Last Blog Post

Hi. So I'm done. Yay! I have finally done my experiments! Ok, I found my biggest problem from my whole srp was the fact that it was impossible to find the materials for my second experiment, which was testing suncreen spfs. Many of the materials I needed I had to obtain from America. So a month before the project was due, I changed the topic for the last time to testing whether distance affects the light intensity of a point source. It went pretty well, and I had enough times to redo the experiment. Some errors that I came across throughout the experiment was the positioning of the light sensor. What I found was that when I dragged the stand I used in the experiment, 10 centimetres, the stand wasn't in exactly the same position it would have been in previously, it would have moved, a couple of centimetres to the left or to the right. This would have affected the readings as the sensor was taped onto the stand, and would have moved along with it. I would have liked to improve the experiment by using different point sources. Earlier this week, I came across a similar experiment to mine, but instead of using a light globe, it used a directed laser. Interestingly enough, the distance didn't seem to affect the intensity what so ever. It would have been interesting to investigate why different point sources may or may not have been affect by it. Oh well. It's over and done. I'm finished. that's all that matters currently.

Not Happy Jan

Alrighty, Just a bit for today. What is that PASPORT light sensor and a Xplorer GLX I was talking about earlier?

Well according to cider house it :
"Lets your students discover the excitement of science with the new PasPort Xplorer GLX datalogger.

The Xplorer GLX offers state-of-the-art datalogging to get your students involved in data gathering and analysis. A departure from note-taking and tedious set-up, your students can plug in a sensor, press the start button and begin data collecting immediately. It really is that simple!

The new Xplorer allows your students to extend their senses and experience the forces of nature in or out of the classroom."

Special Features....well there's tones...
Use with a computer and take full advantage of our award-winning DataStudio software.
Large 320 x 240 backlit transflective LCD grayscale display. Readable in a dark room as well as sunlight
8 Sensor Ports, including built-in Sound Sensor, Voltage Sensor, and Temperature Sensors (2)
50,000 Hz maximum sampling rate
Real-time graphing and instant calculations from Floating Point Processor (FPU)
10 MB Internal Memory - Useful for high data collection rates and storing multiple data files
Built-in graphing calculator with expression editor
Built-in dual independent function generators
Built-in speaker for sound output
Compatible with all PASPORT Sensors and ScienceWorkshop Sensors (requires analog and digital adapters)

*got this stuff from
http://www.ciderhouse.com.au/glx.html

Gathering from that information, it is much more advanced then my dick smith light sensor : (
View on the top. I've named it....david

Want A piccy of the awsum goliath pasport?

Where here it is:opps...second from the top

GRUMPY

I should totally change my blog format. It's totally misleading. Maybe instead of Science on Sunshine...Starry Science? nah, it takes to long to find a template and stuff like that. I'm pretty bummed actually. My friend told me I'll be at a day in unsw on the SRP hand in day. schmucks...

Okay, on with it. I just came back from Bowen library today, as I needed to research for my experiment. Great books on astronomy. I was also reading the checklist about similar experiments. I've been browsing and I've found a couple
1) instead of using a lux meter, a PASPORT light sensor and a Xplorer GLX was used....Newly found
2) using a laser instead of a bulb...I found that already like couple of weeks back.
3) using a torch instead of a bulb...NF too

So I'll use them to relate with my experiment.
I've gotta start working on it...

Interesting Facts

Yes, I haven't been posting for a long long time : (. but good thing is I've just finished my 8th grade piano exam! yayz! So here is a bunch of info I've been planning to post, but was sitting in my doco folder for 2-ish weeks.

Inverse Square Law... What the...yes sounds weird, but it's the relationship between brightness and distance. Yep, it's got stuff to do with my experiment. Apparently, the law states that the the area in which the light was spread is proportional to the square of the distance. This is why there was such a drastic drop in the light intensity the further the sensor was moved. The light had to spread, so it wasn't so intense in one area...

Okay, next up...the Lux Meter, btw I really don't like Dick Smith. I proclaimed it in Geography. They gave me a lux meter with a dead battery. The only DS i like, eastgardens, of course, replaced it for free! Lucky me...but that's not relevant. The lux meter is a device used to record light intensity. It records stuff in Lux or FC. The light that falls onto the sensor is coverted from light energy to electric energy which calculates an output which is usually shown on video display. Lux meters or light meters are used to measure levels of light in schools, hospitals, production areas, laboratories, and passageways.

Lastly, Stars. My experiment has stuff to do with astronomy, and by measuring light intensity and distance, astronomers can work out the distance of the stars. They do this by investigating the brightness of the stars.

