Tuesday, June 15, 2010

OHMYGOD

I don't think I can bring myself to write what happened again, so instead i will copy and paste my facebook status and the feedback it received. I know it isn't that relevant, but it's so devastating and I just don't think I can write what happened any more times than I already have....

Lauren Steck you know what I love? writing an 8 page SRP report. you know what I love even more? working on it for 3 hours, nearly finishing, and then having microsoft word crash and lose all the work i've done today.

2 hours ago · ·
Raiyan Shahab
Raiyan Shahab
OMG REALLY :(
dammm computers!
2 hours ago ·
Lauren Steck
Lauren Steck
really. words cannot describe how angry I am right now.
2 hours ago ·
Adeline Rajamanickam
Adeline Rajamanickam
oh my gosh...you have just reminded me to save...are you alright?
2 hours ago ·
Lara Letunica
Lara Letunica
oh my god. did you lose everything??
2 hours ago ·
Bec Radcliffe
Bec Radcliffe
oh my god
you pooooor thing!
2 hours ago ·
Lauren Steck
Lauren Steck
SAVE EVERY 10 MINUTES PEOPLE, don't learn the hard way
i lost like 60% of it?
i'm definitely not ok, somebody is going to be murdered tonight :/
2 hours ago ·
Mike Fernandez
Mike Fernandez
bahahahahaha sucks to be youuuuuu!!!
2 hours ago ·
Yvonne Diep
Yvonne Diep
you sound quite calm. i would be SO pissed if i were you!
2 hours ago ·
Lauren Steck
Lauren Steck
mmm i do sound pretty calm, i think i'm in that stage of anger where it's so extreme that i've gone unusually quiet, and any minute now i'm gonna completely snap. i wouldn't want to be within 10km......
2 hours ago ·
Steph Andrews
Steph Andrews
omg u poor thing!! :(
2 hours ago ·
Mitchell Rushforth
Mitchell Rushforth
hah lol im in another state wats an SRP report
2 hours ago ·
Lauren Steck
Lauren Steck
mmm you're lucky mitch. it's a scientific report based on an experiment we had to do ourselves. except it's more complicated than that and takes ages to write.
about an hour ago ·
Cherry Alom
Cherry Alom
gnawww you poor thing
what are you gonna do?
is there any way of retrievin anything?
about an hour ago ·
Rachel Cheddz Ng
Rachel Cheddz Ng
oh no! that's horrible. :(
53 minutes ago ·
KILL ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Experiment finished!

WOW guys, it's been a great 6 months of work. I can't believe it's all over, this has been by far one of the happiest times of my life, and I'd like to thank you all for your support.

LOL JK, I'm not even finished my report yet.

And I think I'm going to struggle to make 2 pages out of my discussion....and reference properly...... and get more than 60%.....

oh dear :|

DAY 10



Monday, 14/06/2010
yes, obviously I timed this badly because I have a 10 day experiment and didn't take photographs on the "even" days. But oh well, have a picture of the final day anyway

DAY NINE


Sunday, 13/06/2010
Plants receiving microwaved water have begun to obviously droop more than those receiving standard water. Colour is also getting significantly less healthy looking in the microwaved ones.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

More method adjustments

i just realized I'm doing a slightly different method to the one posted. Here it the method that will be included in my scientific report:

1. Place 6 snow pea plants in direct sunlight (indoors) in a row (preferably on a window sill)

2. Label the first three plants "M" (for microwaved water) and leave the next three plants unmarked

3. Microwave 150mL of filtered water for one minute

4. Allow the microwaved water to cool to room temperature

5. Measure 150mL of filtered water

6. Water the first "M" plant with 50mL of the microwaved water

7. Water the first unmarked plant with 50mL of the standard water

8. Repeat steps 6-7 for the remaining 4 plants

9. Photograph the plants

10. Record observations about all 6 plants

11. Repeat steps 3-10 once every two days for 10 days

DAY SEVEN



Friday, 11/06/2010
No noticeable change since last post

DAY FIVE



Wednesday, 09/06/2010
Only noticeably change is a very slight colour difference between the microwaved and non-microwaved plants. The leaves of the plants fed with microwaved water are a less healthy colour than those of the plants fed with non-microwaved water.

DAY THREE



monday, 07/06/2010
No noticeable difference since start of experiment

DAY ONE



saturday, 05/06/2010
Plants are all very similar in appearance, though the middle one labelled "M" is slightly less bushy than the others.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

changes to method

ok, so now that i've actually been to the shop regarding this experiment, i realized it's rather difficult to find 9 basil plants, so instead i have 6 snow pea plants and have taken away the "boiled water" part of the experiment.
new method is as follows:

1. Place 6 snowpea plants in direct sunlight (indoors) in a row
2. Label the first three plants "M" (for microwaved water) and leave the next three plants unmarked
3. Microwave 50mL of filtered water for one minute
4. Allow the microwaved water to cool to room temperature
5. Measure 50mL of filtered water
6. Water the first "M" plant with the 50mL of microwaved water
7. Water the first unmarked plant with the 50mL of unboiled water
8. Repeat steps 3-7 for the remaining 4 plants
9. Photograph the plants
10. Record observations about all 6 plants
11. Repeat steps 3-10 once every two days for 10 days
12. Blog about results and write scientific report

Oh yeah, it's also now 10 days duration instead of 3 weeks. coincidence that the final blog/scientific report is due in less than 2 weeks?

