kyle&amy November 2, 2012 Share November 2, 2012 All - looking for some thoughts/ideas around a good topic for a 6th grade Science Poject for my son that is associated with our salt water hobby? I see the benifits of him doing a project in this area as three fold; first, he will gain a better unferstanding of what makes or doesn't make the two tanks (240 & 120) in our basement work as well as increasing his knowledge in science; second, the more support and interest I can get around this hobby in my household will assist in future spending sprees :), and third, dad will VERY likely also learn alot from this. Appreciste any suggestion you might have or topics you may have done in the past with your kids. Thanks in advance, Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan November 2, 2012 Share November 2, 2012 i think i remember doing a science experiment involving hatching brine shrimp when i was in elementary. varied temperture/salinity and measured growth rates. after the experiment is done you have some fresh treats for your tank! win win! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miggs76 November 2, 2012 Share November 2, 2012 How about have a few of the same corals... use one as your control....feed one a certain brand of coral food...feed the other another kind of food...then track the growth over a period of time. Its been done many times in real labs and should be relatively easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyD November 2, 2012 Share November 2, 2012 Growth rate between LEDs and T5s and settle the argument once and for all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill stine November 2, 2012 Share November 2, 2012 How about something demonstrating or tracking the stages of the nitrogen cycle? What happens in each stage and how we can tell when it's done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw November 2, 2012 Share November 2, 2012 I think that whatever project you decide on, you should require a third tank, maybe a 300g. That way you can always have it available for future science projects! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyle&amy November 3, 2012 Author Share November 3, 2012 Steve - I really like your way of thinking . Will see if I can work that into the project!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypertech November 3, 2012 Share November 3, 2012 I'd do a brine shrimp or a phyto growth project. The other ideas here would just take too long and have too many variables for a 6th grade project. If your a sparky, maybe - how does salinity affect conduction of salt water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve175 November 3, 2012 Share November 3, 2012 Harder to do, but would be a guaranteed winner: document "scientifically" that global warming kills coral [reefs] - and stunts coral growth - which we all know in our tanks. Create a way to vary the temperature only (3-4 small acryllic boxes drilled to allow inlet of flow and big enough for an identical cheap coral frag and a heater). Set each heater 1 degress apart - the first at your average tank temp and each subsequent 1 degree higher. Frag a monti cap or something equally and put a piece in each box with its heater. My guess is that if you had a local temp of 83-84 that frag would die. He documents the size, weight, area of live tissue, and local water temp of each frag each day. If you balance the holes to allow some water in [controlling all other variables) but not too many holes, you can get a local elevation in temp in the box without affecting your overall tank temp. "Scientific" committees love these projects that have a social message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan November 3, 2012 Share November 3, 2012 Harder to do, but would be a guaranteed winner: document "scientifically" that global warming kills coral [reefs] - and stunts coral growth - which we all know in our tanks. Create a way to vary the temperature only (3-4 small acryllic boxes drilled to allow inlet of flow and big enough for an identical cheap coral frag and a heater). Set each heater 1 degress apart - the first at your average tank temp and each subsequent 1 degree higher. Frag a monti cap or something equally and put a piece in each box with its heater. My guess is that if you had a local temp of 83-84 that frag would die. He documents the size, weight, area of live tissue, and local water temp of each frag each day. If you balance the holes to allow some water in [controlling all other variables) but not too many holes, you can get a local elevation in temp in the box without affecting your overall tank temp. "Scientific" committees love these projects that have a social message. well being that global warming is based on very long time and small changes, i.e. one to two degrees over 100 years or something like that. our tanks go up and down 2 degrees at least every day, maybe more. what you are talking about would have to be a long term experiment, and definetly not something appropriate for a 6th grader. what you are talking about screams "my parents did my experiment" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 November 4, 2012 Share November 4, 2012 Never got around to this one, but you could end the debate on how much aragonite helps to buffer the tank by running a tank with a divided bottom, one side aragonite, the other side silica sand, and put pH probes into them to see what happens. I always thought of drilling a tank from the bottom and pushing the probes up through the bottom so that you truly sampled the pH at a point where the water was not mixing as it would above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidm November 4, 2012 Share November 4, 2012 I helped my daughter measure how many times xenia pulsed at different temperatures for one of her science projects. effect was fairly dramatic and rapid. you could use that to talk about temperature sensitivity, global warming, ecosystems.....easy to do if you have some spare xenia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minh B. November 4, 2012 Share November 4, 2012 I used to judge these science projects for high schools and I'm a fan of Steve's idea about global warming and its affect on coral growth, viability, etc. This has mainstream ecological significance and judges are always looking for something that is both visually appealing (as there's also local area science project competitions beyond the school -although I'm not sure for elementary/middle schools) and addresses global issues. Dan does have a point with long term temperature differences affecting reefs over-time and that it may scream "my parents did my experiment". During my graduate school days, I had friends in our PhD program that were looking at long-term biodiversity in reefs and rainforests with respect to global warming or habitat change, and this was a 6-8 year endeavor. But honestly, the majority of the great science projects from 6th graders required adult help and supervision. It wasn't until the high school science projects that I had students contacting us to join our lab for a short period of time to conduct research on our cancer cells, in which case, their parents were not around. To limit the "my parents did my experiment" syndrome, I suggests helping him choose a topic (i.e. coral bleaching commonly observed in acros, coral growth...) and reading books and such on the topic. If he's interested in the topic in terms of temperature or light intensity, have him come up with a hypothesis on his own and write it down (e.g. Null Hypothesis: temperature has no effect on coral growth/bleaching). And even if his hypothesis is wrong (e.g. Hypothesis: corals will bleach at lower temperatures compared to high temperatures), it doesn't matter. As hard as it may be, don't change his hypothesis! His job now is to test whether his hypothesis is rejected/accepted, and he can say so on his report. And the experiment can be as complicated (looking & measuring biodiversity by providing several types of coral for each condition and having him count the number of corals that died or measure the total weight overtime) or as simplistic as he wants and as much money you're willing to give him. Not sure how much time he has, but he can setup a simultaneous short- and long-term study where one tank has temperature graduations that were 3 degrees apart and the other tank 6 degrees apart. He may observe small changes but over a longer period of time in the long-term tank and may see coral bleaching overnight in the short-term tank. Either way, he can have a lot of fun with this and who knows...he may want to become a scientist one day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan November 4, 2012 Share November 4, 2012 regarding the bleaching/global warming impacts on corals, etc. I dont think its cool for us to go thru amateur experiments that damage/stress the corals. A small scale experiement like this does not provide real data, especially since you already know the answers the problem. If you want to teach your kids about coral, i think there are more positive methods to teach them how to care for them that dont involve intentionally changing parameters that YOU know are not beneficial. For a 6th grade science experiement i would stick to the basics, like the brine shrimp experiment i mentioned. PS - i am in no way a tree hugger, so thats not my motive with this post. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minh B. November 5, 2012 Share November 5, 2012 Kyle & Amy, this thread is a list with great ideas & suggestions. But suggestions that your son can read and decide for himself if he wants to experiment on brine shrimp, coral frags, algae, what have him. He may have already chosen to work on paper airplanes so this thread becomes a mute point. As parents, you guys are his supporters & sponsors. If Copernicus conducted experiments on topics his parents or others deemed worthy, he would have died trying to prove the sun revolved around the Earth. PS, just suggestions from an actual tree hugger (I really do hug trees) & scientist. :o) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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