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Garry L. Neale asked:




It’s important for kids to get involved in science from an early age, as exposure to scientific ideas and the world of exploration as soon as possible is the best way to foster a love for learning in your children that will last a lifetime. At the same time, scientific knowledge is cumulative, so kids have to start with a solid foundation if they are to develop the necessary scientific skills to succeed in school, and perhaps in a future career. Of course, when doing science projects with kids the most important thing to remember is to have fun! Youth science fair projects aren’t meant to transform your child into a scientist - they are meant to get the creative juices flowing within your child and help him or her continue to explore the natural world and make use of the imagination.

So where do you find ideas for science projects, if you want to get your child started on something at home? Luckily, these days you don’t have to look far to find science projects for your children - simply do an online search and you should be able to find tons of websites containing information and ideas pertaining to science fair projects and science for children in general. These websites list science projects and tell you exactly how to do them and what to do, so the process of helping your child discover science or prepare science fair projects for school is made easy.

In the past, it was easy for parents to become frustrated when helping kids with homework and coming up with ideas for science fair projects - now it’s easy to help them out and you don’t have to be a science whiz yourself! And if your child demonstrates a natural interest in science, it’s even more important that you encourage it from an early age. Whether or not you have to do a project for school, or complete a homework assignment, kids getting involved in science at home is a great idea!

In fact, doing their own science experiments at home is a great way to supplement the regular educational exposure your kids get during the day in the classroom. And if you home school your children coming up with fun and educational science experiments that are easy to recreate at home is the perfect way to help your kids exercise their minds and learn about science while having a lot of fun at the same time.

When you set up science projects for your kids to do at home, it makes learning fun - this will carry over to the child’s classroom experience and may even improve their grades overall. Of course, that is not the main goal of doing science experiments at home. Again, do these projects with your children as a fun activity and the learning will spring from that organically. Specifically, when searching for science projects for your kids to do at home it’s a good idea to find something your children, and maybe even their friends, will enjoy. Figure out what interests your child and go from there. Involving them in the process will help them naturally discover where their interests are and what type of experiments they’ll gain the most from.

You can find the instructions for these experiments for free, although you will have to purchase some basic supplies in most cases. At the same time, materials used in most of these projects are relatively inexpensive and not difficult to find.

Dee Schrock asked:




There are countless science fair project topics. To figure out a topic, you must first decide on a category of interest; Astronomy, Biology, Zoology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Engineering, Environmental, Microbiology, Physical Science or Mathematics. Once you have found a category that you like, you can then decide on a topic. It may not be an easy task, since there are countless topics on each category, but it will not take you long before you choose something that really interests you. Just remember that any project has the potential to be a winning science project, and keep in mind that the judges are looking mainly at presentation and whether or not you learned something from the project.

You don’t want to pick a topic that is too easy, nor do you want to choose one that is beyond your level. The judges want to see that you are knowledgeable about your project and that you have documented your findings. Obviously, the first thing they will notice is your presentation, so you want to make sure it’s eye catching and well organized. If you use graphs in your project, make sure to double check your figures and ensure you understand the graphs you are presenting. If you can’t explain your work, you are definitely going to lose points. Basically, if you chose a topic that interests you, is on your skill level, that you genuinely learn something from your project, are able to show and explain your work, and present the project in an organized and eye catching manner, you are likely to score great points with the judges.

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.