensity of the light based on the RGB (Red, Blue, Green) values. The results were shown in a graph which displayed how the intensity of the laser light was affected by the colored water.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Pack It Or Crack It!

We decided to do our science fair project because we wanted to see what packing materials would protect fragile things the best. Hannah also has a brother who is in Seattle. She ships him a lot of things, some which are fragile. Also, shipping and mailing is a big part of American lives. If we didn't have mail it would be really hard to communicate over long distances. The reason we chose the materials we used is because bubble wrap is used a lot, and also shipping envelopes are often lined with bubble wrap. Styrofoam packing peanuts are used a lot as well. We used newspaper because when people move they pack their fragile things like dishes and vases in newspaper and it never seems to break. So for our project we tested eggs because they're fragile like vases and break if dropped. (We figured it was a fair constant). When things get shipped they go through a lot of turbulence, shipping and handling. They also go through the truck drive and somethimes the flight from an airplane.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Crazy Rockets

Objective: I wanted to know if the amount of water in a bottle rocket would affect how high the rocket would fly. I thought that the amount of water would affect the height. I thought that it would go the highest with ½ quart or two cups of water.

Materials and method: I used yarn, 100 ft. tape measure, one empty two liter bottle, rocket launcher (made from PVC pipe and a valve stem), water, measuring cup and thermometer. I gathered the materials above; then measured the water to the specific levels. I then launched the rockets, six times per amount of water. Measured how high the rockets went by holding onto the yarn as the rocket flew, then measured the length of the yarn using the tape measure. Finally I made a graph showing the comparisons.

Results: After testing each amount of water, the rocket with four cups in it went higher on average than the others. Followed by two cups, six cups, one cup, no water and three cups.

Conclusion: My hypothesis was right and wrong. The amount of water did affect the height, but my guess was wrong. I got an average of 60 ft. with four cups. My guess was that it would go the highest with two cups.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Force A Nail Into Wood

I am testing the amount of force needed to hammer a nail into different types of hardwood, using a hammer appartatus.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Secrets Of Magnetism

My project's question was how many paperclips can I pick up with 1 magnet, 2 magnets, and 3 magnets in 2 different ways-vertical and horizontal? And which way will pick up more? Around the board I should have pictures of my tests, trivia about magnetism, facts, and the question, hypothesis, procedure, analysis, conclusion, and research background information. Also a small booklet on how to make an electromagnet. Thank you! :)

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Light

In this experiment I sought to determine what amount of light is lost in reflecting a laser beam off of mirrors. When a laser hits a mirror there is a certain amount of refraction, absorption and dissipation of the light. I estimated I could refract a laser at least 25 times. I created a stable test environment out of wood. Cardboard was too fragile. I painted the box black to absorb any refracted light. I noticed each time the laser reflected off the mirror it lost some light. I observed some of the light would pass through the back of the mirror. Some would dissipate as it refracted in various directions. Light was observed in other areas of the box other than its direct course. Glass is not completely clear and some light was filtered out. I anticipated that I could not get a beam of light to send a steady beam off of more than 25 mirrors. From my experiment my conclusion was that the laser beam cannot continuously be refracted by mirrors and dissipates at a rate to where little or no refraction is found visually at somewhere between 24 and 32 reflections. A fog machine assisted in determining what amount of light was lost. As the light was refracted on the mirrors it would become dimmer. I also found the fog machine caused a dimming of the refractions as well and I was unable to get as many reflections of the laser with the fog machine.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Angle Of Incident Light Vs The Solar Power Output

The purpose of this experiment was to determine what angle of incident light striking solar cells produces the most electricity.The apparent motion of the Sun, caused by the rotation of the earth about its axis, changes the angle at which the direct component of light will strike the earth. This apparent motion of the Sun has a major impact on the power received by the Solar collector. When the Sun's rays are perpendicular to the absorbing surface, the power density on the surface is equal to the incident power density. As the angle between the Sun and the absorbing surface changes, the intensity on the surface changes, the intensity on the surface is reduced. When the module is parallel to the Sun's rays the intensity of the light essentially falls to zero. The angle of incident is very important as the earth is constantly rotating around the Sun and during winters, the solar energy output from the Solar cell is very less. So the Solar panel direction needs to be adjusted such that the angle of incident is always equal to or close to 90 degrees

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Does Helim Affect A Note Played On A Wind Instrument?

People always laugh about how Helium makes your voice sound high pitched and funny, but what in you inhaled Helium then played a note on a musical instrument? This would tell us more about the properties of Helium.
I learned, after some research, that the density of Helium is less, allowing the sound waves to resonate at a higher pitch. So my hypothesis was, if you inhale Helium, then play a note on a musical instrument, the note will be a higher pitch, because the density and mass of Helium is less than that of air letting the sound resonate higher.
First I had to get Helium balloons, and then I got some people that played some instruments. They first made sure they were in tune and then they inhaled Helium, without taking another breath they played the same note they tuned to. I recorded the notes down on a notebook. All of the instruments we tested required air to function.
The results were that 100% of the instruments were supportive of my hypothesis. Some instruments were better than others according to how their personal type of instrument worked, but still the answer was unanimous.
My conclusion was that I was right. Everything supported my hypothesis, which is, if you inhale Helium, then play a note on a musical instrument that requires air to function, the note will resound to be higher, because the mass and density of Helium is less allowing the note to resonate at a higher pitch.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Slippery Slope

