83. Science Fair Panic, part 2

SLast time, we discussed setting goals and looking for a topic. Once you find a topic you like, the next step is to turn it into a science fair project.

Lets say, for example, that like me, you enjoy cooking, so you want to do a project on food. You have heard that you should not put tomatoes in the refrigerator, but never really looked into why. That is a great idea for your science fair project. It is a subject that interests you, and should be interesting to others, but don't head to the grocery yet. There are other things to do first.

It is time to go back to the books and the internet, this time to research your project. You want to know as much as you can learn before you take the next step. You manage to find several articles that explain all the science of why you should not put tomatoes in the refrigerator, including this really cool website called krampf.com.

In your research, you find a full explanation of the exact chemical processes involved. Every bit is the in extreme detail. This project has already been done, which means that you can't use that topic and need to start over.

WRONG! Unless you are incredibly creative, it is almost certain that someone else has already done your project. That does not keep you from repeating the experiment. In fact, repetition is an important part of science. When a new scientific discovery is made, other scientists try to repeat the same thing over and over. By repeating the experiment, they make sure that the original discoverer did not miss anything or get a "lucky" result. By repeating the experiment again, you are doing the same thing that the other scientists did.

You will probably get the same results, but there is always a chance that you might get results that are different and make a new discovery. One of the things wonderful things about science is that it is constantly changing as new discoveries are made and old ideas are set aside. It is perfectly fine to do an experiment that someone else has done.

Once you have done your research, the next thing is to form a hypothesis. Many references will tell you that a hypothesis is "an informed guess", but if you have done your research properly, there won't be much guessing involved. The same is true in the world of science. Instead of a guess, a hypothesis is a statement of what you think will happen. In this case, you think that tomatoes that are left out on the counter will taste and smell better than tomatoes that are kept in the refrigerator, so that will be your hypothesis.

As you form your hypothesis, be sure that it is something that can be tested, and that it is something you have the means to test. You can easily compare tomatoes on the counter and tomatoes in the refrigerator, but what if you decided to use a different hypothesis, such as: Putting tomatoes in the refrigerator causes enzyme reactions which have a negative effect on taste.

That would be a great hypothesis if you had access to the equipment to measure enzyme reactions in the tomatoes, and to show that those enzymes were related to taste changes. Unfortunately, you probably don't have that, so stick with something that you can test, like your original hypothesis.

Also, be sure that your hypothesis is something can be tested by experimentation, not a demonstration. Testing to see if cold temperatures change the flavor is an experiment, so it is a good choice. On the other hand, what if your hypothesis was: Tomatoes can be made into many tasty foods. It is not something that can be tested by experimentation, so it would not make a good hypothesis.

The next thing is to design the experiment, making sure that it is done very scientifically, but that will have to be next time. For now,

have a wonder-filled week.