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Help; school biology research

Started by Guest_aaron7353_* , Sep 23 2013 11:36 PM

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#21 Guest_gunner48_*

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Posted 25 September 2013 - 05:00 PM

Some local students have done research on the topic of Estrogen in local waters. If you want to do experiments you could try breeding fish in various concentrations of Estrogen. If you live in a region with intensive livestock you could also experment with antibiotics in the water. I don't know if I would use natives for this project. Many of your local fish will need some cooling and light manipulation to get them the spawn, all of which take time that you will not have has you get into your senior year. You could get unlucky and they may not spawn in time to learn anything useful or repeat it. Common research fish such has Convict Cichlids or Zebrafish would be ideal has they spawn quite easy, often, and are easy to raise. With Zebrafish you might be able to get mulit generational experiments has they only need three to four months to sexually mature. Your only limit would be the number of tanks or tubs to use. Perhaps a comparision using water from various sources in your county were the concentration of whatever chemical you want to test could be determined.This could all be done on a doable budget. If your area has a local fish club they might have members who could provide tanks or equipment for this project. Ten gallon tanks should work fine with maybe some tubs for growout. Or just compare how many eggs they lay in various waters and do they hatch. Collect a lot of water samples so you get enough to determine what concentrations of Estregon or other chemical are present , and where they are coming from in your county, before filling the tanks and test them again when the tanks are set up. I have judged Science fairs and make sure you keep a very detailed journal of everything you do, everything. From food, times, lighting length, temps, it really can not be too detailed. Plus do some real topic research, most students want to skip or skimp on that part. And repeat has many times has you can, with has many controls. Judges fully understand the limits of what can be done at home or at the hobby level, but repeating the experments several times always gets a much higher credit, because it is harder and it is closer to real science. Fish with short generational times would give you that time. I would avoid guppies because they are livebearers and the females can store sperm for long periods. Zebrafish or Convicts will give you nice known males and females and offspring produced by those known males and females and you can determine hatch rates for each spawn.

Article on this topic, pdf
Occurrence of Estrogen in Wastewater Treatment Plant
and Waste Disposal Site Water Samples

http://nywea.org/cle...nWastewater.pdf