My project involves testing four different sled types under different snow conditions to determine which sled was the fastest. I timed the sleds using the same distance and slopes. Each time was recorded as were the snow conditions. Several tests of each sled proved that the blue sled had the average fastest time.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Basketball Surfaces

To play a game of basketball it requires very little equipment. You need a ball, a hoop, and a flat surface to play on. Different types of surfaces can have an impact on the bounce of a ball in a game. Throughout my study I compared concrete, asphalt, carpet, wood flooring and grass. I learned that basketballs bounced higher on hard surfaces like concrete, asphalt and wood. I learned that carpet and grass will absorb the balls energy and cause a lower bounce. The best surface to play basketball on outside is concrete. The best surface to play basketball on inside is wood flooring.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Magnets Vs Temperature

I tested how temperature effects the strength of a magnet. I put a magnet on dry ice for 2 minutes and tested how many paper clips it would pick up. I then did the same test with the magnet at room temperature and then the magnet in boiling water. I learned that the colder the magnet, the stronger its magnetic force is.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Bounce Back

For my project I wanted to see if temperature has an effect on a basketball's bounce. To find that out I used the Scientific Process to help me through this project. I took two basketballs and made them both bounce to the same height. After that I made one cold (by putting it in 33 degrees fahrenheit) and one hot. (by putting it in 80 degrees fahrenheit) I then bounced them and measured how high they bounced. I repeated this two more times to make sure my data was correct. I learned that temperature has a great effect on a basketball's bounce. I am really glad I chose to do the science fair, it will end up helping me in the long run. In conclusion I really enjoyed doing his project and I hope you enjoy listening to it!

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Ready, Aim, Fire!

This project was about testing how tension and angle would affect the distance of an object shot from a homemade catapult. The experiment varied some factors at the same time to test for interactions. Randomization was also used. These two principles helped answer the question.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Up, Up And Away

Does a cardboard airplane launched by hand fly farther than one launched via a rubber band?

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] A Light Out Of Darkness

Having a basic understanding how traditional Generators work, (moving conductors through a magnetic field or passing a magnetic field thru conductors to produce electricity), upon seeing a rather unique toy that can be manipulated to perpetually drive spinning metal and plastic rings around a larger ring, an idea to somehow turn this phenomenon into a new type of generator developed.
The toy is started by hand to get the smaller rings rotating around the larger ring. Once the smaller rings are started they will continue to spin as long as the larger ring is kept turning at a rate that matches the falling of the smaller rings.
Our first goal was to prove that ring magnets spinning or rotating around a conductor can produce electricity and discover whether it was Alternating (AC) or Direct (DC) Current. If voltage is measured, a circuit would then be made to include a light bulb of a corresponding voltage to test if it produced usable electricity. Our experiments did not produce the expected results. Further investigation revealed our ring magnets were not the proper type for there was no magnetic field through the hole of the magnet. Our magnets were Axially magnetized. In order for the experiment to work, Diametrically magnetized ones would have to be used. Diametrically magnetized ring magnets are rare. There are companies that make this kind, but they are not the size and shape needed for our experiment and our time and resources were limited.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Steel Tongues

My project was on the tuning fork and whether temperature affects the frequency. My hypothesis was that as the temperature increases the frequencies would decrease. I tested this with a tuner and holding the tuning fork up to it and changing the hertz up and down until it said it was perfect. I then graphed my points and it proved that my hypothesis was correct. This project could help musicians, cops, and doctors. It would help these people because cops use tuning forks to calibrate their radar guns and musicians use to tune and this could affect the outcome.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Building Substructure

Tested who buildings reacted on soil, rock & clay against earthquake, tsunami & fire.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Heads Or Tails

Does the face of the penny weigh more then the tail side of the penny?

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] That's The Way The Ball Bounces!

My project was "How high a basketball will bounce on asphalt, concrete and high-density board"?
The reason I picked this project was because I love basketball.
I used the computer, my father and grandfather's knowledge on the subject.
It took a while to find all the information I needed. The information I found was actually more helpful than I anticipated.
My researching had quite a number of problems. First, I had to find all the elements of the three surfaces. The data I collected was actually very different than what I expected in the beginning. I thought the concrete would bounce higher because it had more ingredients than the other two surfaces. As a result, I thought that since there were more elements that the molecules were tighter together to form a more solid and thicker surface for the ball to bounce on.
The way I pre-formed this experiment was I took a pvc pipe four feet tall and bounced the ball from the top of it onto the three different surfaces. I repeated the process six times on each surface to make sure I had the right results. The ball had a psi of 9. The ball was made of composite leather and was a woman's size 6 basketball. I had trouble trying to find what asphalt was made of, so I did asphalt concrete.
My conclusion was that the basketball bounced on the asphalt and the high-density board the same height. The ball bounced lower on the concrete.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Drown The Sound

Our project was designed to see what sort of sound insulation would block pitches of high, medium and low frequencies to most effectively. We hypothesized that the tradition acoustic ceiling tiles would insulate the best. However our results were very different.
We first build a box to simulate a house frame. We placed the computer speakers inside the box. We then place a sound insulator around the box. Using a computer program to generate pitches, we played the sounds at a consistent decibel. We measured the decibels for each pitch on the uncovered box as a control. Then we tested each insulation with all three pitches. A Vernier sound probe was used to get accurate readings. In the end, different insulations produced different results. The best general sound insulator was egg cartons.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Gelatin At Its Fastest

