Dee Schrock asked:
Good science fair projects are all around us. Anything can be turned into a science fair project. Any question you have ever asked about anything can be turned into a science project. No science fair project is “bad” unless you haven’t put the effort into it. As long as you pick a topic that interest you, use the scientific method to come up with your answer, make a hypothesis, present your project in a nice organized fashion, and completely understand your project and are able to explain it to the judges, you will have a good science fair project.
If you are having trouble getting started, just think of a topic that interests you. Do you like animals? Do you like looking at the stars and wonder what the universe has in store? Do you like studying plants? Does machinery interest you? Or maybe you would like to do an experiment on something that’s in the media these days, such as global warming or the economy? The possibilities are endless. Would you like to find out how a specific animal behaves in the wild as opposed to the way it behaves in captivity?
Would you like to find out about ways you and your family can help out the Earth, such as through recycling, composting or being aware of the affects of pollution? Or maybe you would like to conduct a simple experiment such as finding out what type of treat your cat or dogs prefers. Whatever you choose, as long as you put the effort into it, it will be a great project.
Dee Schrock asked:
Easy science projects for kids can be found anywhere, even in your own house or backyard! There are many fun and easy projects kids can do, such as testing to see what flavor of water ants will prefer, like plain water, lemon water or sugar water. Other projects can focus on racing snails, or seeing if cockroaches have a sense of direction.
Another easy project involves learning how plants grow. All you need is paper cups, dirt, water and some seeds. Fill a few cups with soil and plant some seeds in each one. Place one in a sunny spot such as a windowsill, place another in a shady spot such as in your living room, perhaps on a shelf, and place one in a closet. Water them all regularly and let your child see which one grows best. A similar project is to show your child how plants absorb water. Simply get a few paper cups and fill them with water, add a different food coloring to each cup and place a white carnation in each one. The next day, let you child observe the flowers. By then, they should have changed color to match the food coloring you put in.
You could also show your child how sound is caused by vibration. To do this you need a few small drinking glasses, a spoon and some water. Fill each glass with a different amount of water and have your child tap each glass with the spoon and observe how each glass makes a different sound, depending on how much water is in the cup.
Dee Schrock asked:
Simple science fair projects are great if you have a limited amount of time to complete them, or if you just want to do a quick project for fun. Science fair projects don’t have to be long, involved and complex to be good. Simple science fair projects do great in science fairs as long as you can show that you learned something from the project, and are able to present it in an eye catching way and explain your project to the judges.
One example of simple science fair projects is to see what sort of effect music will have on the growth of plants. All you need for this project is three plants of the same variety, preferably as similar in shape and size as you can get, and 2 CD players, a rock and roll CD, and a classical CD. Place one plant in a room with the rock and roll music playing, another plant in a room with the classical music playing, and the third in a quiet room. Water them daily and record how each plant is doing after one and two weeks.
Another simple project to try might be to see if plants grow towards light. To do this, you need two plants and two boxes that the plants will fit in. Cut a hole in the top of one box and place the plant inside, and cut a hole in the side of the other box and place the second plant inside. Water them daily and check after a week or so to see if each of them is growing towards the hole in the box or not.
John Huegel asked:
Here are many ideas for science fair projects that are geared toward environmental awareness, renewable energy and sustainable living.
Wind Energy Demonstration - Build a wind tower with small electric motor which generates power to do work or charge a battery. Use an external fan or hair dryer to simulate wind. Supply supporting information from major wind energy manufacturers.
Renewables Survey - Conduct a study on the best renewable energy sources to use in your area, and identify the opportunities and challenges to implementing such a plan. Interview providers, agencies, landowners.
Hydrogen Generation - Build a solar powered water hydrolyzer. Use a solar cell to split water into Hydrogen and Oxygen. Supporting information would describe the Hydrogen Economy and fuel cell powered devices.
Hydroelectric Power - Build a hydroelectric generator. Small scale to have falling water turn a turbine which generates electricity. Research and document the environmental tradeoffs of hydropower.
Biodiesel - Create biodiesel from discarded fryer oil. Show the reactions and the issues around using biodiesel in conventional diesel vehicles. Research new developments in biodiesel generation.
Concentrated Solar Power - Create a working model of a concentrated solar power (CSP) station. Discuss hot fluid flow and storage, load leveling.
Composting - Perform an analysis of various waste streams to understand the potential reduction from composting (cafeteria, home, restaurant, etc.). Supporting evidence on uses of compost or organic matter in biofuels.
Cheapest / Greenest Batteries - Calculate the life cycle cost of various types of batteries in typical applications. For example, how many alkaline, rechargable NiMH or Lithium AA would be required to operate a digital point-and-shoot for 1 hour per day for 1 year. Calculate the extended cost per year and measure the landfill and toxic metal contribution in addition to the total cost. Will require calculating life of various battery types in various applications.