:)

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Method

I sure hope I'm allowed to just kinda make this method up based on the other experiments I've looked at....

1. Place 9 Basil plants in direct sunlight (indoors) in a row
2. Label the first plant on the left as "M" (for microwaved), the second "B" (for boiled) and the third "U" (for unboiled). Also label the fourth and seventh plant M, the 5th and 8th plant B and 6th and 9th plant U.
3. Microwave 50mL of filtered water
4. Stove boil 50mL of filtered water
5. Allow the microwaved and boiled water to cool to room temperature
6. Measure 50mL of filtered water
7. Water the first "M" plant with the 50mL of microwaved water
8. Water the first "B" plant with the 50mL of boiled water
9. Water the first "U" plant with the 50mL of unboiled water
10. Repeat steps 3-9 for the remaining 6 plants
11. Photograph the plants
12. Record observations about all 9 plants
13. Repeat steps 3-12 once every two days for 3 weeks
14. Blog about results and write scientific report

:)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

another link

this was the original experiment (i'm fairly sure?) that gave me the idea for this in the first place:

talk about helpful?

this basically summarizes what I want to do:

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Decisions, Decisions

Okay, just to let you know straight up, I haven't actually decided yet. Sorry for the misleading title. This will be a long post, too- though you can probably already see that.
ANYWAY, let's get to it ;)
  • Microwaved water vs. not microwaved water- already mentioned most of the variables for this one, but might add indoors/outdoors and exposure of water. I'd set this experiment up by having two cups, one with microwaved water and one with tap water (at the same temperature) side by side, on a windowsill, and two cups also in a darker place. I'd leave them for two weeks, recording their progress, and then start again. Then leave those for two weeks, and start again. These being my three attempts to make the results fair, of course. I think this experiment is fairly reliable, can be conducted fairly and easily in my home, and the results should be fairly conclusive. I don't see what could go wrong really :) it's just not particularly exciting is all...

  • Reactions to make-up: I'm still thinking there are too many variables for this one. For a start, the amount of images I show, the age, culture, gender and personal preferences of my subjects, and how I would get conclusive results. I just don't think it's possible to pull this one off :'(

  • The egg bouncing thing: yeah, I think I might ditch this one actually....

  • The super-human strength thing: though this is possibly the most interesting thing I've come up with, again, there are too many variables, the experiment wouldn't be fair, and HOW exactly would I do the experiment? I would love to do this one. I really would. But I can hardly steal babies from their mothers and do something horrible to them just to see if their mummy's are able to save them in situations that normal human beings couldn't.

  • Advertising power: this is probably not scientifically relevant enough. It's probably just an excuse for me to look at ads with hot guys in them.
So yeah. I'm still hoping to come up with a new idea all together, but that doesn't seem all that likely :(

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Less complaining, more science

OK so here are some topics I have actually considered:
  • Microwaved water vs.....not microwaved water. Apparently there was a study done a few years ago where two seedlings were placed in cups side by side, one in water from the tap and one in water that had been microwaved and then cooled to the same temperature as the other one. The results were that the one in normal water grew, and the one in microwaved water shrivelled up and died or something like that. which makes you think, we use microwaves all the time- could it actually be harmful? I was thinking of doing a test similar to this, the variables being the amount of water, type/amount of seeds, light/darkness, length of time, maybe even the type of cup used?
  • Reactions to make-up- on other people, that is. Not sure how scientific this is, but it's always interested me, because personally I prefer people's.....natural beauty, but in the modelling/fashion industry, it's the total opposite. I'd need to get 30 subjects at least, probably half male and half female, in the 14-17 year old age group, and perhaps show them photographs of the same people with/without make up. But there are probably way too many variables, and like I said, it may not be all that scientific because I don't know how to test people's reactions to it. Still, I'd like to consider this one
  • Did you ever do that thing as a kid where you bounce an egg? I don't remember how it works, but that would be pretty cool!
  • So people talk about super-human strength/abilities during dangerous situations. Not quite like an adrenaline rush but say a mother saving her drowning baby. I have no idea how I would conduct experiments on this, but it would be amazingly interesting.
  • Advertising power- again, scientific relevance? But, say a person is shown an ad for a product with a really hot guy in it, and then another ad for a superior product, with an average looking guy. Which product are they more likely to choose?
I'm still thinking. These are just a few ideas I'm throwing around....

So. Just when I think things can't possibly get worse for this project...

My appendix plays up. Yes, my appendix. OUCH. It makes thinking rather hard. But I'm going to try anyway :)

the inspiration lightning bolt....did not strike.

OKAY. So since this whole thing started, i HAVE tried to come up with ideas. Every spare second I've been thinking about potential projects. And what have I learned so far? THAT PARENTS SUCK. My mum, when I told her about this, strongly advised me not to research any topics- to just have a think and be inspired by what's around me and let something interesting come to me. So, like the idiot I am, I listened. And now Blog One is due in two days and I have nothing, because guess what?- NOTHING CAME TO ME! I blame her, of course, because I don't want to admit that my mind isn't creative enough to come up with something original, which is obviously what I want. ANYWAY, I know you weren't after my life story. Sorry about that. Will post again when a little calmer and maybe have an idea or two.
xoxo. GOSSIP GIRL ;)

Tuesday, February 16, 2010