The purpose of my project was to find out if a laser light travels faster through gelatin with different amounts of sugar in each mixture. Parts of this project help to find the purity of water. Also, some parts are involved with GPS technology. This would also play a part in space exploration. My hypothesis was that light would travel faster through the gelatin with the least amount of sugar because there is more matter blocking the way of the light. I needed to shoot the laser light through the different mixtures of gelatin. Then, I needed to record the exact angles at which the light came out. These angles would lead to finding the speed of the laser light. Then, I took the angles and calculated the Index of Refraction on each one. This formula would go into the formula v= c/n. V= the speed of light in the gelatin, C= the speed of light in the air, and N= the Index of Refraction. My results were that my hypothesis was correct. I discovered that the higher the angle is, the slower the light traveled. The average speed for the 0 cup sugar was 2.463x10*8. All other averages were slower than this speed. This project reaffirms the law of refraction and the speed of light through a medium.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Paper Airplanes

does the wing span of the paper airplane effect how far the paper airplane flies?

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Which Golf Ball Goes The Farthest

This is a project the tests the distances golf balls go when hit with a consistent swing speed. The variable is the compression rating of the golf balls from softest to hardest.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Diode Vs Crystal Radio

Build a radio and see which is a better receiving instrument, germanium diode or a crystal.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Exploding Sticks

A stick bomb is a weave of sticks that creates tension. When released, it creates a burst of kinetic energy. I got the idea from a show with a guy who made sticks bombs for entertainment. I wanted to see if I could make a stick bomb better than the original one I learned from the Internet. I built different stick bombs, using different kinds of sticks, and compared how high the sticks went. I found the bombs made of tongue depressors with the sticks closer together went the highest.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Melting Ice

We were testing to see if different types of light bulbs would melt ice cubes faster. We used regular light bulbs and energy saving light bulbs.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] What's Your Ball?

I compared three different golf balls with different swing speeds to see what ball was right for a slower swing speed.

The three tests I performed were a drop test, a cutting test, and a swing test. Four and eight feet were the heights used for the drop test. Then for the cutting test I cut each of the balls in half. For the swing test I took a fast swing player and a slow swing player and had them hit each of the balls five to six times.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] What Types Of Materials Block Radiation The Best?

In my project, I tested different types of materials to see which ones blocked radiation the best. I tested three types of radiation: alpha, beta, and gamma. I set up a test area with a radiation source, a test stand, the shielding material, and a radiation meter. Then for each radiation source, I placed the shielding material over the source then took a reading with the meter. I tested several types of materials, including wood, paper, aluminum foil, masonite, steel, glass, plastic, and lead. I found that for alpha radiation, all of the shielding materials worked. For beta, everything blocked the radiation source except for paper and 1 sheet of aluminum foil. For gamma, nothing worked except for a thick chunk of lead.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Which Rocket Engine Is The Most Fun?

Which rocket engine is the most run for a child to use in an average Utah park? By fun, I mean the engine that gets your rocket to the highest altitude with the lowest risk of you losing your rocket. Using three standard engine types, I calculated the average crash site open area required for a commonly used model rocket. I then calculated the average open space found in Salt Lake County Parks and found that only an A8-3 size engine will allow you to launch your engine without likely losing your rocket in trees, on top of houses, etc. With this information, I discovered that although a size B6-4 and C6-5 engine will go higher, an A8-3 rocket engine is the most fun because you are less likely to lose your rocket.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] To Infinity And Beyond

My project tested whether the weight, length, or diameter of a model rocket affected the altitude that the rocket would travel. My hypothesis was that none of the three factors would affect the altitude because each rocket would use the same type of B6-4 engine for each flight. I tested my hypothesis using four different types of rockets and launching them in three flights. To calculate the altitude of the rockets, I attached an altimeter inside each rocket and drilled holes in the rockets so that the altimeter could calculate and record the altitude through the changes in air pressure during the flight. The first flight was the control flight and each rocket was launched as built without modifications. In the second flight, I modified the rockets attaching nuts and bolts to the inside of the rocket, until they were all the same weight prior to launch. In the third flight, I removed the weights and instead combined all my rockets with the loadstar nose cone which was a specialized payload nose cone. My analysis of the flight data demonstrated that my hypothesis was wrong. Instead of the altitudes being the same, the experiment illustrated that they changed during each flight. My conclusion then became that weight and the length do affect a rocket’s altitude.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Blue, Black, Orange: How Much Light Do Colors Absorb?

In this science project, I will discover how much light is absorbed by the colors purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, white and black.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] She Shoots! She Scores!

The purpose of this experiment was to analyze five possible angles from which a soccer ball could be kicked at the goal and determine which angle was the best to kick from in order to score a goal in soccer. We conducted some background research and learned that professional soccer players are trained to kick the ball from the “sweet spot,” which is straight in front of the goal. We agree.
Our hypothesis was if you want to score a goal in soccer, the best angle for scoring the most goals is straight in front of the net, at a 90°angle, because in this central area the net is wide open and the shooting area is larger.
The next steps we followed included writing an experimental procedure, gathering materials and subjects. On the day of the experiment we used a protractor to measure five, shooting angles. The angles measured in relationship to the goal were: Left 30°, Left 60°, Center 90°, Right 60°, Right 30°. Each angle was marked with a cone.
From each angle, each of the 12 subjects took five shots, totaling 60 shots from each angle. Their scores were recorded and added together. Finally, the data was used to create a table that showed the results of the experiment.
In conclusion, an analysis of the data proved that our
hypothesis was correct. It showed that from the 90° angle position, 73% of the shots were successful.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Batter Up

