Giant list of science fair project ideas

[grays0n]

what are some idea for projects that are really cool, like the lifters that someone previously likned to. What are some other ideas or links for projects with really cool, almost unnatural results. Idk, just something really amazing when you see it. Not your everyday run of the mill physics or astronomy/cosmolgy project.

 

[The Green Giant]

Magnetic Field

Hi, I'm doing this project for my science fair...

http://www.amasci.com/electrom/statbotl.html

It's soooo easy!

There are other good science experiments there too but I settled for this one. Would have built a Mono-Rail, but there was no places, the fair was just for marks hehe. (and mono rails arent cheap )

 

[Rplanas]

One science project you can do is to design an engine that runs on water.

 

[misskitty]

That would be very cool...especially if you brough some aerodynamics into the design.

Just for fun, how about designing a hybrid race car or something that runs on water while throwing in some aerodynamic elements. That would be cool.

 

[Loren Booda]

How about hydrodynamics?

 

[misskitty]

How about something to do with string theory?

 

[misskitty]

For kicks and giggels...why not look into how insturments are made with certain materials over others and why changing the material would alter the sound quality and tone of the insturment.

 

[Francis M]

Perhaps as a next step up you could modify the magnetic field experiment to show elecromagnetic fields, or save it as a separate experiment for another fair? You know, show how electromagnetic fields develope in conducting wires, etc... ? Maybe even a branch off from that would be to show how electronic devices can possibly interfere with each other and how/what shielding an electronic device is? That may be getting a little complicated though.

 

[misskitty]

What a cool idea! It seems a little complicated, but it's still an excellent suggestion. I'll have to keep that in mind for my AP physics project.

 

[npgreat]

In the experiment to determine % of oxygen in air use 2 or more candles instead of of 1 and see the effect

 

[Am kuls]

Cool physics project site

check out this site found a lot of contents on physics projects, and all animation very less texts, kinda good for concepts

http://www.goalfinder.com
go to the sitemap to get full list, njoy

 

[minase]

Make a engine that runs on gravity

can u esplain that a litttle bit.

 

[minase]

I would say build a Robot. Last time I tried to do a project on growing plants and animals with cloning. And the project involves cloning plants. By cutting it from it's bruches and planting it . Not very interesing idea but I got fair prize for it.

 

[bigbasherboy]

if u want a sure fire way to win and become rich just invent a 2. perpetual motion machine. :)

 

[slackr007]

I did a project in 8th grade that I wasn't quite prepared for. It's a good project idea, all the judges loved it, but I started a bit late and didn't have quite enough data because I had to build all my test equipment and it would break and I'd have to start over and stuff. Anyway, I did "Does solar activity affect radio propagation?". You just go to the same spot w/ the same weather at different times of day(for different solar activity) and measure signal on a radio. I used a $10-15 DIY radio kit from radio shack and an osciliscope or multimeter or something to measure signal on it. Ask an electrical engineer. Anyway, it had great potential, it just wasn't done by someone who is good w/ projects. I did get to regionals with it though.

 

[RDev]

Hey, I just recently had a school physics bowl competition. One of the categories was demonstration (basically a science fair project). A great idea is the michelson/focault speed of light experiment. We worked on this for a while, but it wasn't hard to acquire the materials and was very well received. The only thing that is really important to know about it, is that the rotating mirror needs to be enclosed because it is spinning fast enough to cause serious damage if it came off. I think we spent around $20 on lasers, wood, and motors. Very worthwhile.

 

[bijanv]

does anyone know any cool small explosion or projectile (missile) type experiemnts?

 

[plusaf]

small, cheap, effective explosions...

does anyone know any cool small explosion or projectile (missile) type experiemnts?

