Unit 4 project
option 1: typical science fair type project
As with the last unit project, you can carry out a project of your own design and then summarize your project briefly.
You can conduct your experiment on any topic that we discussed in the unit. Remember to ask a specific, testable question.
We encourage you to be creative and pick a project that interests you. As a reminder, we encourage you to choose a project that can be completed in a few days, but, if you would like to pursue a project that takes longer, you can. You will just have to pay a little more attention to your time-management with the rest of your coursework (such as continuing to complete other lessons while your project is ongoing in the background).
Be sure to adhere to all scientific ethical standards in conducting your experiments. This means no experiments that could harm any human and no experiments on humans without their consent and, for the purposes of this course, the permission of your relevant responsible adult. For this course, that also means no experiments on animals, except for purely observational ones.
If you’re looking for ideas, some topics that most easily lend themselves to experimentation include:
It can also be helpful to see what other people have done. We really want you to use your creativity and try to come up with something that interests you and makes use of the resources that you have on hand, but there are some good websites that list common science fair projects for your learning level. Keep in mind that some ideas will be more relevant to what you’ve learned than others. Here are some websites that suggest various ideas:
https://www.education.com/slideshow/human-body-science-fair-projects/
https://www.thoughtco.com/human-body-project-ideas-373333
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/science-projects/human-biology-health/middle-school
The purpose of this project is to encourage scientific thinking and use of the scientific method. It encourages you to incorporate knowledge that you have learned in your studies to your own interests, allowing them to explore your own personal scientific curiosity. We anticipate that you will improve as a scientific thinker with each project.
For more on the scientific method, check out our resources tab.
If you do something you’re proud of, or you’re having fun, we want to see it! If you have an Instagram and the permission of your relevant responsible adult, share with us @eons_learning, #ScienceFairEons.
You can conduct your experiment on any topic that we discussed in the unit. Remember to ask a specific, testable question.
We encourage you to be creative and pick a project that interests you. As a reminder, we encourage you to choose a project that can be completed in a few days, but, if you would like to pursue a project that takes longer, you can. You will just have to pay a little more attention to your time-management with the rest of your coursework (such as continuing to complete other lessons while your project is ongoing in the background).
Be sure to adhere to all scientific ethical standards in conducting your experiments. This means no experiments that could harm any human and no experiments on humans without their consent and, for the purposes of this course, the permission of your relevant responsible adult. For this course, that also means no experiments on animals, except for purely observational ones.
If you’re looking for ideas, some topics that most easily lend themselves to experimentation include:
- Musculoskeletal/nervous systems: Which traits lead to the most athletic ability? How does training affect athletic ability?
- Cardiovascular/respiratory system: How are your heart rate and breathing rate affected by different intensities of exercise?
- Digestive system: Which foods are digested the most quickly? The most slowly?
- Immune system: What conditions promote bacterial growth? What parts of your house have the most bacteria? How do various disinfectants affect bacterial growth?
It can also be helpful to see what other people have done. We really want you to use your creativity and try to come up with something that interests you and makes use of the resources that you have on hand, but there are some good websites that list common science fair projects for your learning level. Keep in mind that some ideas will be more relevant to what you’ve learned than others. Here are some websites that suggest various ideas:
https://www.education.com/slideshow/human-body-science-fair-projects/
https://www.thoughtco.com/human-body-project-ideas-373333
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/science-projects/human-biology-health/middle-school
The purpose of this project is to encourage scientific thinking and use of the scientific method. It encourages you to incorporate knowledge that you have learned in your studies to your own interests, allowing them to explore your own personal scientific curiosity. We anticipate that you will improve as a scientific thinker with each project.
For more on the scientific method, check out our resources tab.
If you do something you’re proud of, or you’re having fun, we want to see it! If you have an Instagram and the permission of your relevant responsible adult, share with us @eons_learning, #ScienceFairEons.
option 2: engineering project
As another choice, you can create an advanced, functional model of some part of the human body, for example using robotics techniques (if you’re familiar with these) or otherwise putting a lot of thought into how best to replicate a human system outside of the body.
If you create something you’re proud of, or you’re having fun, we want to see it! If you have an Instagram and the permission of your relevant responsible adult, share with us @eons_learning, #EngineeringFairEons.
If you create something you’re proud of, or you’re having fun, we want to see it! If you have an Instagram and the permission of your relevant responsible adult, share with us @eons_learning, #EngineeringFairEons.
option 3: dissection
Some people have access to dissection specimens, through science programs, community resources, or school and are interested in doing an animal dissection or organ dissection. Some common dissection specimens for your education level are:
You may also be able to get access to dissection specimens that include multiple organ systems, which you may also do.
This can be a fun, valuable hands-on activity that teaches you a lot about the different structures of the body and can spark interest into how they work and how the different parts work together. We strongly advise only doing dissections in a guided format on specimens approved for dissection for educational purposes.
If you’re having fun learning something cool, we want to see it! If you have an Instagram and the permission of your relevant responsible adult, share with us @eons_learning, #DissectionEons.
- Sheep eye
- Frog
- Fish
- Cow heart
You may also be able to get access to dissection specimens that include multiple organ systems, which you may also do.
This can be a fun, valuable hands-on activity that teaches you a lot about the different structures of the body and can spark interest into how they work and how the different parts work together. We strongly advise only doing dissections in a guided format on specimens approved for dissection for educational purposes.
