Body Language Science Fair Projects

Body language science fair projects not only are interesting and fun to do, but they are also very quick. This means that if you put off doing your project until the last minute and are scrambling to throw something together, psychology science experiments that look at body language are great options. The following steps will walk you through one body language project that you can do in a few hours.

The first thing that you need to complete body language science fair projects are a few subjects. Your immediate family and friends are both great subjects to use for your project. If it is 3:00 in the morning and you are trying to put something together for your 9 a.m. class then chances are your family won't be awake to help you, in this case turn to your television and there you have all the test subjects you could every hope for. Actors are actually great test subjects for this project because they are trained to use their body language to convey emotions and meaning.

Since you have less than a day to complete your 24-hour science fair projects time is of the essence. After you have identified your test subjects you will need to set up your project. There are a lot of different types of body language science fair projects that you can complete in a couple of hours. Some of the body language observations that you can make include: how body language differs between men and women, how it differs between kids and teens or kids and adults. If you are using actors as your test subjects then observe how various characters portray different emotions with their body language. For example, how does Harrison Ford portray his fear of snakes in the Indiana Jones movies with his body language?

Now that you know what you will be looking for you are ready to start making your observations. It is a good idea to have a notebook and pen ready to jot down notes about your observations. To start with, make sure each entry identifies the test subject, their approximate age, the emotion or meaning that they are trying to convey and what body language they use. When making observations about your test subject's body language make sure you look at their whole body including their posture, their facial expressions, the tension in their muscles and how they position their arms and hands.

After you collect your data your next step is to organize your data and analyze it. An easy way to organize your data is to create a table that breaks down each test subject's body language into behaviors and then link these behaviors to specific emotions or meanings. As you analyze your data try ot look for trends in body language, for example, do people tend to use a particular movement of their hands when they are angry or happy? Write down all of the relationships that you identify.

The final step is to write up your report. At this time you probably only have an hour or two before the project is due so follow this simple formula to put together a great report in little time. To start with outline your project following the requirements presented to you by your teacher. Generally this will include an introduction that explains what your project was about, what you hoped to find, your hypothesis and why you selected the topic that you did.

The next section will cover any background research you did. This section is not always required. The third section will be a breif overview of your science experiment's design including how you selected test subjects, who your test subjects were, how you collected data and how you analyzed your data. Section four is your data. Just present your data in this section don't try to answer why questions. Section five will be your analysis. In this section link your data to your hypothesis. The final section is your summary, discussion and conclusion.