"Watch Mr. Wizard," with Don Herbert, a tv program from probably 50 years ago, did a neat one... as with any and all explosive items, extreme care must be taken or you'll damage your body. i will accept no responsibility for any damage done to anybody by citing the following experiment...

take a dry, empty one-gallon paint can.
drill a hole, about 3/4" in the bottom, off-center, about 1/3 of the way across the diameter.
drop a small funnel, about 3" diameter into the hole.
attach a small rubber/plastic hose to the bottom of the funnel. you'll need to support the can so that the funnel can seat fully against the hole in the bottom and the bottom of the funnel and the hose are not in contact with anything under them.
put a few teaspoons of regular cooking flour into the top of the funnel.
cut a candle to about 2" long, straight across the bottom.
light the candle and put it into the can.
tap the top onto the paint can. firmly, but try to not hit the can in such a way to knock over the candle.
without inhaling first... blow into the tube attached to the funnel.

this will blow a cloud of flour into the can above the candle flame, the flame will ignite the combustible mixture, and the resulting heat and expansion will blow the top of the can at least 10-20 feet into the air.

it will probably not go straight up, so use a 10-20' long length of rubber/plastic tubing so that you're not too close to the can when it goes off, and you can duck and cover if it comes down towards you.

safety glasses and a bicycle helmet are probably some good things to use, here!

enjoy!

 

[Loren Booda]

Is this endorsed by the Hemlock Society?

 

[plusaf]

Lol!

Is this endorsed by the Hemlock Society?

no, nor the Kevorkian family or the Darwin Awards committee.

what i described is exactly what i remembered Don Herbert ("Mr. Wizard", sponsored by GE) do on live television with his student/sidekick "Timmy."

no huhu! they did it! the lid went Bang! up and off camera before bouncing back around the set...

 

[nishant]

Any 1 Year Undergraduate Projects?

 

[RDev]

If you get the chance to run your project in front of some sizable groups (at least seven people), one idea that I saw was to cut PVC pipes to appropriate lengths and color code them. Then by smacking the end of the pipe, you get a distinct frequency from the pipe according to length. To make the project interesting, translate some simple songs into color codes and let the group play out the song under your direction. It was pretty neat for a demo. Mostly good for elementary schoolers and lower middle schoolers.

(As I understood the demo, the sound the pipe makes is based on resonant frequency of the material)

 

[RDev]

Uhm. One year undergraduate projects... Lemme see, that would be around the order of EM stuff, right? Well, just off the top of my head what would be a neat thing to find out would be to see if work done on a magnetic field (induced by current) has any affect on the current itself. The hypothesis is that since you are doing work on the field, it has to go somewhere due to conservation of energy. The way you could test that would be to measure if the resistance changes across a solenoid as you put something through the center in the opposite direction of the field.

Something to that effect, would be interesting. I am not sure what caliber of project you were looking for though. Simple test or full on case-study type deal.

 

[Zaimeen]

Think about the "Digital Society" !

 

[bijanv]

care to elaborate? :)

 

[johnparsons]

I had the idea the other day to do a project on torque...different axis..etc...

 

[kclo4x]

I did one on chemistry one once on displacement (this was when I even knew less a bout chemistry) I took a super saturated solution of sodium chloride and added a more soluble compound in this case sodium hydroxide to see if it would kick out the sodium chloride I and it did I tested it by the addition of cooper sulfate in solution and I took the top of the solution and added the copper sulfate to it. It turned bluish black witch meant that sodium hydroxide was present and no or vary little sodium chloride and I also added it to the bottom half it turned bright green witch showed that there was sodium chloride and vary little sodium hydroxide how ever I did it all in one day and it did not look good and was poorly worded so I never got any feed back on it

Apparently I made solid ionized sodium chloride when it precipitated and from what I heard it could have explosive properties but I have know clue how

 

[kurushio95]

do an experiment the proves the existence of photons. read Timeline by Michael Crichton to see what I'm talkin about

 

[Serj]

I came up with a long list. among them are:
pyrolysis
what different factors affect the heat (measured in light) of sonoluminesence
cavitation

 

[gtr]

we did a project called magic candle in this a small bulb is fitted to a candle and the circuit completed using a pencil cell etc. just in between the circuit a light dependent resistance (LDR) is fitted. ok so the circuit is completed but still the bulb does not glow but then if we light a matchstick near the candle (actually near the ldr) the resistance of the circuit decreases and the bulb glows! magic!

