Science Fair Research: Students' Perspectives

The following essays were written by middle and high school students throughout Ohio. They were asked to summarize their science fair research topic and describe their use of library resources. Knowing the perceptions, use, and needs of young patrons is vital for improving outreach, available resources, and services.

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Himanshu Savardekar
John Sells MS, 8th Grade
Title of Project: High Glucose Kills Heart Cells

My topic “High Glucose Kills Heart Cells” was finalized and completed using many contemporary resources. I learned the basis of a scientific experiment during my study of science at school. By using external resources, mainly the library resources, I was able to extend my scientific knowledge to prove my hypothesis. I used the following resources.

Library: Getting a good start was very important for me as it was my first time participating in this kind of project. I started my search at the State Library of Ohio where I was able to get two books:  Science Fair – Developing a Successful and Fun Project, by Maxine Haren Iritz, and  Your Science fair – An Opportunity for Youth, A guidebook to Successful Science Exhibits, by Arden F. Welte, James Dimond and Alfred Friedl. These books helped me with the initial study and set up of scientific experiments. They gave examples of projects and expectation for science fair participants.

Books from the Columbus Metropolitan library that helped me choose and design a science fair project included:
Janice VanCleave's Guide to More of the Best Science Fair Projects, by Janice Pratt VanCleave, Championship science fair projects : 100 sure-to-win experiments  by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, and Science Fair Success by Ruth Bombaugh.

Internet resources:  After compiling the “why’s” of a science fair through the above mentioned resources, I started looking at some resources available on the internet to help me decide my topic and background for the science fair. Based on my interest in biological sciences, I started my research on diabetes by reading articles. Some helpful websites were:

1. What Causes High Blood Sugar And What Harm Can It Do To My Body? http://abcnews.go.com/Health/DiabetesOverview/story?id=3843485&page=1
2. Diabetes and Heart Disease: A Fatal Link:  
   http://edition.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/10/19/diabetes.heart.disease/index.html
3. All About Diabetes:  http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/
4. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid): http://www.vitamins- supplements.org/vitamin-C.ph
5. Some of the science fair websites I used with helpful information on science experiments included:
   http://www.sciencefaircenter.com/
   http://school.discoveryeducation.com/sciencefaircentral/
   http://www.sciencebuddies.org/

Paulina Eberts
Immaculate Conception, 7th Grade
Project Title: The effect of heat on baby bottles

Science research builds on the past and develops the future at the same time. Current information is extremely important when writing a paper or scientific report. For my science fair project I studied the effect heat from a microwave had on polycarbonate baby bottles. I was curious whether or not Biphenyl A (the toxic base of polycarbonate) would leach into baby formula being heated. In order to come up with my hypothesis and plan my experiment, I researched topics such as chain molecules, polymers and monomers--basic engineering. For the engineering information, which is consistent and wasn’t changing rapidly, I hit the books right away.

Living near the library, it was easy to gain access to books. It was somewhat tricky to decide what subject and keyword to search in the library’s website catalog because, starting off, I did not know exactly what I was looking for. Some keywords and subjects I began with were simple, such as plastics and polycarbonates. This brought up a decent list to scan through. I selected a few books that provided a broader perspective which helped me find more specific keywords and search terms including polymers, monomers, chain molecules and bases. Eventually I tracked down a good amount of literature such as Introductory Polymer Chemistry by G. S. Mirsa and Fundamentals of Polymer Engineering by Arie Ram. Many books were only located at the Main Columbus Library. It was challenging to track these books down, but doing so paid off.

The topic I chose for my science fair project was current with new discoveries being made constantly. Every week there was a new published report or journal article relative to what I was studying. I also used the internet to find what I was looking for because many of the books were out-dated. I had no trouble finding accurate and current websites or online journals about my subject on the internet. Using the Google Search Engine I used the same search terms such as polycarbonate baby bottles and Biphenyl A. I tried to stick with websites that had good authority, objectivity, currency, and were citable. Websites I used ranged from www.washingtonpost.com to www.consumerreports.com. I was also lucky enough to find a few websites sharing results and findings of previous experiments similar to the one I was undertaking.

The library and internet were useful providers of information, but I also found a good deal of newspapers such as USA Today with recent articles addressing polycarbonate baby bottles and concerns of other plastics.