If you’re having fun learning something cool, we want to see it! If you have an Instagram and the permission of your relevant responsible adult, share with us @eons_learning, #DissectionEons.
option 4: research report or presentation
We know that it can be hard to come up with a science fair project that is interesting, related to how humans work, and ethical, using supplies that are easy to come by. We also know that dissections aren’t for everyone or that not everyone will have access to this type of activity. Lastly, we know that learning about something that really interests you can be just as fun as actually doing a hands-on project. So, if you don’t like either option 1 or option 2, you can also elect to write a report or prepare a presentation on any topic related to the human body that is interesting to you.
The aim of this project is to get you to ask a question about something you’re curious about and then learn how to answer that question by doing background research.
For this project, you will be picking a topic related to the human body that is interesting to you. Then, you will write a report or prepare a presentation on your topic. You can stick to basic presentation types like PowerPoint if you want, or you can make a crafty poster, make a video, make a song, or present your information in some other creative way, as long as you include all of the information that we ask for in a way that we can understand. (Creativeness in presentation style is completely up to you--we just want you to enjoy doing this project). Some examples of topics are:
The aim of this project is to get you to ask a question about something you’re curious about and then learn how to answer that question by doing background research.
For this project, you will be picking a topic related to the human body that is interesting to you. Then, you will write a report or prepare a presentation on your topic. You can stick to basic presentation types like PowerPoint if you want, or you can make a crafty poster, make a video, make a song, or present your information in some other creative way, as long as you include all of the information that we ask for in a way that we can understand. (Creativeness in presentation style is completely up to you--we just want you to enjoy doing this project). Some examples of topics are:
- What is Alzheimer’s disease?
- What is cancer?
- What are the evidence-based healthy eating and exercise recommendations?
- How do muscles get stronger/faster?
- What happens to a certain medication when it goes in your body?
- How do muscles contract?
- What are stem cells?
- What do the different parts of the brain do?
- Can humans live to be 150?
You will have to:
1. Choose a topic. This can be anything related to the human body that is interesting to you. It is very helpful to put this in the form of a question, to narrow down your topic to something specific.
2. Come up with at least 3 subtopics. At least one of these subtopics must describe a physiological process OR explain how structures help to carry out a function. A physiological process is something that happens in the body (biology) written out step-by-step. (e.g., “In digestion, you first chew with your mouth, where carbohydrates are broken down in saliva. Then, food goes through your esophagus… And so on). Examples of subtopics are:
3. Use the internet to research your three specific subtopic.
4. Your final report should:
Again, feel free to have fun with how you choose to present the information. This isn’t meant to be super stressful or exhaustive, but we want you to get some practice in using the internet properly and effectively to help answer questions that you have. We want this to be interesting and fun for you.
If you create something you’re proud of, or you’re having fun learning something cool, we want to see it! If you have an Instagram and the permission of your relevant responsible adult, share with us @eons_learning, #ResearchProjectEons.
1. Choose a topic. This can be anything related to the human body that is interesting to you. It is very helpful to put this in the form of a question, to narrow down your topic to something specific.
2. Come up with at least 3 subtopics. At least one of these subtopics must describe a physiological process OR explain how structures help to carry out a function. A physiological process is something that happens in the body (biology) written out step-by-step. (e.g., “In digestion, you first chew with your mouth, where carbohydrates are broken down in saliva. Then, food goes through your esophagus… And so on). Examples of subtopics are:
- For “Can humans live to be 150?” your physiological process topic might be to describe what happens to the human body during the aging process (because of biological processes in the body) and the other two might be how lifestyle affects aging and what advances are being made in the medicine of aging.
- For “What is cancer?” your subtopics might be “What happens/what goes wrong in the human body to cause cancer?” (this is the physiological process), “What are the symptoms of cancer?” and “How is cancer treated?”
- For “What do the different parts of the brain do?” you might choose to describe how certain structures in the brain give rise to certain functions, or how the structure of neurons or neuronal synapses contribute to the function of the brain.
- You may have more than 3 subtopics if you choose.
- Again, it may help you to narrow down your search if you phrase your subtopics in the form of a question.
3. Use the internet to research your three specific subtopic.
- See “Navigating Online Information” under “Resources” for guidance.
4. Your final report should:
- Specifically state what your topic is.
- Specifically state what each of your (at least) 3 subtopics are. Again, at least one of these must detail a step-by-step physiological process.
- Fully explain the answer to this subtopic, in your own words and within a scope of understanding appropriate to your level of learning. We know that this isn’t a PhD thesis. We want to know that you have really looked into the topic and made a legitimate effort to understand it. This will usually take about 1-2 paragraphs, 3-5 powerpoint slides, or 2-3 minutes in a video, but more emphasis is placed on the information you convey than on the amount of time it takes you to convey the information.
- Be scientifically correct. Sometimes, there isn’t a clear scientific consensus on a topic (for example, there isn’t really an answer to “Can humans live to be 150?”). In this case, we want to make sure that all of the information you include is scientifically correct and that your thinking is reasonable.
- Cite your sources. MLA or APA format is preferred, but you should at least provide a webpage link for every piece of information that actually ends up in your final report (you don’t have to cite anything you learned from this class).
Again, feel free to have fun with how you choose to present the information. This isn’t meant to be super stressful or exhaustive, but we want you to get some practice in using the internet properly and effectively to help answer questions that you have. We want this to be interesting and fun for you.
If you create something you’re proud of, or you’re having fun learning something cool, we want to see it! If you have an Instagram and the permission of your relevant responsible adult, share with us @eons_learning, #ResearchProjectEons.