Energy Audits - Create and execute an energy audit in various settings and attempt to measure the impact of various changes. Obtain electric bills or other usage metrics and do before/after data analysis. Focus on specific areas such as compact fluorescent (CF) lighting or setback thermostats.
Smart Power Strips - Some devices are sold that will measure electricity consumption on specific outlets. Consider using them to calculate the effectiveness of smart power strips, and calculate the payback period of a strip compared to the annual electricity usage avoided.
Carbon Footprint - Calculate the carbon footprint of various people you know. Suggest ways for them to lower their footprint. Explain the concept and compare footprints of your users to those in various places/countries.
Green Rooftops - Build a green rooftop and demonstrate the value in food/plant production and energy savings.
Waste Biomass to Energy - Research and conduct a survey of local agricultural or industrial processes that generate unused biomass that could be diverted to energy production through burning or ethanol production. Contact the waste stream generators and interview to understand their issues and the status of biomass reuse.
Cellulosic Ethanol - Demonstrate the process and effectiveness of various process or substances used to break down cellulose to fermentables for ethanol production. Ferment a control and various experimental settings and compare the quantity of ethanol produced.
Clean Water - Measure the water quality of various water sources such as ponds, lakes and streams. Note the quality variations of several samples from the same source over time and from various locations, such as upstream and downstream of an industrial site.
Landfill Gas Power - Demonstrate the generation of energy from landfill gases. Build a sealed landfill with organic material. Capture and show the methane generated and describe applications of landfill gas used to produce electricity.
Animal Waste Power. Demonstrate the generation of energy from animal waste. Similar to above but a little higher on the “gross” scale! Gather statistics on total mass of beef, pork and poultry waste generated in your country in one year and calculate the potential MWh per year of electricity which could be generated. Convert to currency.
Automobile Mileage Studies. Measure the impact of various mileage improvement strategies. It helps to have a vehicle with a reliable instantaneous MPG calculator. Maintain strict controls on ambient temperature, warmup, elevation change, wind and other nonvariables, and vary tire pressure, acceleration rate, vehicle speed, total vehicle weight and other factors. Run multiple nonsequential trials for each and show variability within and across variable groups. Make conclusions on effectiveness of each variable. Predict a target MPG from the combination of several factors and then experiment to see how close the actual values came to your predictions.
Electric Vehicle Charging Station. Design a solar powered electric car recharging station. Using current equipment specifications, calculate how large the station would need to be to recharge a current production electric vehicle. Estimate the cost of construction and years of operation to calculate cost per kWh and compare to conventionally-purchased electricity.
These are just a few ideas for combining Green with your next Science Fair project. Do Well!
Neil Madgwick asked:
Science and magic are two separate entities, right? For example, with science fair projects you are wanting to be precise and aim at explaining phenomenon and finding answers, whereas “magic” and magic tricks leave you with more questions than answers and your mind boggles as to how what you have just seen can be possible. Right?
Well, lets think about it…
With science, which obviously includes science fair projects, the people involved are only too pleased to share their findings as it will improve life on earth in some way. For example, Mr. Edison did not keep quiet about his light bulb discovery, and now we all have instant light. Watson and Crick told the world about the double helix structure of DNA, which resulted in amazing advances in understanding biology as a whole and the positive spinoffs are more to mention in this article.
Magicians are not so keen to share information as to how their tricks work. Not knowing how a trick works is what makes it amazing and essentially magic.
There is no getting away from the fact that top magicians are talented in their slight of hand and their ability to entertain, but many of the “tricks”can be explained through science. Use of mirrors and visual illusions (what scientists call physics) are part and parcel of magic shows.
Unfortunately I do not have the talent to be a magician, but I do have a scientific knowledge to explain some “magic”. The real talent of a magician, or should we call him a “entertainment scientist”, is to hide the scientific phenomenon used to do the trick. So, although I cannot explain some of the tricks because of this cleverness, I can use science to do some very simple magic.
So what is the reason for me writing this article? Is it to expose magicians? Certainly not. As I have said, they are highly talented and indeed intellectual people who know science. The reason is so that young people will see science as exciting.
I guess now you are expecting me to tell you a magic trick so that you can entertain at the same time as you are doing science fair projects? Well, I have run out of space in this article and what I really want is for you, by using your scientific knowledge, to be excited about science and to work out some magic tricks yourself.
Just do science - or should I say magic!
Dee Schrock asked:
High school science fair topics are known to be difficult; the competition is fierce, the judges expect more, and the project often counts for a percentage of your grade. For these reasons, you want to do high school science experiments that will cause the judges to take notice.