I've always wondered what size baseball bat would be best for me. For this project, I compared two new, wooden baseball bats that were identical except for their size.The small bat was 28 7/8 inches long and weighed 22 ounces, and the large bat was 31 inches long and weighed 27 ounces. I hit a total of 720 baseballs off a tee; half with the small bat and half with the large bat, and measured the distance the ball traveled each time. The baseballs were all new when I started, and I kept many variables constant (warm-up routine, tee height, batter stance, grip on the bat, etc.). My hypothesis was that I would hit the ball farther with the shorter/lighter bat because I'd be able to swing it faster. The results of this experiment supported my hypothesis -- I hit an overage of 4.4 feet farther with the small bat.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Boat Hulls

The project I have chosen focuses on a boat’s hull. My hypothesis will give you a general idea what this project is about. If I make a multi-hull boat, a round bottom boat, a flat bottom boat, and a vee boat of the same weight and materials, then the multi-hull boat will hold the most weight because its two sides will balance the cargo. I decided to do this project because it seemed like a fun thing to do.
When I started this project I made four boats (listed up top). They consisted of craft sticks, tin foil, and glue. I weighed them to make sure they were equal. Once I finished this step, I filled a tub with water. Then I was ready to put my boats in the water. In my first test I realized that when the boats sunk once, they got waterlogged faster in the next tests because my glue wasn’t waterproof. I did three tests on each boat. The boats all weighed 17-18g to begin with.
After finishing my experiment I discovered that my hypothesis was wrong. The round bottom boat held more coins because it held more air. I think the multi-hull boat didn’t hold as many coins because it couldn’t go as low in the water as the round bottom boat and the vee boat. The round bottom boat turned out to be the best type of hull for a boat to hold cargo because it had the largest volume.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Whirlybirds And Drag

This project simulates drag using whirlybirds.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Floating On Air

I decided to build a hovercraft. I wanted to find out on which surface it would float farther on. The surfaces I used were a tennis court, black top, and grass.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] You'll Get A Charge Out Of This

The purpose of this experiment was to find out if the speed of rotation of a magnet inside a wooden electric generator affects the production of electricity. The hypothesis was the turning the magnet in the rotor faster will produce more watts of electricity and make the light bulb shine brighter and/or blink faster.
The only variable in the experiment was the speed of rotation of the magnet. The control was the wooden generator (and all materials used to build it) was the same in all experiments.
The conclusion was that turning the rotor faster does produce more electricity by making the light bulbs blink faster and more often.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Race Car Marbles

This project is a study of kinetic and potential energy of marbles. The marbles are tested on two different tracks to determine which track has less friction.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Which Paper Airplane Flies The Best?

We tested how many folds it takes to make the most aerodynamic paper airplane.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Keep Everything Cool

My question was what would keep my popsicle from melting in the sun. Conducters let heat go through the objects and insulators don't let heat go through. I found that cotton kept my popsicle from melting in the sun, so it is an insulator.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Domino Dilemma

We wanted to test if dominos will fall faster when they are farther apart or closer together.

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Mass In Motion

what flies farthest? does mass effect the flight of a projectile

[Physics, Astronomy & Math] Skittles Statistics

Are there the same number of red, orange, yellow, green and purple skittles in each candy container? Using statistical data from a sample of 10 Skittles containers, I will examine color frequency and explain my results the way a statistician might!

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Magnetism And Its Effect On Plants

I wanted to see if using magnets would help plants to grow better and faster. I discovered that the location is very important. Depending on where the magnets are placed you can make plants grow better and faster.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Are The Beans Ready Yet?

I wondered why they sell dry beans at the store. How much water do they need to rehydrate? How much water does a bean hold? The purpose of this project is to study how much water beans can hold. I will do this by measuring how much water is absorbed by the beans in different time frames. I will repeat this test three times to determine the amount of water the dry beans absorb. My hypothesis is that I think the beans will soak up a little water but that they need at least three days to be ready to eat. In my experiment, I labeled six cups (one for zero minutes, 20 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, 9 hours, and 27 hours) and measured 50 grams of pinto beans in each. I then added 100ml of water to each except the zero cup. When the time was up, I dried off the beans, put them in a clean cup and measured them on the scale. I recorded my findings of the weight change and how they looked for each. I did this test three times. Based on my findings, my hypothesis was proved wrong. The beans were edible after 27 hours, not three days. However, the beans were not ready at 20 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, or 9 hours. So in that regard, my hypothesis was right. For future considerations, one could use different temperatures of water and different types of beans to see if it changes.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Baggin' Those Plants

World hunger is a global issue that should not still be in existence. Plastic waste is contaminating oceans and creating a worldwide problem. The purpose of this project was to explore a growing method that could be used in other countries who have a difficult time growing either due to drought or flood as well providing an alternative use for plastic bags. The experimenters wanted to determine if growing in plastic bags would conserve water and if the sprout rate and biomass of plants would be impacted. Plants were grown in a flat to represent typical ground growing. Water from all planters was caught and measured. Daily sprouts were documented. A living biomass was taken of all plants grown. This experiment proved that growing above the ground saves water and those plants sprouted earlier and at a faster rate. Lastly, they had a significantly higher biomass. This might be because the bags work as a mini green house and were also able to create their own water cycle. Future projects would like to explore the chemical makeup of the bags and find what is released as the bags decompose to ensure the food grown is safe. Due to the success of this experiment, a local non-profit organization will be taking our model and using it in a Cambodian village this summer where mass flooding prevents planting. In this village malnutrition is the number 1 cause of death. So hopefully growing in bags will impact their lives in a powerful way!

