Research Projects - What Should I Do? Well, What Are You Interested In?

The AP Biology research project is really an opportunity for you to do something that interests you.  Biology is about life.  If you can't find something about life that interests you, I'm going to suggest counseling and that you do your research project on depression in zebra fish (see Solitary fish hit rock bottom).  Do NOT begin by thinking about what is possible. You will be spending a significant amount of time on this project.  Make sure it is something you care about.

Last year's research projects spanned a wide range of topics. 

Human Physiology

·      Factors Influencing Healing Rates of Arthroscopic Repairs of the Rotator Cuff

·      The Effects of Exercise on Short-Term Cognitive Ability

·      Correlating Incline and Heart Rate in Teenage Male Runners

Biotechnology

·      DNA Barcode of the Asian Long-Horned Beetle Anoplophora glabripennis

·      Plasmid Construction for a Zebrafish Model of Huntington’s disease

Mutation and Cancer

·      Expression of Perforin and Granzyme B in the Liver and Spleen of BEP Neurons and Cortical Cells Implanted Rats Induced with Liver Cancer

·      Comparing Skin Pigmentation and Melanin Production to the Mutagenic Effects of Ultraviolet Rays Using Sordaria Fimicola

Environment

·      Biophotovoltaics: Generating Electricity from Moss

·      Using Algae To Create Biodiesel

·      Determining the Effect of Light Intensity and Type of Light on Respiration of Algae

·      Correlation Between Fish Feed and Quality of Their Feces as Fertilizer for Fast-Plants

·      Nepetalactone: The Creation of a Natural Insect Repellent

How to come up with a research topic:

1.     Brainstorm ideas.  Think about what topics are important to you.  What do you really care about?  Think big and don’t allow yourself to worry about what is “doable”

2.     Look at a textbook and read anything that looks interesting, come up with questions about a phenomenon you see.

3.     Go outside (to the woods, or a field, or a farm, or a golf course, or a park, or the beach, or a lake, or a stream) and look at stuff.

4.     Go to a hospital, doctor’s office or veterinarian’s office and look at stuff.

5.     Go to a restaurant and look at stuff.

6.     Go to the bathroom and look at stuff.

7.     Think, imagine, ask.

8.     Talk to a biology teacher.

 Refining your idea:

   Once you have a general idea of what you are interested in, you should do a search of the literature.  A quick google search of "depression zebra fish" pulls up some interesting articles, but they are mostly reports about work someone else did.  This is a good starting point, but you really will want to get into primary sources written by the researchers themselves.  Using more scientific terms often produces more scientific articles.  For example, using the genus and species name "Danio rerio" instead of the common name "zebra fish" produces more scholarly articles.  Some of these articles might ask you to pay for them.  If so, try asking me to get a copy for you.  We may have subscriptions to the journals you need.
   Reading the primary literature can be intimidating at first.  If you follow these tips, it will make the reading easier.

1. Read the abstract first.  The abstract summarizes the article.  Be sure to look up any words you don't know.
2. Depending on what is in the abstract, you may not care about other parts of the paper.
3. Examine any pictures, graphs and diagrams and read the captions that go along with them.  
4. The introduction will give background and establish the importance and goals of the work.  If this information is important to you, then read it.  It will contain references that you can also look up.
5. The materials and methods section will tell you how everything was done.  If you need to know how to detect depression in zebra fish, the method the authors used will be here.  You may want this information so that you can use the same protocol.  If you aren't interested in how they did the work, this may be something you can skip.
6. The results section describes what happened.  You can usually get most of the information by looking at the graphs, tables etc.
7. The discussion section will explain what the results mean and usually describe the next logical step.
8. The literature cited section is useful in determining what else has been done.  Skim through the titles to see if anything catches your eye.

While you are doing background research, you should be consulting with a biology teacher about your ideas.  We will be able to help you get the information you need.