Ideas on Advanced Higher Biology investigation?

[DifferentSummers]

I want to do something involving the environmental unit of the course, but I don't know what to do. I'm really interested in things like global warming and animals in general, I want to study animal biology or marine biology at university. Any ideas for an investigation I could do? Or just anything on environmental biology. Need help as soon as possible! Thankss (:

[boxtops]

What about something about the fishing industry? New quotas have just been introduced for the UK fishing fleet - relevance on fish life in coming years?

[DifferentSummers]

That sounds good, but how would i go about setting up experiments for that? :/

[boxtops]

True, that would be difficult. You didn't mention experiments, I thought by investigation you were talking about a research project.

what about power station outlets, things in the water grow big and different near the outlets (or so they say) - there's one near us here at Dungeness.

[DifferentSummers]

yeah we have to do some kind of experiment in order to back up a hypothesis :/ really? That's interesting. I might look into that, thanks :)

[jomifl]

Hi DF, I used to do surveys on the fish sucked into the cooling water of Dungeness A & B power stations and many other seawater cooled power stations in the uk so I may be able to help you a bit. It is unlikely that you would be allowed to work alone on the coooling water systems, as my colleagues I and with decades of experience had to undergo an induction course on each power station once per year, as well as follow health and safety guidelines and set up safety barriers when we opened up the water channels to collect the fish. There was no evidence for animals growing bigger near power stations when I was working in this area and this kind of investigation stopped when the power industry was privatised and the research teams made redundant. What timescale do you have for your project, and in what season would you be doing it. Do you have any expertise in identifying any kinds of wildlife, do you have any access to the environment or an area where you can carry out experiments?

[Buenchico]

If your school or college is doing their job properly, you should have been directed to the SAPS website:
http://www.saps.org.uk/students/projects

[erin-x]

I'm trying to think of what my friend did for her investigation. If I remember i'll get back to you.

I investigated the effects that different brands of shampoo had on the tensile strength of hair. I know it wasn't very ambitious or exciting but I was a bit out of sorts in my last year.

The link that Chris has provided is good for ideas. A few of them remind me of what someone told me about banana's speeding up the ripening process of other fruits if they are in close proximity.