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Shane W Conway
St Christine, 8th Grade
Title of Project: Accelerating pain reliever dissolution

My project involved dissolving different analgesics in beverages.  The objective was to determine which beverage had the biggest effect on the rate at which the medicines dissolved.

I used six different pills in my experiments: Advil, Aleve, Bayer, and the generic equivalents, ibuprofen, naproxen sodium, and aspirin, respectively. I also used six different beverages: Gatorade, milk, Coca-Cola, coffee, cold water, and room temperature water. The two temperatures of water were to determine if temperature also had any effect on the dissolution rates.

For my bibliography, I used two different types of sources, books and the internet. Books made up the bulk of my bibliography, as they are often the most reliable. To find books, I asked the librarians for help at my local library. They are always helpful, and often provided suggestions when I wasn’t sure where to go. For the most part, I found the books I needed at my local library, the Austintown Library.  For some deeper information, however, I needed to go to the Main Library of my county. I started my search with a very broad topic and narrowed it down to what I needed. This helped in finding the locations of the books I needed, as they are not always located in the same area.

If a book is not entirely dedicated to your subject, I have always found the index to be the most important part of the book. If I’m not sure if the book contains my subject, I save time by searching for it in the index.  In addition, the index can quickly direct you to the most vital information in the book, and you can reference it quite easily.

I did not have as many internet sources as book sources because the internet is not always as reliable.  If a book is published, it usually means that it has been read over by professionals, and the information can reasonably be considered valid. The internet does not provide this luxury. However, I do know that some websites are reliable, especially sites ending in .gov or .edu because they are sponsored by either the government or an academic institution. 

Alisa Marie Noll
Immaculate Conception School, 8th grade

I read a newspaper story about a colossal oil spill that happened in the San Francisco Bay.  The article described the polluted beaches, dead fish, animals and birds.  To start my research I simply typed “oil spills” in the search box of Google to understand more about oil spills’ effect on the environment.  Then I searched the term on a website called “EBSCOhost” (which I accessed at my school library) to discover what scientific experiments had been done and articles written to get a basis for my own experiment.  There were many options: a couple that were over my head that used too many big words and would be too complicated to do, and some that I couldn’t find enough sources to use on the topic.  I discovered that animal rescue organizations used dish detergents to clean up birds, and because some cleaners clean dishes better than others, I thought it would be the same with cleaning feathers on a bird. I wanted to know which detergent would work the best to save more birds.  I found the best start to a good experiment and effective research is a good topic.  After I knew that, I just looked around the internet for information.  I know it’s a good source if there is a copyright and nothing misspelled. The best sites have an .edu or something besides .com after the name.  There were some terms on the websites, articles, and especially journals that I still didn’t fully grasp, and at that point my best resources were a teacher or librarian. 

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Heather M Benya
Sylvania Southview HS, 10th grade
Title of Project: Comparing soccer headgears' ability to absorb collision test

I started my research by going to my local library and searching for books or journals for my science fair project. Unfortunately, the local library did not have any books or journals pertaining to my science fair project topic, which was testing soccer headgear so I went to my Biology and Physics teachers to get some extra textbooks to use. My Physics teacher gave me a few high school and college Physics textbooks to use and one of them helped with my equations. In addition, my Biology teacher helped me find a student mentor. The student mentor was very supportive and pointed me in the right direction when I didn’t know where to go.

The World Wide Web is commonly used for projects and homework assignments, but it isn’t always the best place to go to get accurate information. Since I couldn’t find many books to help guide me through my science fair project, I went to the Internet. Luckily, I have done many projects and know that one should really only use websites that end in .org, .gov, and .edu. Other websites usually mislead the reader and don’t always tell the truth. Online science journals are very useful and accurate; they really helped me through my project.

Elizabeth H Engoren
Sylvanita Southview HS, 12th Grade
Project Title:The effects of selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) on phenotype and fecundity in developing apterous Drosophila melanogaster

Throughout my research and preparation for my science project, my classmates and I depended heavily upon science periodicals and online resources. The science periodicals allowed us to learn about current world problems which enabled us to effectively brainstorm project ideas. Once we determined a specific world problem that we wished to construct a project around, we began researching about our particular topic. To find these reference materials, my peers and I used online resources in order to access peer reviewed journals. 