[Plant & Earth Sciences] We Put The "Pee" In Plants!

The purpose of this experiment was to find out whether urine can or cannot be used as a healthy fertilizer. This project is important because in developing countries people don’t have access to store fertilizer. This project can help those people in developing countries have access to healthy food to eat. For this project the hypothesis was that diluted urine could be used as a healthy fertilizer when mixed with water at the proportion of 50ml urine to 150ml water (1:3). To test urine as a fertilizer the first step will be to bake the soil. Make the urine fertilizer while the soil is baking. The amount of urine that will be used for each mixture is 50 ml. The amount of water that will be used for each mixture is 50 ml times the proportion number (3, 6, and 9). Also fertilize plants with 100% Urine, no fertilizer, and store bought fertilizer. Water each plant regularly with water. Measure the plant’s biomass in mg. The controlled variable is the plant without fertilizer. The independent variable is the fertilizer type. The dependent variable was each plants biomass. The data partially supported the hypothesis because the proportion of 1:3 urine to water did better than the control, but did not do the best. In the future, a good idea would be to repeat this experiment for a longer period of time. Another idea would be to compare male and female urine.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Beanstock Maze Experiment

My project is about how a plant will curve around obstacles to get to the sun. I used a bean plant in a box maze with a hole at the top. My plant curved around the cardboard obstacles and got to the top of the maze.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Do Magnets Have An Effect On Plant Growth?

I wanted to see if magnets helped plants to grow. I planted 3 different pots: one with a magnet on the bottom, one with magnets on the sides and one without any magnets.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Egg Vs. Water

Since moving to Utah, I was curious about the Great Salt Lake and why objects float in the salt water. I researched the information on it and found that you needed to make the density of the water heavier than the density of the object, and increase the mass.I qustioned:"How much salt it would take to float an object in water?" You actually could use other things than salt but salt was my choice. I chose an egg, and hypothesized that it would take 2 tablespoons of salt in two cups of water to make the egg float. I took 4 eggs, 4 glasses of water, salt and all of the my stuff needed for measuring. I carefully measured the water in each glass, and the water was the same temperature for each glass. Time for salt! I tried dissolving one tablespoon of salt and the egg sunk quickly to the bottom. Two tablespoons of salt gave the same result. Three tablesppons of salt was the key. The egg started to sink like before, but then floated to the top. When I dissolved 4 tablespoons of salt the egg float right to the top and showed more above the water than before. For fun, I tried sugar. It took twice as much sugar to get the same result but the egg did float. I learned that is why it is easier for me to swim in the ocean than in a fresh water lake, although it does taste worse!

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Going Bananas

We were curious where bananas would ripen fastest and why. We thought bananas would ripen fastest in heat and light. We placed green bananas from the same bunch in different spots (dark/warm, dark/cool, dark/cold, light/warm, light/hot, light/cold, dark with another fruit, etc.) and took pictures and recorded whether they ripened or not for 10 days. We also researched why stores receive green bananas.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Talking Plants

Does talking to plants from the time they are seeds through their lives help them grow?

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Vitamin Plants

My science project is on plants and the effect of vitamins on them. What I do is get three plants and label them A, B, and C. The plant I used was called the “Red Lion”. My materials included three plants, two types of vitamins, soil, sunlight, water, a measuring cup, and love. I chose two types of vitamins. To water the plants I crush up the vitamins and mix them with water. Then water the vitamin water to plant B and C and water plant A with water. The plants were watered with 1\3 cup of water for four weeks. My question is “Will vitamins affect the growth plants?” I hypothesized that the plants with vitamins would bloom faster. The plant that I think would bloom fastest though is plant B with vitamin A. My hypothesis was supported. I guessed that plant B would bloom the fastest and at the end it did. I enjoyed this experiment because it was exciting and fun to do.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Fizzy Growth

My project is the effect of carbonated water on plant growth. My hypothesis is that carbonated water will not effect the growth of plants any differently than tap water. After 6 weeks of growth the results proved my hypothesis correct.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Egg Tastic!

Our project is testing the density of salt water in a cup to make an egg float. We tested different amounts of salt water in each cup, ranging from all salt water to no salt water. The cup with all salt water has a higher density than the cup with no salt water at all. The more dense the water is, the better the egg will float.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Beansprouts

My science fair project is about bean sprouts. It is very nutritious and has lots of protein. My science fair project was very fun because I get to use two different type of beans and I get to guess on if the bean sprout will grow and if it has enough warmth also. My favorite part was when I found out my conclusion . My conclusion was that the mung bean grew faster than the soy bean but I think that was the climate that made the soy bean not grow. I hope you enjoy this summary to my science fair project.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Growing Vines

Experiment to see if vines grow faster on organic potato or unorganic potato.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Yuck, What Happened To My Apple?

I tested 4 types of wrapping (wax paper, tin foil, plastic wrap, plastic bag) to find out which wrapping kept apples freshest after they have been cut. I used Gala apples with and without lemon juice brushed over the top. Over the 20 days, I photographed all of the apples after 1, 10, and 20 days and rated them on a scale of 1 to 10 according to how much decay they had. After the 20 days, I came to the conclusion that plastic wrap kept the air from deteriorating the apple the best. My original hypothesis was that the tinfoil would be able to work the best because it could keep the air and any kind of light from entering the apple. My hypothesis was proved wrong. The plastic wrap with the lemon juice kept the apple freshest because it created an air tight seal better than the other wrappings, which was the main factor in keeping the apple from decaying.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Brown Apples

What types of kitchen products affect the amount of time it takes to turn an apple brown?

