Nutrition science fair project?

Question

I need to come up with a few ideas for science fair, but I'm drawing a blank. I'm interested in nutrition, and so far I have: Which citrus fruit (out of lime, lemon, orange, tangerine and grapefruit) provides the greatest quantity of vitamin c? This is high school science fair for honors students, and last year I competed at the state level, so no "baking soda volcanos". This science fair is pretty extreme (in other words, up until 2 am from now until january), so I need generally advanced topics. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

LESSON: Fast Fats: A Nutritional Analysis of America's Obsession with Fast Foods
By Rachelle Kean, a teacher and writer

Subjects: science, math, health, fitness

Time: Three class periods

Grade level: 10-12 (adaptable for a younger audience)

Lesson Objectives:
Students will:

understand the ways in which nutritional food labels are read and used on common foods
determine the number of calories in a peanut (or the amount of fat in potato chips) so that comparisons to other foods can be made
understand the detrimental effects of fats on the body and their relationship to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity
increase awareness of healthy food choices for themselves and their classmates by designing and conducting a scientific experiment using observational skills and data analysis
Overview:
Few will disagree that fast foods are a staple in the diets of many Americans. Even our nation's schools feature vending machines full of foods that are high in calories, short on nutrition, and all too easy to buy. With busy lifestyles and complicated schedules, what are the long term effects of a diet high in saturated fats? What about all the "good carbs" and "bad carbs" we have been hearing so much about?

In this three part lesson, students will examine nutrition labels for caloric intake using various snack foods. Then, they will determine the number of calories in a food item. Finally, they will conduct a research project in which they examine the food choices of their classmates.

Materials

Internet access
NewsHour transcript: "Fighting Fat," http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec03/fat_7-09.html
NewsHour transcript: "Fast Food Nation," http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june01/fast_food.html
Several bags or boxes of "snack foods"
Dry measuring devices including measuring cups and spoons
Calculators

Student and Teacher sheets borrowed from NASAexplores.com: http://media.nasaexplores.com/lessons/03-070/5-8_2.pdf and http://www.chymist.com/Fat%20in%20potato%20chips.pdf
To make these lesson plans better

Answer 2

Hi Nectarine. You might consider comparing the vitamin c status of organic versus non-organic fruits. This has been done for oranges, with the finding that vitamin c content in organic oranges is substantially greater than 'regular' oranges.

The higher cost of organic produce may be justified by the higher nutrient content (more bang for the buck!). Additionally, studies indicate that 50% of Americans consume less than the RDI for vitamin C, so this is an important health issue.

Best wishes and good luck.

Answer 3

Forget it. Doing stuff on people or even animals isn't worth the mounds of paper work for a science fair.