One way to decide on a topic is to look at problems in the world around you and try to explain them or even solve the problems. Demonstrations and models are generally not accepted in high school, as you are expected to use the scientific method within your experiment and explain your results in report form. It can be a challenge to come up with a science experiment topic suitable for your education level, but with a little work you should be able to come up with an appropriate experiment that interests you.
One science fair project suitable for high school would be to test and see if a black light is able to pick up invisible stains around your house. Another is to find out if insects are attracted to lamps at night because of the light or the heat. Another idea would be to see which brand of anti-freeze is the safest for the environment. You could also find out if different brands of orange juice contain different levels of Vitamin C, and does the level of vitamin C in orange juice change over time?
If you are a girl and you like to dye your hair, maybe you could experiment and see which brand of hair color holds its color the longest. You could go a step farther and see if previous treatments such as a perm or straightening will affect how long the color will stay in your hair. If you know someone with gray hair, you could test the brands that claim to cover grays and see how well they really do their job.
Aurora L. asked:
Objective
To find out how a submarine uses a propeller and a stabilizing fin for forward movement.
Introduction
Although the submarine you have seen in a movie seems to be gliding along effortlessly, it is actually fighting the forces of gravity, pressure, friction and buoyancy. Have you ever encountered these terms in previous science fair experiments? Among all other science fair experiments, this is one of the best, as you will understand how these forces are overcome by the submarine.
Materials
A 500ml water bottle, a soda bottle (2 liter), knife, scissors, 2 large paperclips, needle-nose pliers, chopsticks, 3 rubber bands, stiff ruler, a silicone sealant, a bathtub or pool
Preparation
The Propeller
This is one of those science fair experiments in which you will need the assistance of an adult.
Cut a soda bottle (2 liter) in half. Take the bottom for making a propeller with 5 curved separate blades. Two holes are to be drilled in the propeller, in the centre and a little off-centre. Cut a small plastic circle out of the remaining 2-litre soda bottle. Bore a hole at the centre of this circular piece of plastic and the submarine bottle cap. The free end of a straightened paperclip should be passed through the cap of the bottle, the circular plastic and the centered propeller hole. The free end should be bent back and passed through the non-centered hole in such a way as to keep the cap, the plastic piece and the propeller in close contact with each other, but allow the propeller to rotate freely.
The Submarine
Drill two holes at the bottom of a 500 ml water bottle similar to the propeller holes. Now feed the straightened end of a paperclip from the inside of the bottle through the central hole. Bend the free tip and pass it in the non-centered hole. Secure the paperclip in such a way that it will not turn. This part is very tricky, so use a chopstick. Attach a rubber band between both the paperclip hooks. The rubber band must be tightly stretched between the hook at the bottle’s base and the hook on the cap. Attach the ruler perpendicular to the water bottle body in the centre with the help of two rubber bands in the form of an “X”. The ruler is your stabilizing fin. Now use a waterproof sealant to close all the paperclip holes in the bottle.
Your submarine is now ready.
Testing your Submarine
Fill three-quarters of the submarine bottle with water and put the cap on. Turn the propeller to build potential energy in the rubber band. Science fair experiments require that you write down all your activities. So count the number of turns and write this number in your lab book. You must turn the propeller that many times in future.
Procedure
Now you will position the stabilizing fin in the front, center and the back in different ways and have some fun observing how your submarine moves. Record your observation each time. Use the below-mentioned ten positions.
No fins- Middle: Fin Centered- Middle: Fin moved to the right - Middle: Fin moved to the left - Front: Fin Centered- Front: Fin moved to the right - Front: Fin moved to the left - Back: Fin Centered- Back: Fin moved to the right - Back: Fin moved to the left -
The observations will allow you to answer the following questions:
What would happen if there was no stabilizing fin? What is the best position for the fin? Why is a stabilizing fin important in a submarine?
If you’re ready to get started with your submarine experiment, your next step is to download a free copy of “Easy Steps to Award-Winning Science Fair Projects” from the link below right now.
Elaine Currie asked:
What’s In A Niche? When talking of niche websites, the answer to that question is, in my humble opinion, not very much at all in most cases. Certainly much less than should be in a niche. Is it just me - are my expectations too high? I don’t think so because I have seen some good niche websites as well as many horrors. A real niche website that has been built with care and passion is a thing of beauty (or, at the very least, interest) and is usually a treasure trove for visitors who share a love of the niche subject.
What I am complaining about are the so-called niche websites people are throwing together for the sole purpose of collecting advertising revenue. These sites have little (if anything) in the way of content. The colourful pictures and plentiful advertisements do not make up for this lack. Advertising is fine, in fact it’s usually essential if you want to stay in business. What makes me see red is clicking on misleading advertisements and landing on website after cloned website only to be confronted with a few sentences of poorly written text and dozens of gibbering advertisements. To test the integrity of a niche site, look at what would be left if you removed all the pay per click advertisements.
