Middle School Maths Project Ideas

[chari1]

I have got a Maths project coming up and I would appreciate it if any one could give me some ideas or if possible some links .

i was thinkingmaybe doing it on probability of genetics but i cant find info anywhere. genetics.

The project has to be 50 pages of booklet and a model if possible,.

PLZ HELp

[Dapthar]

One possible project is modeling bacterial growth.

 

Materials You'll Need:

 

• Basically any type of bacteria
  (You should be able to get a suitable specimen from your Biology instructor. If not, he/she should have access to a catalog from which they can order bacteria specially cultivated for school experiments, or at the very least, refer you to someone/somewhere you can order bacteria from.)
  
• A petri dish (with agar)
  (Your Biology instructor should definitely have these, and be able to lend them to you.)
  
• A light microscope
  (Again, your Biology instructor should definitely have these, and be able to lend them to you.)
  

 

Basic Idea:

Given sufficient food (such as agar), and favorable temperatures (like room temperature), a bacterium will divide into two separate bacteria at fairly regular time intervals (somewhere between 1 - 2 hours).

 

So, if you begin with one bacterium, at the end of first hour there will be two bacteria, at the end of the second hour there will be four bacteria, at the end of the third hour there will be eight bacteria, and so on.

 

The equation that describes this relationship is

 

[math]y=2^x[/math],

 

where [math]x[/math] is the number of hours since you have started the experiment, and [math]y[/math] is the number of bacteria.

 

As we see, [math]2^0 = 1[/math], [math]2^1 = 2[/math], [math]2^2 = 4[/math], and [math]2^3 = 8[/math]. The bacteria grow exponentially, i.e. the number of them that exist at any given hour is proportional the number of them that existed in the previous hour. As we see, the number of bacteria at any given hour is twice the number of bacteria in the previous hour.

 

Your Experiment:

Now, what you can do for your project is verify that bacteria grow exponentially.

 

Put a single bacterium in the petri dish with the agar, and watch it through the light microscope for a few hours. Count the bacteria every hour, and plot your data afterwards. Check to make sure it matches with the above predictions.

 

This material should give you plenty to write about for your report, and the experiment only takes a few hours of your time. Six hours of watching the bacteria should give you more than enough data points, however, you can cut it down to four hours if you're pressed for time.

 

If you have any questions about the above experiment, feel free to ask me.

 

Reference: http://www.science.org.au/nova/020/020box03.htm

[ed84c]

I suggest you read the book "It must be beautiful- Great Equations of Modern Science"

 

get some ideas from there, personally i would do something relativing to the hawk-dove game (game theory).

 

Thats pretty cool.