Scientific Report Ideas Are Needed!?

Question

I need an idea for a scientifc report. It has to be in the form of "why" For example..why are name brand paper towels more expensive than generic. I have to be able to have a control and be able to conduct an experiement that I can write my report on. All of the ideas I come up with are hard to put in this format.

Does Tylenol work as well as its generic, acetominiphin? Why do smokers who quit go back to smoking? Why is nicotine such a hard habit to kick? Do child safety caps really work?

Answer 1

Can you post some of what your ideas are, and maybe we can change 'em into that format?

Orion

AHHH!! Okay, try this one:

Why does Tylenol work better than generic acetominophine? You could ask classmates for help as well as family - When they have aches and pains, they come to you for the medication. The thing to do is what's called a 'double-blind' study where neither you, nor they, know what they're getting until after the study is over.

Get Tylenol, Acetominophine, and sugar pills (a placebo - this is the control group) and sort them into batches. Have someone who won't be administering them do this. When someone has an ache or a pain, ask them to rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 - 10 being the worst. Then they get the meds. Ask them to rate the pain again at 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour, and so on for about 4 hours. See which group has the most effect upon the pain. Then you can check to see which group was which drug, or a placebo (the control).

Go to your local pharmacy and ask the Pharmacist for help. He or she would likely be VERY glad to help you with this project and would be invaluable in helping you to design it, administer it and in making sure that everything was done safely and ethically - Ethics are HUGELY important in a project like this. Including that dimension in your project could be what boosts you into an A category without any effort at all.

I think this would be a really interesting project, and one that might be interesting to post on a Blog or website - The claim ALWAYS has been that Generics are just as good as brand names. Are they?

If so, why? Ask the Pharmacist for possible explanations as to why a brand name might be better than the generic - if they are. If not, you've answered the question: They aren't.

Check this out with your teacher and see if it fits the format...

Orion