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Blown Away

I have been interested in tornadoes since I was five years old. So, when I did my science project, I knew I wanted to explore how tornadoes form and what weather patterns affect their size. My question is "Is the size of a tornado affected by water temperature?" A tornado forms when there is a strong current of warm air that produces an updraft, with a cold front of air from the north producing a down draft, and a strong jet stream of wind moving at least 150 mph. When these three forces collide, a tornado is formed. With the help of my dad I built a tornado chamber using a bathroom exhaust fan to act as the strong jet stream of wind, a pan of water of different temperatures to act as the warm air updraft, and dry ice to act as the cold air downdraft and to let me see the diameter of the tornado. I used all of these things to test my hypothesis that the size of a tornado is affected by the temperature of the warm air updraft. Maybe by measuring the temperature of the air, meteorologists will be able to predict the possible scale of a tornado and be able to warn people about how big the tornado will be.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Plants Need Love, Too.

I wanted to determine whether positive energy/negative energy had an impact on the growth of three bean plants. I nurtured each plant differently: one with love, one with hate, and the last with indifference.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Liquefaction Reaction

Question: Will the soils around Oakridge Elementary and the Salt Lake Valley liquefy during seismic event?

Hypothesis: Liquefaction will occur in soils around Oakridge and the Salt Lake Valley, results will vary during a seismic event, depending on slope, type of soil, water saturation and other conditions.

Research: Identify the Problem: During this time I thought about what would be an interesting science fair project. Primary Research: Interviewed Professionals Collected soil information, soil maps and brochures about Utah’s soil.Secondary Research:Internet
Articles,Images,Magazine Articles, Studied Liquefaction Maps
Set Up Shake Table for Experiments Obtained Field Study Soil Samples, Brochures and Pamphlets

Experimental Procedures:I collected four soil samples from the Salt Lake Valley. I tested the four soil samples by placing them in shallow plastic tubs. The tubs were each placed on the shake table and shaken to see if the soil sample would liquefy. I tested each tub three times and each soil sample had the same results each time. Objects were placed on the surface of each soil sample and observed for signs of soil liquefaction. I rated the liquefaction level of each soil sample and recorded the data.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Plants And Caffeine

I performed an experiment to evaluate the effect of caffeine on the growth of plants.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Plant Growth

My project is about how soil and lighting affect plant growth.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] The Wonders Of Soil And Fertilizer

I want to know what mixture of soil and fertilizer will work the best to grow tall and healthy wheat grass when taking care of the plants all the same way.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Monitoring The Effects Of Drought On Tree Mortality

The purpose of this project is to monitor the effects of drought on tree mortality. The reason I chose this project was because when I was 5 years old a tree in my back yard died. An arborist said it was suffering from drought, sending off pheromones, attracting bugs which killed the tree. I chose a study area in the Northern Uintas with a lot of tree death. I collected drought history and aerial imagery from four different years. I randomly selected 50 plots within my study area and categorized about 35 points inside each plot showing how many trees had died each year. I entered my information into a database and created graphs and charts explaining my research. 76% of the land in my study area was forest, 52% of the trees died from 2004-2011, and there was a noticeable delay between prolonged drought and tree death.
I thought that extreme drought would kill the majority of trees. The data did and did not support my hypothesis. The data supported my hypothesis because extreme drought came before the trees died. The data did not support my hypothesis because major death did not come right after major drought. This study indicates that when the drought was prolonged and intense, the trees stressed, sent off pheromones attracting bugs that killed the trees. I conclude that what the arborist told me about the tree in my back yard was true and is happening at catastrophic levels in our forests.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] If I Ran The Aquarium

Plants and animals exist in a cycle, with the waste products of one supporting the life of the other, all driven by energy from the sun. Last year, I did a project that demostrated that a common water weed, Elodea, grows more rapidly in a tank that contains fish than it does in a tank without fish. The growth rate was proportional to the number of fish in the tank.

After I reported my findings, some of my classmates asked whether it was the carbon dioxide that fish produce, and plants need for photosynthesis, that caused the Elodea to grow more rapidly; or if it was the nutrients that the fish introduced into the water, which plants also might need to grow (fish poop). This year I constructed an experiment to test which factor, carbon dioxide or animal-produced nutrients, was most important for plant (Elodea) growth.

I set up 4 standardized tanks, with equal water and sunlight, that contained all possible combinations of carbon dioxide and animal-produced nutrients: (1) (-) CO2, (-) nutrients; (2) (-) CO2, (+) nutrients; (3) (+) CO2, (-) nutrients; and (4) (+) CO2, (+) nutrients. I used 3 standard sprigs of Elodea per tank to measure growth.

My results showed that the nutrients produced no measureable growth, while the Elodea that received CO2 showed large rates of growth. I concluded that carbon dioxide is far more important than animal-derived nutrients to produce plant growth.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Do Soybean Plants Pump Iron?

