Control Group for my Science Project? Science teacher/expert please help!?

Question

We are doing a science project and our teacher requires us to have a control group. My problem is I don't know what a control group is.
My project is: Does chewing gum increase your mouth's bacteria?
I'm comparing the bacteria growth of chewing gum after meals and not chewing gum after meals. I think my control group would be gum..right?

Also, please help me on how to explain my control group in a detailed format.

Great thanks. All help is appreciated. =)

Answer 1

The control group in this case is the group not chewing gum.

In order to demonstrate whether or not chewing gum increases or decreases bacteria growth, you need something to compare it to. The thing you compare it to is the control group- those not chewing gum.

Answer 2

A control group is the group that has no experimentation done on it. Your experiment is to see whether chewing gum increases bacteria in the mouth. So your test would be to chew gum and see what level of bacteria was present after chewing the gum. The group you have chew gum (you don't want only an individual to do it) is your test or experiment group. What happens if you do not chew the gum? This is your control, since nothing out of the ordinary is being done.

A control group is supposed to encounter the same conditions the test group encounters, except the condition that is being tested. This allows you to isolate the condition being tested as a reason for the resultind difference, if any, between the control and the test groups.

For example, in your experiment, if the gum chewers chew after eating food, the control group must be tested after eating food. Did the chewers drink before testing? So must the control. Did the chewers wait an hour before testing? So must the control. Ideally, the two groups would eat the same quantity of the same food in the same time limit, wait the same time before testing, etc. The only difference would be that the test group chews gum, and the time that they chew should be kept the same and recorded. Maybe chewing for 20 minutes does not do anything with bacteria, but chewing for an hour does...there's lots of ways to check this.

Sounds fun. Good luck.

Answer 3

First of all, a control group is the constant thing that you compare all the results of the variable to. A variable is the thing that you change. In the case of your project:Does chewing gum increase your mouth's bacteria?, the variable will be the bacteria growth of not chewing gum after a meal. That means that you should have the constant as chewing gum after a meal. DID YOUR TEACHER SPECIFIY HOW MANY VARIABLES YOU SHOULD HAVE? In a detailed format, just put the explanation of what the contol group and variables are in this experiment, in the experiment part of your lab report.

Answer 4

The control group would be people who do not chew gum or perhaps people who brush their teeth instead of chewing gum.

The definition of a control group:
A group which receives standard treatment, a treatment or intervention currently being used and considered to be of proved effectiveness on the basis of past studies. Results for the problem in the experiment may then be compared to the control group. In cases where no standard yet exists for a particular condition, the control group would receive no treatment.

Answer 5

Your control gropu is the gum.

Detailed Format:
After each meal, I instructed my test subject to chew, or not chew gum, so, the instruction to yes, chew gum, or no, not chew gum, is the control group, or the manipulated variable.

Good luck, Happy New Years!

Answer 6

no, it would just be your experiment, but without the gum. the thing is a control group serves the purpose to justify if ur experiment is worht it or not. for example, instead of adding anything to cool hot coffee, you can just let it sit. the countrol group for you would be:

checking the bacteria count before a meal and after without using gum

Answer 7

Your hypothesis is possibly that chewing gum after foodstuff will advance micro organism? the basically way you may confirm if there is an advance in micro organism from chewing is to analyze the quantity of micro organism at the same time as not chewing. So, chewing gum is the experimental therapy - the problem you're doing to analyze its result. not chewing is the administration - the quantity of micro organism with out the therapy. you would possibly want to opposite the question and ask even if micro organism is decreased at the same time as human beings give up chewing gum, and if so, chewing often is the administration, and under no circumstances chewing often is the therapy.

Answer 8

You can find detailed information about control variables (control group) here:

http://www.cool-science-projects.com/independent-and-dependent-variables.html

Along with links to wiki articles regarding control variables.