Ahr Posted January 25, 2016 Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 Hello,I am about to do my Group 4 project.My group's topic is honey and I will be doing the biology part.Unfortunately I am quite stuck in the planning part. I presented my idea to my teacher but was rejected because using e.coli is too dangerous and with us not having the skill set needed. I have read abstract and ideas of some research papers but am still stuck.At this moment I am thinking of two ideas,1. Compare the sugar content of cheap and expensive brands of honey using fermentation.2. Study the effect of prolonged heating on honey's ability to inhibit baker's yeast growth ( I am not so sure about this one as I heard that baker's yeast are used with honey in producing mead), I would then check the Co2 content. I haven't found research topics that are suitable for my g4 and so I am a bit stuck here. Can anyone help me with ideas?Thanks in advance. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siddhakshi Posted February 7, 2016 Report Share Posted February 7, 2016 As far as I know, you don't need to do an experiment in the group 4 project at all. It can be done through empirical investigation or secondary data evaluation. Your ideas seem quite interesting, but the factor of time comes into play. You probably won't have the time to carry out the entire experiment of fermentation or yeast growth. On the other hand, what you could do is focus on the biological aspects involved in the making of honey. Research into the varieties of honey produced by different bees, maybe call up or meet a local honey manufacturer and find out more about the environmental implications of honey produced industrially (loss of wild bees, domesticity of bees, change in composition of the honey, etc) and come up with ideas to counter this. And if you really want to do an experiment (I know I wanted to) then look for something manageable in the limited time that you have. Honey is used in a lot of beauty products- maybe you could test its pH and find out what the effect of this could be on the skin? Best of luck! 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bguloglu Posted February 7, 2016 Report Share Posted February 7, 2016 Neither of these experiments will work. Honey is a natural antimicrobial agent for a reason. Because of the sheer amount of stuff dissolved in it, it creates so much osmotic imbalance that nothing can live on honey. This effectively means that you won't be able to grow yeast on it. There is a reason why honey is so effective in treating infections. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
batool Posted February 7, 2016 Report Share Posted February 7, 2016 As far as I know, you don't need to do an experiment in the group 4 project at all. It can be done through empirical investigation or secondary data evaluation. Your ideas seem quite interesting, but the factor of time comes into play. You probably won't have the time to carry out the entire experiment of fermentation or yeast growth. On the other hand, what you could do is focus on the biological aspects involved in the making of honey. Research into the varieties of honey produced by different bees, maybe call up or meet a local honey manufacturer and find out more about the environmental implications of honey produced industrially (loss of wild bees, domesticity of bees, change in composition of the honey, etc) and come up with ideas to counter this. And if you really want to do an experiment (I know I wanted to) then look for something manageable in the limited time that you have. Honey is used in a lot of beauty products- maybe you could test its pH and find out what the effect of this could be on the skin? Best of luck! This is true. But it's ALWAYS safer to go with an experiment because it makes up a huge mark of your EE. It is very difficult to get in the top band without an experiment; a practical facilitates this. Nevertheless, it is possible to do a Group 4 EE without an experiment (definitely not recommended, though). You would have time to carry out an EE on fermentation in general (I did!), but honey does not ferment yeast... or anything, really, so that's something you should look out for. With honey, microbiology is usually the best. Since you can't do that, I'd suggest keeping a more general sense of what you want to do in Biology - maybe looking at something involving plants Neither of these experiments will work. Honey is a natural antimicrobial agent for a reason. Because of the sheer amount of stuff dissolved in it, it creates so much osmotic imbalance that nothing can live on honey. This effectively means that you won't be able to grow yeast on it. There is a reason why honey is so effective in treating infections. Exactly!! Also, I can't believe you've gotten a 45! That's amazing so congratulations xx 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siddhakshi Posted February 8, 2016 Report Share Posted February 8, 2016 As far as I know, you don't need to do an experiment in the group 4 project at all. It can be done through empirical investigation or secondary data evaluation. Your ideas seem quite interesting, but the factor of time comes into play. You probably won't have the time to carry out the entire experiment of fermentation or yeast growth. On the other hand, what you could do is focus on the biological aspects involved in the making of honey. Research into the varieties of honey produced by different bees, maybe call up or meet a local honey manufacturer and find out more about the environmental