The Science Fair

We had a Science Fair on Thursday at our school. I personally didn't think Science Fair is a good name for it because I was obligated to do it. I didn't have a choice, which isn't fair or fun. So, I started calling it the Science Anti-fair.

But, by the end of Thursday, my opinion changed.

My experiment was about the amounts of caffeine in drinks and how it affected the speed of your heart rate. I chose four drinks: water, Diet Coke  (30 mg of caffeine in 1 cup), McDonald's coffee (78.6 mg)  and Monster (80 mg). Each day I could, I had to wake up at 7:00 and take my test at about 9:30. Otherwise, it would be a variable.

One thing I learned from this experiment is that humans are all one big variable. Emotions always differ each day and what happens each day also differs.

My experiment did not agree with my hypothesis or research. I found from research that caffeine was supposed to increase your heart rate, but my experiment showed exactly the opposite! With my caffeinated drinks, my heart rate decreased at great amounts while my water increased my heart rate!

I think this happened because I don't like caffeine. I hate coffee and I'm not a big fan of energy drinks or soda either. I drink water a lot, though. So, it may be that my body is used to water and it wakes me up.

I was a little upset that my heart rate decreased. I really wanted to see what it would be like if I were bouncing off the walls like a crazy woman. Think about it - my personality plus caffeine should equal the insanity in an insane asylum. But, that's not what happened.

When I set my board up, I didn't think I was going to win. Science is not my strong suit and I was very nervous about the whole thing. But, it ended up that I got first place in my age division. How the heck did that happen?

It definitely changed my view on the Science Fair. Although, I still like to call it the Science Anti-fair.