<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Thanks to all who replied to my post. All 14 science
fair ideas are below. My daughter hasn't finalized her
decision yet, but is thinking about comparing the
molding process on regular bread vs. gf bread.

1. Research CD in Italy as compared to US.

2. Research on how many people actually know about the
disease. This is important as people are being
diagnosed later in life which makes it hard to deal
with.

3. There is information about a fair winner at the
www.celiac.com website.

4. This is the topic for my grandson for his science
project. "What effect does laughter have on blood
pressure?"  That isn't gluten free, but it might give
you some kind of idea.

5. Most people have the opinion that not eating wheat
is a strange idea.  Even my sister-in-law keeps
offering me cake after many years of me being wheat
free.  I guess that couldn't be a science project
about "how to educate people and change their
attitudes."

6. How about displaying a series of canned/packaged
goods and using ahighlighter to highlight terms on the
labels that could be hidden gluten. Like barley malt
extract in corn flakes, for example.  Or simply "malt"
in other places.  What about "hydrolyzed vegetable
protein?"  Or dextrin vs. maltodextrin.  This would
take a bit of research to make sure she got all the
terms right.

7. She could expand the project to include dairy
intolerance and all its related terms: whey, casein,
casein hydrolysate, etc. She could even politicize it,
if allowed, to include the recent legislation for
better labeling for the 8 most common allergens,
including wheat, but not, unfortunately for celiacs,
barley and rye!

8. Another idea, more costly, would be to buy a gluten
home test kit, and try it on some gluten free vs.
gluten containing, vs questionable foods. That would
be interesting and experimental, but the kits are
expensive.

9. My son did a project for a science fair last year.
He made three posters with explanations of what celiac
is, had some of his films from his endoscopy on there,
and baked some gluten free bread to pass out as well
as some noodles and cookies. There was quite a crowd
to see it all (probably because of the snacks:) and he
won first place.

10. My kids were talking about doing this with blind
taste-testing to see if people could tell the
difference. Chocolate chip cookies would be easy.

11. Surveys always work for science fair, but they
won't win any awards, and therefore the teachers
discourage it.

12. What about testing the shelf life of gf bread?  or
use it as compost and find which one makes the plat
grow taller.

13. A simple project would be to interview some of her
classmates about their emotional and physical
reactions to both gluten-rich and non-gluten foods
they commonly eat.  Make a list of them:  pizza,
cupcakes, doughnuts, on one hand; non-gluten foods on
the other (apples, bananas, carrots...whatever makes
sense and isn't just going to be a turnoff for the
kids).  She might enjoy making up a questionnaire with
multiple-choice answers like: I like it. I eat it
because everyone else eats it but I don't reallylike
it. I eat it but I always feel yucky afterward.    I
eat it because it's good for me but I don't really
like it. I always feel good after I eat it. It might
be a fun project and might arouse awareness in food
issues.  I am allergic to this.  Someone in my family
cannot eat this. Some of my friend can't eat this.

14. Since it would be difficult to test gluten content
and such is foods why not compare your daughter's
diet, another teen who is a vegetarian or vegan,
someone who is on a low-carb diet and someone who
represents the normal teen diet and compare
nutritional values. The normal diet would be the
control and the hypothesis could be something
like.....Is a gluten free diet less nutritious than
other common diets or even which diet is higher in
calories...




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