Soybeans have the highest protein content of all beans, and are very low in fat. Soybeans are even used to make nonfood products (oil, ink, plastic, etc.). In 2011, the U.S. exported 1.53 billion bushels of soybeans to other countries, bringing more than 18 billion dollars into the U.S. economy. Now there is a shortage of soybeans. One reason is iron deficiency. My science project will try to find the amount of iron that should be added to water to maximize soybean growth. My hypothesis is that if I add iron to the water, then soybean plants will grow better, but if I add too much iron, the soybean plants will die. To test this, I grew soybean plants with water, water with 0.25 mg/L iron, water with 0.5 mg/L iron, and water with 1 mg/L iron. My results are that plants with 0.25 mg/L of iron had the highest germination rate, grew the longest roots, and grew the most number of leaves. The plants with 0.5 mg/L iron grew the longest stems. The results supported my hypothesis. Farmers should use 0.25 mg/L iron to water their soybean plants during the whole growth period.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Hydroponics And Ozonated Water

My report is, “Will ozonated water with bubbler and nutrients help plants mature quicker?” My hypothesis is ozonated water with air bubbler will help the plants mature the quickest. My family wants to grow a hydroponics farm, so I’m going to help them by figuring out my question. That’s why I chose my project. I used six palm plants growing in hydroponics test tubes. I also compared my results to my last year’s experiment in which I used three hydroponics test tubes with bean plants. My conclusion is ozonated water with bubbler and nutrients grew the largest, tap water with nutrients grew second largest, and surprisingly ozonated water without bubbler or nutrients grew the third largest.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Evidence Of Alpine Glaciation On Mount Olympus

During the last period of glaciation, glaciers formed in the Wasatch Mountains immediately east of Lake Bonneville. Two canyons above Olympus Cove, Neff’s and Thomas Fork Canyon, show clear evidence of extensive alpine glaciation. In contrast, the canyon directly east of Mount Olympus, North’s Fork Canyon, and the East and West Gullies on the north slope of Olympus are reported not to have experienced glaciation. The tendency of Mt. Olympus to “catch” modern storm clouds led us to hypothesize that North’s Fork Canyon and the two gullies may have also experienced glaciation. To test this, we looked for moraine deposits and U-shaped valley profiles. We also compared the density and toughness of the lower Tintic Quartzite to the quartzite found in the moraines. We found strong evidence of a medial moraine and weaker evidence of lateral, terminal and ground moraines in lower North’s Fork. We also saw a U-shaped valley in upper North’s Fork. On the slopes below the East and West Gullies we observed small lateral, medial and ground moraines. These moraines are composed of quartzite that is both denser and tougher than the quartzite of the Upper Tintic, suggesting that the “moraines” are not a result of land slides from the adjacent Upper Tintic, but derived from the elevationally higher, cliff forming Lower Tintic. These observations suggest North’s Forks Canyon and the two gullies of the north face of Mt. Olympus experienced glaciation.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Dirt And Worms (And Their Poop!)

Worm castings are a great way to fertilize plants. I wanted to find out if worm castings affect the growth rate and size of plants. I also wanted to find out if there was a difference in the size and growth rate between plants that use worm castings to fertilize them versus those that do not use any fertilizer. I conducted this experiment by getting 3 different types of seeds: marigold, garden bean and radish. I used two pots per seed. In one pot I planted 5 radish seeds without worm castings and in the other pot I planted 5 radish seeds with a 1/4 inch top layer of worm castings. I did the same with the marigold and garden bean seeds. After the seeds were planted, I measured the growth of the plants daily and recorded them in my journal. I measured the plants for 20 days. From the data I collected, I discovered that worm castings do indeed affect the growth rate and size of plants. I also noticed that the leaves of the plants using worm castings were noticeably bigger as well. It was a very interesting experiment!

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Do Ants Tunnel Better In Cold/Dark Or Warm/Light

I wanted to see whether ants would tunnel better or make more tunnels in a warm/light environment or cold/dark environment.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Plant Growth And Wavelength Of Light

The purpose of the two experiments was to find out "under which color of light do plants grow best?"

In the first experiment, the procedure was to place cellophane paper(red and green) on the pot of the plants and to place the pot under the incandescent light bulb. For the second experiment, we placed the plants under the colored fluorescent light bulbs (red, yellow, green, and blue).

The first experiment failed because the cellophane paper was too thin, so the white light was still able to go through the cellophane. In the second experiment the plants grew best in the order of red, yellow, blue, and then green light. For this experiment, the graph shows the growth in ratio. Because every plant was in different sixes at the starting point, we converted the lengths of every plant into 1. Then the ratio of the growth is calculated for every plant.

The data went red, yellow, blue, and green light. The plants grew the most under red light, then yellow, blue, and green was the least. Hypothesis in this experiment was that the best light for plants to grow under is red light, and the result was red light. So the hypothesis in this experiment was right and the result for this experiment is that the red light is best color of light for plants to grow. We should research about why the plants grew best under red light.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Rainbow Plants

Sunlight contains many different colors of light, but which color provides the best growing conditions for bean plants? This project compares bean growth under red, green and blue lights versus growth under a multi-spectrum grow lamp. The plants are placed in banker boxes to make sure the plant only receives light of the color lamp and the lights are placed on timers to give them light for an identical amount of time. My hypothesis was that the plants would grow best under the green light. The experiment showed that I was incorrect in my hypothesis because my data showed that the beans under the blue lights grew taller and kept growing while the green light plants and the red light plants started out well but stopped growing. It is my conclusion that the grow lamps must have a balance toward blue light in order to provide the best growing conditions for plants.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Green+Blue+Red=White Light

White light is created by combining green, blue and red light in an overlapping pattern. This theory was used in the creation of computer monitors and TV screens. Astronomers also use this theory to determine the temperature and chemical make-up of stars.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Do Seeds Need Soil To Germinate?