That's all folkies I'll update soon. I hope

Observations

Alrighty. I've just conducted my marvy (georgia Slang) experiment. I did it 4 times to ensure reliability. so here are some pics of the set up:

So the results for the four trials were pretty similar. The intensity was really high at the 10cm interval but once it hit the 20-30cm intervals it dropped drastically. I've been trying to make my table for hours though. I think the excel equivalent for mac, graphs just won't let me insert a line of best fit. It's pretty frustrating...

Method, Variables, aim, hypo etc.....

Ms. Zhang if you are reading this, please know this is not blog 2, blog 2 is further down. I have changed my project since blog two and i put up the method of my new experiment for it.
Hypothesis

My hypothesis stated that the closer the light source, the stronger the light intensity.

Aim

To investigate whether distance effects the intensity of light from a light source.

Risky Assessment
Identify Light bulb
Assess If the light bulb is touched, it may burn the skin.
If the lamp was dropped, the bulb could break
Control Avoid touching the bulb at all times
Dispose Switch off the bulb when the experiment is over to allow it to cool down


Materials
Dick Smith Lux meter
A music stand
Sticky tape
Measuring Tape (at least 2 metres)
lamp with a lightbulb (lightbulb needs to be exposed)
Darkened Room (at least 1 by 2 metres in area)
A pen
A notebook
A computer
Excel(windows) program/Graphs (mac) program

Method
Setting up the equipment
1. An area of 1 by 2 metres was cleared up to conduct the experiment
2. A lamp, with an exposed bulb was connected to a power point and placed on one side of the area.
3. Books were placed under the lamp so the light bulb was 70cm from the ground
4. A music stand was set up directly opposite the lamp
5. The sensor was taped- to prevent movement- onto the bulb at an elevation of 70cm.
6. Measuring tape was positioned directly above the lamp and then taped down with sticky tape.
7. The sensor was positioned horizontally opposite to the light bulb at an interval of 10cm.
8. The lightbulb was then turned on.
9. After the light meter was turned on
10. A measurement was read from behind the stand.
11. Observations were recorded into the log book
12. The stand was pulled back another ten centimetres
13. Steps ten to twelve was repeated until a distance of 2 metres was reached
14. Steps ten to fourteen was repeated another three times to ensure reliability
The average luminosity for each distance was calculated


Controlled Variables
wattage of the lightbulb, the height at which the lamp stood, the height of the music stand, the length of the tape, the darkness of the room and the allocation of the lux meter

The independent variable was the distance between the light source and the sensor and the dependent variable will be the light intensity from the light source.

LUX LUX LUX

One essential equipment i needed to use to conduct my experiment was the lux meter. A Lux meter is used to measure the light intensity of a certain object.

Equipment

Yes. Yes. Yes. I've got all of my equipment. Now all I need to do is the experiment : D

SAD but OK news

I know it's so close the hand in due date for the srp, but i was forced to change my topic because after weeks of research i couldn't find the products that i needed and the unpredictable weather forced me to cancel the experiment and find another one. I was really upset as i wasted so much time on researching this srp on spf.
I have to move on though and my current project is to determine whether light intensity changes with distance. I have all the equipment and have already trialled the experiment. My only dilemma: my teacher hasn't approved it. I've been sick all week and I haven't been able to ask her. SO monday morning i'll ask. If it's ok, then i'll post my method and everything up asap.

FLAWS

1) the chemicals in sunscreen may affect the photo sensitivity of the photo paper
2) the chemicals in sunscreen may affect the development process of the photo paper
3) the photo paper may not be sensitive to the UV spectrum
4) the photo paper sensitivity to visible light may swamp the UV spectrum exposure
URGGGGGHHHH!

Science Climograph

Hey
Here's Miss Zhangs Climate Graph Thingo...

PLEASE FIXER MY DILEMMA

Okay. I'm in a sitch. Seriously. It's been raining. It's all grey and the only fixer around is 2% sodium thiosulfate and now I feel...depressed. I seriously thinking of changing this. Seriously. by the end of tomorrow even.

Second Blog Submission

Aim
To determine whether there is a difference in the protection against UV rays by sunscreens of different SPFs 15+, 30+ and 40+.

Hypothesis
There won't be a significant difference with the protection given by sunscreens with higher SPF to those with lower.

Equipment
-3 sunscreens of the same brand but different SPFs
-1 timer
-9 pieces of photo paper
-9 clear plastic folders
-1 bottle of photogenic fixer (sodium thiosfulate)
-1 A4 sized plastic rectangular container
-1 knife
-1 working computer and scanner

Risk Assessment...


