ask our experts about
your home-made bioplastic project!

As I'm sure you know from your classes, to do an experiment you have to compare two things and determine whether there is a difference between them. The null hypothesis is "there is no difference". The alternative is always that there IS a difference.

So what two things could you compare in an experiment with bioplastics?

One possibility would be to compare two different formulations of the ingredients.

You could start with the hypothesis that "adding a higher proportion of glycerin (compared to starch) will make the plastic more flexible."

I'm not sure what kind of class this project is for, but if it is a chemistry class, your teacher should be able to tell you exactly how to measure flexibility. Other common properties of plastics that you could compare are things like tensile strength and heat resistence. You will need to find out from your teacher what the best way is to get a good, solid measurement of each of these things.

But then, your process would be simple: make two batches of bioplastic, one with a higher amount of glycerin one with a lower amount. When they are done, use the measurement procedure to measure whichever property you decided (e.g. tensile strength, flexibility, etc), and answer the question: is there a difference between the two?

There are a lot of variations you could do. The key is: make sure the MANIPULATION is something you can change, and make sure the MEASUREMENT is a good scientific measurement.

Other possibilities include:

H1 : Plastic made with corn starch has a greater tensile strength than plastic made with potato starch
(H0 would be that there is no difference)

H1 : Plastic made with a higher concentration of geltin bends more easily than plastic made with a lower concentration
(H0 would be that there is no difference)

And so on.