Are these nutrition science fair ideas good for an 11th grade honors student?
Monday, February 8th, 2010 at
2:16 pm
-Do people prefer the taste of artificial flavorings to natural flavorings or vice-versa?
-How much artificial food coloring is present in common sodas, snack foods, cereals, candies, etc.
And this one is sort-of nutrition, but more biology:
-Which type of lettuce contains more bacteria: Hand washed or pre-bagged?
Filed under: Fast Weight Loss
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I might not be a science teacher, but I did a lot of research science in college and continue to do investigations.
I think that the first part of the artificial flavorings would be a great experiment to set up. Food chemistry was one of my favorite food science classes. They did a lot of blind taste testing.
A suggestion would be to have the patrons tasting to taste in a room that is dark with only one bulb that is red or blue. That way, they can’t see what the real substance looks like.
If you were to do that one, you could also use all the info from the second question as a "useful information" piece for people to understand the relevance of your experiment.
I love the lettuce question as well. That’s so microbiology.
I hope you plan on pursuing research in college, you have some fantastic things going for you there!
PS: NC State has an awesome food science program and a well respected microbiology department…
I think they’re excellent. In fact, I’d like to know the answer to #2, and what effect artificial food coloring has on the body. It’s something we don’t hear much about.
As a former science teacher and science fair judge, I wouldn’t think so. It also depends on the rules–if you are required to do an experiment, these topics are surveys or investigations, but not experiments.
If surveys and investigations are permitted, they still strike me as too simple for an honors student.
For some high-powered ideas, check out the sciserv site below and look for what the past entrants/winners did. You might also get ideas from the other sites.