Method
1. Cut the photo paper vertically into 3 equal sheets of paper and label the sunprint paper from 1 to 3 to indicate the SPFs
2. Squeeze a small amount (size of a 50 cent coin) of sunscreen with SPF 15+ on the centre of the glossy side of the phot paper and spread the sunscreen equally around the paper
3. Repeat steps 1-2 with SPF 15+ and 45+ on the remaining 2 sunprint paper
4. Place the 3 sheets of paper carefully into the plastic folders and leave it outside in a sunny area
5. Start the timer for 5 minutes
6. Place 200mls of Photogenic fixer into the Rectangular container in a dimly lit room
7. Bring the folder back into after 5 minutes
8. Place the photo paper glossy side down for 3 seconds in the photogenic fixer and then rinse immediately with cold water
9. Lay it to dry for fifteen minutes
10. Scan the three solutions onto the computer
11. Analyse each one by determining the blue pixel value to get an average darkness for each sunscreen and time interval and compare the data
12. Repeat steps 1-16 twice leaving the folder outside for 10 minutes the first repeat, and 20 minutes for the second repeat


This experiment will be repeated once again to ensure it's reliability
This is a very rough example of how the table may look like...

WHoops! photo turned out ridiculously small! {click} to enlarge it

APPROVAL!!

Yes! Miss Zhang Approved this today! I'm really happy, now I just need to get on with it. Before I leave, just some things that may pose as a problem. The weather. Yes, the lovely transition from autumn to winter. Luckily the week will be sunny, but I'll have to continuously look at the weather to plan when I can actually conduct the experiment-it has to be on a reasonably sunny day!

SPF Sunscreen

So I've researched some things on the sunscreen vs sunscreen under make up. I decided to tweek the experiment a bit and do something similar to it. I want to test the difference of the SPFs in sunblocks and I also wanted to see if a more expensive sunblock was more effective than a cheaper one.

I found I could test this by using 4 different spf sunscreens, 4 different brand sunscreens, photo paper, clear plastic folders and a photographic fixer. My mother's friend is a photographer and he may be able to help me get the photographic fixer. (Hopefully lend it to me if he has one!) After cutting the photo paper in equal squares and label 1, 2, 3 and 4 to make note of which sunscreen is which. I will measure a certain amount of sunscreen and spread each type on 4 separate photo papers. Then I'll carefully place them into the clear plastic folders, then place them out on the driveway for five minutes. After the five minutes is up, I'll take the results to a dimly-lit room (so I don't affect the results). The papers will be carefully removed and, lay it glossy side down in the photographic fixer. The results, hopefully will indicate, which one sunblocks are more effective and price worthy. The sunblock which allowed the least least amount of sun penetration will turn white, and the most will turn dark.

IMPOSSIBLE

So I'm still finding it hard to retrieve my fixer. I went to ted's and their fixer is only like 2% Sodium Thiosulfate. This equates to two words: NOT GOOD. Plus the cloudy days aren't making me feel any better. I have to find this fixer soon if not, I'll never be able to conduct my experiment!

WHere can I get my FIXER?

Hi Hi!
So I am looking for something called a Photogenic fixer that is made up of Sodium Thiosulfate, which will help indicate how much sun has penetrated the sunscreen. If I can't find this I always have an alternative way of buying a sunprint kit which I believe may have the fixer included.

Photo Advice

My mum's photographer, just came by to take some shots, and while he was there, I asked him where I could get my fixer and other materials. He told me ted's. So i'm off there in a couple of days. Fingers Cross!

Different Idea

Sadly both my experiments were not approved, so I had to come up with another experiment. I've run out of ideas, so I decided to chose an an experiment from Ms. Zhang's email. I think experiment on the effectiveness in undercover make up compared to normal sunscreen would be interesting to do, but I have to find out how i could conduct it first.

MulTiTasking (aka REAL Blog one)

Hey......again,

So in my earlier blog, it was still unclear what i would be doing for my 6 month project. I decided, that although the lactose experiment was really interesting. It didn't really pose a problem. My question would only be, What is Lactose Intolerance? I wouldn't have found a great hypothesis and what could I have concluded from it? I'll have to run it through with Ms Zhang because I have to ask her stuff about it. I actually wrote BLOG 1 on it and I've posted in intro to it at the bottom, and I may still be doing it if I can find a reasonable hypothesis so I can properly conclude my experiment. I have always questioned multitasking. Can someone really do two things at once?

This experiment will investigate if a person can pay attention to two things at once. This is only a rough method, as I may change it in the future. I really like this topic because I can play around with it. So step one is to recruit about 10 to 20 girls to do the test for me. Apparently the more people, the more accurate the result. They will bring portable headsets to listen to music to. (If they don't have one I'll just borrow some for them to use from friends with ipods). I will create 2 sets of simple maths tests (pretty simple) that will take around ten minutes for them to do. Half of the girls will do the test with their music on and the other half will do the test without their music. When everyone is finished with the first test, the groups are reversed and the test is conducted for the second time. After the test. I will ask the volunteer how they felt they did on the first test versus the second test. After marking the tests, I will record the results and the total points for test one and test two.

If it was too difficult to find enough head sets, I would conduct the test in two different rooms. One room would play background music fairly loudly (not too loud)and the other room would be quiet.

