Which Side Are You On? By Mason Koczwara

Problem Statement ? Will people in the same family have a dominant hand, foot, ear, and eye?

Bibliography www. Young, Karen R., “Try This” National Geographic Kids: National Geographic Society, 2014 Cobb, Vicki, “More Than 100 Experiments for Science Fairs and Projects” See for Yourself: Scholastic Inc., 2001 Science Buddies, Side-Dominant Science: Are You Left or Right Sided, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring- science-home-dominant-side/

Hypothesis If the same family is tested for their side dominance, even if some are considered left handed, then most, if not all in the same family will be right side dominant.

Variables Test Variable: the body part tests Outcome Variable: the side being used Constant Variables: All in the same family All given same side dominant tests

Materials 1 Pencil 3 Pieces of Paper 1 Pair of Scissors 1 Ball 1 Sea Shell 1 Paper with a Hole 1 Stepping Stool/Flight of Stairs 1 Magnifying Glass 1 Camera 1 Phone

Procedures For this experiment you will need at least 3 volunteers from the same family. Each family member individual will need to do a series of tests: hand dominance, foot dominance, eye dominance, and ear dominance Have all of the materials ready so that you will be able to quickly test each family volunteer. For one of the tests, you will need a piece of paper with a small hole cut in it for volunteers to look through. Prepare a piece of paper so that it has a hole in it now. In a lab notebook, create a data table to record your results in. For each family volunteer, you will write whether they used their "Right" or "Left" side to do each task. Test each family volunteer, one at a time, until you have tested all of the family members who volunteered. For each volunteer write either "Right" or "Left" in the data table in your lab notebook for each task completed.

Procedures First 3 test will be to hand dominance. Ask your volunteer to write their name on a piece of paper using a pen or pencil. Observe the family volunteer to see which hand they write their name with and record the result in your data table. Ask your family volunteer to use the scissors to cut a piece of paper. Observe which hand they hold the scissors with when cutting the paper and record the result. Ask your family volunteer to throw a ball, observe which hand they throw the ball with, and record the result. The Next 3 tests will test your family volunteers foot dominance. Ask them to kick a ball, observe which foot they use to kick, and record the result in your data table. Ask the family volunteer to go the bottom of a flight of stairs or step stool and ask your volunteer to walk up the first few steps. Observe which foot they use to step up the very first step and record the result. Ask your family volunteer to walk, observe which foot they start walking with and record the results.

Procedures Now the next 3 tests will test eye dominance. Give your family volunteer a magnifying glass and ask them to look through it. Observe which eye they use to look through and record the result in your data table. Give your family volunteer the piece of paper you made a hole in and ask them to look through it. Observe which eye they use and record the result. Give the family volunteer a camera and ask them to look through it. Observe which eye they keep open and record the result. The last three test will test ear dominance. Stand front and center looking straight at your family volunteer, and ask your volunteer listen to a secret. Observe which ear they give you to whisper in and record the result in your data table. Give your volunteer a sea shell and ask them to listen to it. Observe which ear they put the shell to and record the result. Have your family volunteer to call someone on a phone. Observe which ear they put to the phone and record the result.

Procedure After you have given the tests to at least 3 family volunteers, summarize the data so that you can analyze your results. To do this, make a data table in your lab notebook and summarize your data in it.

Table Family Member 1 Family Member 2 Family Member 3 Family Member 4 EYE Look through a hole L R Look into a camera EAR Listen to phone Listen to seashell Listen to whisper HAND Write name Cut a piece of paper Pick up phone FOOT Walk Kick ball Walk up step stool AVERAGE

Graph and Other Useful Information Ratio Left Side to Total 1:4 Right Side to Total 3:4 Left Side to Right Sides 1:4 Percentage Left Side 25% Right Side 75%

Results My hypothesis was correct. Most people in my family do use their right side. According to my results, 1 person in my family (25%) use one hemisphere for everything. 2 people in my family (75%) used their right side to do things overall. In conclusion, my hypothesis was correct even though half wrote with left hand.

Conclusion The purpose of this investigation was to see if most people in my family are right or left sided. My hypothesis was supported by the data. Most people in my family are right sided (75% of people in my family) even though half write left hand. The major findings in this investigation were that most people in my family are right sided even though half write with left hand. The possible reason for this could be that society or family member encourages us to be right sided. It’s just a matter of watching and learning

Application If you use your right hand to write and draw, you are right handed. If you use your left, you are left handed. This is the dominant hand but it may not be your dominant side. Perhaps people favor one side because of genetics, culture or it is learned by family members. This experiment leads me to a new question – Is being left or right sided determined by genetics or is it learned?

Abstract Student’s Name: Mason Koczwara Project Title: Which Side Are You On The purpose of this experiment was to determine if members of the same family have a dominant hand, foot, eye and ear. It is hypothesized that when testing people in the same family, most of, if not all the family volunteers would favor the right side even if they were considered left handed. Volunteers from the same family, a notebook with data table to write results, a pencil, 2 pieces of paper, scissors, a sea shell, a phone and a tester to whisper were the material, magnifying glass, a paper with a hole to look through, and a camera were used to conduct the experiment. A series of three different tests for eyes, ears, hand and foot were tested on volunteers in the same family. The dominant side for all was collected and recorded in a data table for all family members. Results showed that in all the tests conducted the family members who were tested the 75% were right side dominant for eyes, ears, hand and foot. The hypothesis was correct. The project may have been improved and had better data if more family members were tested.

Abstract (cont’d) This experiment showed that people in the same family favor the right side just as 90% of the population favors the right side . Some think that the reason is related to culture as favoring the right side is taught to be correct while using the left in some cultures is thought to be wrong. The project may have been improved and had better data if more family members were tested.