A good project would be the effects of a deer's diet on antler growth. However, to do this, you need several years and farm-raised deer whose diets you can manipulate. This is more of a doctoral dissertation.
See, the problem is, "whitetail deer" is a large, general topic. There are few deer farms around and, unless you know the farmer, I doubt you are going to be able to run control and experimental groups on the fellow's deer.
Many science projects simply regurgitate known or available information. Such projects end up being presentations of interesting facts about a given subject. These are not good science projects.
A good science project allows the student to carry out the scientific method. That is, the student looks at a given topic and finds a question that needs answering. The student then forms a hypothesis. After that, the student runs controls and experiments to generate data. From there, the student analyzes the data and forms a conclusion. "When 'x' is changed to 'y', 'z' will happen 79.8% of the time."
I hope this gets you thinking. Does it mean you may have to look into another topic? Yes, but that is not a bad thing. Someday you may get a chance to do a research paper. Go for broke with the deer! They are fascinating animals (and they are delicious, too!). Maybe you'll even go for your doctorate in wildlife biology and carry out that experiment on antlers. I hope you do. I want to know the results!
See, the problem is, "whitetail deer" is a large, general topic. There are few deer farms around and, unless you know the farmer, I doubt you are going to be able to run control and experimental groups on the fellow's deer.
Many science projects simply regurgitate known or available information. Such projects end up being presentations of interesting facts about a given subject. These are not good science projects.
A good science project allows the student to carry out the scientific method. That is, the student looks at a given topic and finds a question that needs answering. The student then forms a hypothesis. After that, the student runs controls and experiments to generate data. From there, the student analyzes the data and forms a conclusion. "When 'x' is changed to 'y', 'z' will happen 79.8% of the time."
I hope this gets you thinking. Does it mean you may have to look into another topic? Yes, but that is not a bad thing. Someday you may get a chance to do a research paper. Go for broke with the deer! They are fascinating animals (and they are delicious, too!). Maybe you'll even go for your doctorate in wildlife biology and carry out that experiment on antlers. I hope you do. I want to know the results!