The materials for the test are well are the girls, music headsets and maths papers. I can easily obtain the materials for free, and I'll just recruit some of my friends in school. The experiment is very low cost, but is a bit time consuming. (If you consider doing tests, doing them again, and marking them time consuming). I'm still uncertain if I should conduct the experiment as a blind one. If the people knew, they might put their ipod music really, really softly so they could concentrate on the test. If this happened it would distrupt the results.

The dependent variable in the test is how many marks the people got in their test, the time it took to complete the test
The independent variable in the test is when the people do the test with music or without
The controlled Variable in the test is the number of people, the loudness of the music, and the easiness of the exam paper, time conducted

So is it...

A fair test
- There are controlled variables other than dependent and independent (listed above)
- there will be a repeat conducted the next day with a different set of people (if i can recruit more)

A reliable one
- As I said before, it will be repeated

Conducted with house hold equipment
-well I wont be using any chemicals so yes

Able to be completed in the time frame
-It will only take a couple of weeks to conduct, mark and gather the results, The time frame, 6 months is more than enough

Gives a valid conclusive result
-YAY!! it actually does, unlike my failed lactose blog. It will show whether multitasking will impact a volunteers ability to answer maths questions

Got MiLk? (aka First Blog Submission)

Hey,

So in my earlier blog, I was still unclear of what to do for my SRP, but after carefully thinking about it, I have decided research Lactose intolerance

The experiment will involve investigating the biochemical basis of lactose intolerance by adding lactase to lactose and testing for a reaction product, glucose. From my research, I discovered you can do this by testing the glucose concentration levels in milk and lactose free milk and comparing it to the glucose concentration levels in milk and lactose free milk after lactase is added to the milk. The different types of milk is a factor in the experiment.

The materials (milk-lactose and normal), glucose strips, glucose tablets and lactase drops) can easily be obtained from the supermarket or the chemist and because the experiment doesn't involve chemicals or anything potentially dangerous, it can be conducted within household equipment.

So before I conclude whether it is reliable and conducted fairly, I better present the method I will be using. I stated it briefly in the second paragraph, but I left out some stuff.

Firstly, I'll have to test the glucose strips, with positive and negative controls.
By dipping separate glucose strip into the positive (positive solution of 2% water (made by mixing water with the glucose tablet)) and the negative control, (100mls of plain tap water) Hopefully, if nothing goes wrong, I will get a reaction out of the positive control. Following this, I'll put one teaspoon of milk and lactose-free milk in separate cups, and dip the glucose strips to determine the concentration of the milk and compare it, After recording these results, I will add one drop of lactase into the normal milk and lactose free milk, and dip the glucose strips there too, so I can determine the glucose concentration. Then, with the results, I will compare the glucose concentration between regular milk and lactose-free milk before and after the addition to lactase and hope to explain why there is a change in glucose concentration after the addition of lactase in regular and lactose free milk.

The independent variables are the lactose free milk and the normal milk
The dependent variables are the glucose strips
The controlled variables are the amount of milk in each cup, the number of lactase drops and the size of the cups
I not totally sure of this, but I think the Lactase drops would be the catalyst.

So is it.....

Conducted Fairly?
I believe it will be a fair test because I will be repeating it twice, there is a use of a control in my experiment- the glucose strip test- there are a control of variables other than the dependent and independent (listed above).

Reliable?
I will ensure it's reliability by trialing it more than once

Able to be completed within the time frame?
I am certain that it won't take me the time period given to finish the experiment.

Able to give a valid conclusion
determined the level of glucose in normal milk and the level of glucose after the breakdown of lactose? (UNCERTAIN)

oops, I didn't consider this. Might have to change now......sigh. I'll ask ms Zhang about this tomorrow.

IDEAS!

I've done some research and I've choosen some of the experiments that I like
There's one on multitasking that i thought was interesting and another on extracting
perfume oils from flowers using the enfleurage-extraction technique. The third one was
whether chemical lightening treatments affect the natural elasticity of human hair. The last one was
exploring the basis of lactose intolerance. I sort of like that one, because I'm a bit lactose intolerant
myself, and I often wonder what the cause of it is. Well that's all for tonight.

Energy or Chemistry??

HeY!

A short for today,
I'm looking for a couple of topics, and I want something to do with chemistry or Energy power. Pity we couldn't do Human Behaviour.

Hello World

Science. Why make a blog for Science? That's probably what your thinking. Well, you'll see heaps of these in the next 6 months then. All year 10s in NSW will be doing this. This blog is dedicated to my 'fabulous' 6 month SRP. A Science Research Project I have to blog about 3 times a week. Interesting, right? Research something I'm interested about. Something science-y. I'm not even interesting in anything. Let alone anything to do with Science. Let's just hope I'll find a mind-blowing inspiration in a couple of weeks.