implications of honey produced industrially (loss of wild bees, domesticity of bees, change in composition of the honey, etc) and come up with ideas to counter this. And if you really want to do an experiment (I know I wanted to) then look for something manageable in the limited time that you have. Honey is used in a lot of beauty products- maybe you could test its pH and find out what the effect of this could be on the skin? Best of luck! This is true. But it's ALWAYS safer to go with an experiment because it makes up a huge mark of your EE. It is very difficult to get in the top band without an experiment; a practical facilitates this. Nevertheless, it is possible to do a Group 4 EE without an experiment (definitely not recommended, though). You would have time to carry out an EE on fermentation in general (I did!), but honey does not ferment yeast... or anything, really, so that's something you should look out for. With honey, microbiology is usually the best. Since you can't do that, I'd suggest keeping a more general sense of what you want to do in Biology - maybe looking at something involving plants Neither of these experiments will work. Honey is a natural antimicrobial agent for a reason. Because of the sheer amount of stuff dissolved in it, it creates so much osmotic imbalance that nothing can live on honey. This effectively means that you won't be able to grow yeast on it. There is a reason why honey is so effective in treating infections. Exactly!! Also, I can't believe you've gotten a 45! That's amazing so congratulations xx The group 4 project no longer counts at all marks-wise. I'm done with my science IA's and all we had to do was fill out a reflection of 50 words on what we did. We just have to have proof of having done the project- other than that it does not matter. The IB won't be looking much at what experiments you did, etc. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
batool Posted February 8, 2016 Report Share Posted February 8, 2016 OH! Update on this. I think I was reading a thread about Bio EE and thought this was referring to EEs. Therefore, I retract any claims EE-wise, such as saying you have enough time. Sorry and thank you! x As far as I know, you don't need to do an experiment in the group 4 project at all. It can be done through empirical investigation or secondary data evaluation. Your ideas seem quite interesting, but the factor of time comes into play. You probably won't have the time to carry out the entire experiment of fermentation or yeast growth. On the other hand, what you could do is focus on the biological aspects involved in the making of honey. Research into the varieties of honey produced by different bees, maybe call up or meet a local honey manufacturer and find out more about the environmental implications of honey produced industrially (loss of wild bees, domesticity of bees, change in composition of the honey, etc) and come up with ideas to counter this. And if you really want to do an experiment (I know I wanted to) then look for something manageable in the limited time that you have. Honey is used in a lot of beauty products- maybe you could test its pH and find out what the effect of this could be on the skin? Best of luck! This is true. But it's ALWAYS safer to go with an experiment because it makes up a huge mark of your EE. It is very difficult to get in the top band without an experiment; a practical facilitates this. Nevertheless, it is possible to do a Group 4 EE without an experiment (definitely not recommended, though). You would have time to carry out an EE on fermentation in general (I did!), but honey does not ferment yeast... or anything, really, so that's something you should look out for. With honey, microbiology is usually the best. Since you can't do that, I'd suggest keeping a more general sense of what you want to do in Biology - maybe looking at something involving plants Neither of these experiments will work. Honey is a natural antimicrobial agent for a reason. Because of the sheer amount of stuff dissolved in it, it creates so much osmotic imbalance that nothing can live on honey. This effectively means that you won't be able to grow yeast on it. There is a reason why honey is so effective in treating infections. Exactly!! Also, I can't believe you've gotten a 45! That's amazing so congratulations xx The group 4 project no longer counts at all marks-wise. I'm done with my science IA's and all we had to do was fill out a reflection of 50 words on what we did. We just have to have proof of having done the project- other than that it does not matter. The IB won't be looking much at what experiments you did, etc. Also, I second what Siddhakshi says. My Group 4 Project was rushed and pretty low quality, but it shouldn't affect your overall IB score. It is just to encourage collaboration of the sciences and different students. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahr Posted March 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Thank you for all your reply guys! I decided to evaporate honey and calculate their water percentage based on mass. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEnthuGroup4Student Posted July 12, 2016 Report Share Posted July 12, 2016 well from what I know, you can use non pathogenic microbials, you should check with your schools technician. because for my EE my technician is helping me prepare bacterial cultures but she mentioned 'only non pathogenic bacteria can use' Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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