It is unfortunate for people who are surfing for information that the Internet is being overrun by the awful flimsy looking template produced websites that are being churned out at a crazy rate. If you spend any time on the Internet, you will know the type of thing I mean. These websites consist of a couple of pages with nice enough looking header graphics (that’s the pictures at the top, if you are not “in the trade” so to speak), and clumps of advertisements placed so that they are the first thing you see. If you manage to get past the advertisements, you might find a few articles which have been copied from other websites just for the sake of having something on the pages to lend them some credibility. These websites don’t exist to provide information or services or to promote anything. Their sole purpose is to carry advertising that will earn the owner money in return for just about zero work on his part.
How much time and effort goes into creating one of these monstrosities? Practically none: in most cases it is all done by a software package. The pseudo webmaster doesn’t ever need to worry about actual webpage design or building. All these charlatans need to do is decide upon their niche topic, toss a bunch of keywords into the mix and the software will do the rest. These people can create their pseudo niche websites on any subject anyone in the world might think of. It’s easy because they don’t need to know anything about the subject themselves. Whether it is dog training, bridal dresses, funerals or haemorrhoids, an online search tool will provide a list of keywords and the software will do the rest. Nobody cares that the laughing man clutching a fistful of cash or the sports car pictured in the heading has no relevance to the content and would be frankly inappropriate if you were looking for a funeral director or medication for a painful medical condition. The webmaster has no intention of offering you anything of value. In fact, it is in his interests if you take an immediate dislike to his web page because that makes you more likely to click away from it via one of his advertising links and that’s how he makes his money.
After a couple of days of trying to do some semi-serious research on the Internet, I feel like unplugging my pc and dusting off my library tickets. Ok - so you can’t judge a book by its cover but the cover doesn’t usually set out to deliberately mislead you as to the contents (quite the opposite in fact). When I type a query into a search engine, I want the results to lead me to websites containing the answer to that query. If I am searching for information about a particular subject, I don’t appreciate being directed to websites that consist of a few keyword loaded sentences walled in by blocks of advertisements for other similar websites.
Roll on the day when someone invents a search engine that can distinguish between a real niche website and an advertising vehicle built from a cheap kit. Maybe we can get back to the time when searching the Internet was faster than catching a bus to the library and thumbing through books.
Copyright 2006 Elaine Currie
Dee Schrock asked:
If you are looking for an easy science fair project you really don’t have to look far. There are ideas all around us. Pick any topic that interests you and you can come up with a science fair project for it. Remember, your project doesn’t have to be complex to be good. You can pick an easy science fair project and as long as you understand the project, are able to explain it and present it nicely, you will get great marks. You may even get marks better than some of your peers who choose to do complicated projects that they don’t fully understand.
Easy science fair ideas are testing people’s sense of smell. This can be accomplished by gathering a few different scents and asking some volunteers if they can identify them. Another easy project would be to see if the surface on which a snail is travelling affects the speed that it moves, you could investigate whether cockroaches have a sense of direction, or if ants prefer plain water, sugar water or salt water.
You could also test and see if plants will grow towards light, or if they can grow without sunlight at all. If that doesn’t interest you, you could try making your own tornado. This is a surprisingly easy experiment; all you need is water, a jar, some dish detergent and food coloring. Mix the water, a teaspoon of dish detergent and some food coloring into a jar, shake it up for 20 seconds and then give it a spin. You will then have an instant tornado! There are endless possibilities so let your mind go wild and you are sure to come up with a great winning project!
Dee Schrock asked:
Kids science fair projects are quite simple to come up with. Kids are constantly asking questions like “What happens if” or “How does this work?” The next time they ask a question, instead of just telling them the answer, help them find the answer out on their own. They’ll feel great about themselves when they’ve accomplished the experiment and found out the answer by themselves. One experiment for kids to try would be to see if water proof mascara is really water proof. All you need for this experiment is a few different brands of mascara, some paper and running water from a tap. Brush the mascara on to the paper and after allowing it time to dry, place it under the running water and see which brands are really waterproof.
Other Kids science fair projects are to see whether cockroaches have a sense of direction. Others such as how much food a caterpillar can consume in one day, or how about seeing which kind of surface snails can move faster on, gravel, sand or cement can also be fun ideas. You could also try running a mouse through a maze and seeing how long it takes them to get to the end, or drawing a line from beginning to end and seeing if the mouse is able to follow it. This can be a great project if you know someone with a pet mouse you can borrow, because if you borrow one from the pet store, chances are your child won’t want to return it afterwards and you may end up with a new family pet!