Purpose:
I like plants and I wanted to find out if seeds can germinate only in soil. The germination process is very important in the plants growth.

Do seeds need soil to germinate?

Hypothesis:
Yes, because it won’t germinate without soil. You always see plants in soil.

Procedure:
-I planted different kind of seeds in different materials; like different soils, sand, water and on wet paper towel in plastic bags.
-Tested how long it took to sprout.
-Tested, if temperature matters in sprouting.
-Learned about seeds from books and mom.

Results:
-Seeds did germinate on wet paper towel and even faster than soil. It also germinated in sand.
-Seeds did germinate in soil, but took longer.
-Warmth plays a big role in germinating. Seeds in warm places were faster than in cold places.

Conclusion:
Seeds don’t need soil to germinate! They can start growing without soil.
There are so many different seeds and each has different times and conditions to germinate.

It was fun to do this project, because I found out seeds can sprout on wet paper towel. Next time in the spring I can try to do this with our plants. After they germinate, I can transfer them carefully in a pot of soil for further growing. I do think plants need soil for a stable growth and production of plant.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] How Does A Different Percent Of Carbon Dioxide Affect Plants?

If you change the percent of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a plant (5%, 2% or 1%), how does that affect a plant's growth?

[Plant & Earth Sciences] The Science Of Wood Combustion

Im unsure of what project abstract means.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] How Road Salt Affects Plants

I had 2 sets of plants and sprayed one group with water and the other with a mixture of water/road salt. I took pictures on a regular basis to measure the changes and differences.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Orange Vs. Grapefruit

If I weigh an orange and a grapefruit, dry them out and weigh them again the orange will have the higher percentage of water in it because oranges taste juicier when I eat them.
I went to the store and picked a similar sized orange and grapefruit.
I weighed each fruit in grams and found the starting weight of the orange was 258 grams, the grapefruit was 256 grams.
I cut the fruits into thin slices placed them on tinfoil and put them in front of the fireplace to dry. I added a small fan to help in the drying process.
After 96 hrs the fruit was completely dry.
I weighed them again and got the following results.
The dried weight of the orange was 58 grams.
The dried weight of the grapefruit was 52 grams.
Using the following formulas I discovered that the orange was (258-58)/258= 77.5% water content
The grapefruit was (256-52)/256= 79.6% water content.
The grapefruit had 2.1% more water than the orange.
My hypothesis was incorrect. The grapefruit contained more water than the orange.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Weather Or Not

In December there were many days that were very cold and foggy outside. The weatherman called it a “Temperature Inversion”. He said that a warm layer of air up high held in the cold air below where we live. This doesn’t make sense to me. When I fill up the bathtub, I add hot and cold and it mixes and becomes warm. Why doesn’t the air outside do the same thing?

I decided to make an experiment out of it. Since it is hard to mix air and see it mix, I decided to use water instead.

For my procedure I got cold water and put ice in it to make it as cold as I could. For the hot water I boiled it on the stove to get it as hot as I could. I filled plastic bottles with the cold and hot water. I added 5 drops of blue food coloring to the cold and 5 drops of yellow to the hot. I put a thermometer in each bottle to record the beginning temperature of each.

Here’s the tricky part. I had to turn one upside down and put it on top of the other. I waited to see if they would mix. I watched the colors change from blue and yellow to green and recorded the end change in each bottle. When hot was on top the colors wouldn’t mix. When cold was on top they quickly mixed.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] How Fertilizer Affects The Growth Of Grass

Fertilizer is expensive, and it is used in all fields of agriculture. There fore it affects all walks of life. Many of the books on plant growth simply state that we should fertilize at the manufacturers suggested rate. That might sound good in print, but how is that rate established? Can we just trust the manufacturer, or should we have an unbiased opinion? My experiment shows that it is not a good idea to fertilized before germination. This is important because, fertilizer is expensive, and time is limited in our growing environment. I had expected to see the fertilized plants to exceed the growth of the non-fertilized plant. My research supported that hypothesis, however, the fertilizer significantly delayed the germination process. The only variable in my experiment was the amount of fertilizer. The first pot having none, and each subsequent pot has an additional dose of the recommended fertilizer rate. Using the information in this experiment, our society could save thousands of dollars in fertilizer every year.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Roly Poly Bug Home Preference

Would a roly poly bug prefer to live in a dark area, a moist area, a food area or a sheltered area?

I thought that the roly poly bugs would be in Section #1, Darkness, the most because they are nocturnal. Also, they were probably scared from being taken out of their natural habitat.

My hypothesis was incorrect because the roly poly bugs were in Section #3, Shelter, most often. I know this because when I calculated the percentage of roly poly bugs in each section during observations, the results showed that Section #3, Shelter, had the highest percentage at 42%. Section #2, Food, and Section #1, Darkness, came in second at 26% each. Section #4, Moisture, came in last with 7%.

I learned that roly poly bugs prefer to live in or under rocks, bark, and other sheltered areas. Water is important, but too much water is not good for roly poly bugs. If I were to do another experiment with roly poly bugs, I would like to build a larger testing habitat, and keep and observe the roly poly bugs for a longer period of time.

[Plant & Earth Sciences] Plants On Vitamins

We planted Basil seeds and watered the with 5 different water mixtures containing plain water, vitamin B, C, D and a kid's multi-vitamin. Our hypothesis was that vitamin D would make the plant grow the best because vitamin D is in sunlight and you need sunlight to grow plants.