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From studying to experimenting...
making the leap |
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The following information is taken from Expérimentez
l'Expo-sciences created by the Conseil du loisir scientifique
in partnership with Merck Frosst Canada Ltd. and the ministère
de la Culture et des Communications du Québec.
Not all study projects can be transformed
into experiments. More often than we realize, study projects can become
excellent experiments with simple modifications. The following are
just a few examples of what we mean.
 Louis-Philippe
Gagnon and Mathieu Brousseau, then Secondary II students, presented
a study project entitled "Dome: friend of nature." "It's
a futuristic house that uses alternative, renewable and non-polluting
sources of energy. We plan to use wind, geothermal and solar energy,
as well as chemical energy from ethanol. With all the changes made
to a conventional home, our dome represents an ecological model for
a home of the future."
They could also have done one of the following:
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Calculate the quantity of ethanol that the organic waste of a family of four could produce over a period of 30 days. |
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Using the ethanol produced through the fermentation of organic waste, heat water and calculate the heat released through the combustion of a litre of ethanol. |
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Use an alternator to create a wind turbine. |
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Using a 100-W bulb, measure the greenhouse effect inside a dome house. |
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Geneviève Oligny-Longpré and Benoît Chaloux did a research project that demonstrated the primary characteristics of vision. Their project was entitled "Do you see what I see?" and dealt with optical and perceptual illusions. They specified the principal categories of illusions and their characteristics. The main focus of their research was an explanation of the nervous system. |
Using these same ideas, they could have done one of the following:
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Using two homogeneous groups of people, examine the difference between binocular and monocular vision. |
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Using two different groups of people, for example, people of North American and African descent-examine the difference between binocular and monocular vision. |
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Using two homogeneous groups of people from different cultures, verify whether culture influences the perception of certain objects. |
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Verify experimentally that the monocular index of linear and textural perspective depends on the fact that surface texture appears increasingly dense as distance increases. |
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Verify Emmert's Law using two groups of homogeneous observers. |
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Valentine Laperle-Demeule and Caroline Leblanc carried out an instructional activity entitled "Blueberry-flavoured medicine" and conducted a few experiments to examine some of the characteristic properties of anthocyanin, the molecule responsible for the pigment in blueberries. They established links between this substance and improvements in night vision and near-sightedness and observed that this substance also helps lower cholesterol levels. |
Their project could have become an experiment if they had done
any of the following:
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Establish a simple protocol for analyzing anthocyanin in blueberries. |
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Examine the effect of anthocyanin on night vision, the ability to adapt more quickly to darkness and the more rapid restoration of visual acuity following exposure to a flash. |
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Verify experimentally the antioxidant property of anthocyanin. |
Some of these ideas should be investigated with the assistance of
researchers, who could help establish a protocol and supervise project
safety. This section provides a few hints on how to find your project
sponsors.
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© 2002, Conseil de développement du loisir scientifique
(CDLS). This document is distributed by the Conseil de développement
du loisir scientifique.
For more information, visit our Web site at www.cdls.qc.ca. |
The opinions
expressed in this section are those of the authors and do not
necessarily
reflect the opinions of Merck Frosst or its employees. |
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Louis-Philippe
Gagnon and Mathieu Brousseau, then Secondary II students, presented
a study project entitled "Dome: friend of nature." "It's
a futuristic house that uses alternative, renewable and non-polluting
sources of energy. We plan to use wind, geothermal and solar energy,
as well as chemical energy from ethanol. With all the changes made
to a conventional home, our dome represents an ecological model for
a home of the future."