To brainstorm our projects, my classmates and I mainly depended on science magazines that focused on breadth of topic rather than depth.  We used both online and printed periodicals, such as Discover and Popular Science. These articles were the launching points for the vast majority of science projects in my class. More specific magazines, such as Audubon, were used by students who had a general idea of what research areas they wished to focus on.

Once students determined a topic, such as the effectiveness of various fertilizers, they began more in depth research. The most critical website for my research was EBSCOHost, which I accessed through INFOhio. EBSCOHost was incredibly important because it effectively narrowed my search scope while providing me with accurate and reliable source information. Moreover, this website often provided free access to full text articles, which was critical to my peers’ and my research projects. Without free access, we would have been blocked from the majority of pertinent professional articles because we cannot afford to pay $50 for an article that may or may not be useful.

My classmates and I were first introduced to EBSCOHost through our high school librarian who showed us how to effectively navigate the site. She showed us how to narrow our search scope to certain types of journals, which enabled us to find useful materials much faster than the Google searches we had relied upon during junior high. Furthermore, the ability to narrow our search to only full text articles made conducting research much easier because we did not have to depend upon an abstract that lacked many important procedural details.  

During the development and testing of our projects, we needed scientific mentors. Our teachers and librarian showed us how to research and contact local experts and the majority of students were able to successfully find project mentors.    

The most important resources to the success of our science projects were science periodicals for brainstorming, EBSCOHost and other online databases for access to peer reviewed journals, and scientific advisers from local universities and professions for guidance. Understanding how to find and use these resources was critical to the success of our projects and should be focused upon in local libraries. 

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Jacob Oet
University School, 9th Grade
Project Title:  The Effect of Sound on Convergent Ladybug Beetles (Hippodamia Convergens) and Pomace Flies (Drosophila Hydei)

Two distinct types of sources were used to research my project: internet-based and library-based. Internet-based sources included the public library website as well as search engines and other websites. Library-based sources included all the sources that were found directly at the library.
           
Search engines like http://www.google.com, and the similar http://www.yahoo.com were by far the most helpful. Using Google’s and Yahoo’s search capabilities, I was able to access three important types of information. First, the image-search that both of these search engines are equipped with gave me instant access to thousands of images, some of which were used in my project. Second, I was directed toward hundreds of casual web pages giving useful information about my topic. Third, and most important, I was given access to online scientific journals and scholarly articles, which was very useful as these gave additional resources, pictures, and a large amount of highly concentrated information within a page or two. Another advantage of using online scientific journals was that they were extremely reputable and written by experts in the field. Also valuable was online encyclopedia http://www.wikipedia.org. Using Wikipedia led to many recently updated scholarly encyclopedia entries. These included pictures and extremely large amounts of information about the subject of each page. The rest of the internet-based information came from Cleveland Public Library’s and Cuyahoga Public Library’s websites: http://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/ and http://catalog.clevnet.org.

At the Cuyahoga Public Library I used visual field guides or other detailed books authored by experts. The Cleveland Public Library supplied me with scientific journals containing the newest discoveries in the field. These resources were found in three different ways: using the computer catalog, assistance from the librarian, and browsing the library.

In conclusion, though the majority of resources were internet-based, they were not the most helpful. The most helpful resources were library-based. These were the scientific journals, books, and illustrated field guides. These resources contained useful information, pictures, and citations, and were all authored by experts of high repute.

Two students provided suggestions for improving the library for students working on science fair research.

Katie Cribb
If I could, I would probably change a lot about the library. One thing would be to have a whole section on science fair project books. If someone were looking for a project, all they’d have to do is go to that section. Another thing would be to have a group that meets at a certain time. The people could get together and talk about heir projects. They could help each other.
Anther idea is to bring in a scientist. He could talk to you, look at your project, and help you any way you need it. One last idea is if they put certain science fair projects on paper. They could list books to go with that project. It would make it much easier.

Jasmine Prince
Baker Middle School, 8th grade
Though the library is a great place to do research, it would be better if it had a section just on science experiments and projects. Having this section would provide easy access to science project related books, for anyone who needed them. The library would also be more helpful if they had some classes about science projects. They could have an instructional class on how to research a science project, how to conduct the project, how to display the results, and how to present the project after everything else is done. This would help anyone who has never done a science project or anyone else doing a science project. These are my thoughts and ideas on researching for a science project.

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