 

[totallyclueless]

Anyone got a good idea for an 8th grade physical science experiment? It needs to have to do with like Charles' Law or Boyle's law or the states of matter or atoms or particles. Something like that. And it can't be simple or easy, because my teacher really wants this to be a significant experiment that proves something. But it can't be extremely long and advanced either.
A lot of stuff but if anyone has a good idea just let me know. I'm desperate!

 

[Zero-G]

Anyone looking for ideas for a maths investigation project might like to consider this, which I did when I was in year 8 and won at the national level. It's a problem taken from 'Enigma' in NewScientist (18 January 2003, page 49).

"Joe's latest hobby is leatherwork. At the beginning of the soccer season he decided to make his own ball. This involved cutting out from a sheet of leather a number of pentagons and hexagons (with all sides the same length). He carefully numbered each of the pentagons with consecutive odd numbers (1,3,5...) and the hexagons with consecutive even numbers (2,4,6...) and started to sew them together as instructed. Little did he realize that he would have to sew up 90 small seams. When he eventually finished he was amazed to find that the sum of the number on any pentagon he chose plus the numbers on the adjacent hexagons always came to the same total. What was that total?"

This is a really simple project: the only tricky part was solving the above problem, but after that the rest just falls into place. Looks really impressive when one also constructs models (it's fun, too), and also try to find out whether it is actually possible to construct this ball. Also lots of potential to branch out into related areas like the geometry of the soccer ball and Euler's equation: faces + vertices = edges + 2

There are probably many more excellent puzzles in NewScientist and elsewhere

 

[Viper2838]

does anyone know any cool small explosion or projectile (missile) type experiemnts?

I have done my fair share of these. The only problem with projectile/ explosions are you must be completely certain that they are legal in your area. While it may seem a tad immature, you can make a great project out of studying the muzzle velocity of a potato gun. This can be done with the use of a ballistic pendulum.
Heres a link for the gun. http://www.spudtech.com/
By the way, I clame no responsibility for any mistakes/laws you may break. Have fun and be safe.

 

[tamilan]

Hi i wish i came to this forum last year, when I was doing my science fair project.. too bad its already done..

I was doing about "Which brand of batteries lasted the longest", fairly an easy topic to do, though is interesting.

 

[Loren Booda]

More difficult than one would think, given varying impedances and applications.

 

[chantella28]

lol in elementary school i did the same project for like 3 years, but I didn't really understand the chemistry of it until now...

we'd take pennies and put them in different solutions and see which solutions would clean the tarnish off the pennies the best. We'd use stuff like hot sauce, ketchup, laundry detergent, shampoo, different household items, both acidic and basic.

it was always vinegar and salt solution that cleaned it the best, and you can work out chemical formulas to prove why this worked the best (course we didn't do that back in grade 4 lol)

 

[chantella28]

another idea that could work would be to prove/disprove the coca cola rumors that it will "eat" items such as a steak/coins stuff like that

its rumored that coca cola is caustic/acidic enough to eat away and break down materials such as steaks/meat coins... not sure what else but I'm sure you could google it and find out

 

[KC9FVV]

What about Thomas Young's double slit experiment

Would this be feasible for a high school project? What kind of resources would we be looking at?

 

[Viper2838]

Would this be feasible for a high school project? What kind of resources would we be looking at?

We did Young's experiment in my high school's physics class. Its a little difficult setting up the experement the first time, but nothing too bad. Try the following:
Take a normal everyday microscope slide and paint one side of it black. once it has dried, use a razor blade to cut two thin lines the width of the slide(the width being the shortest length).
When you look through this, you will see the defraction caused By varying the spacing of the lines, you will get differing degrees of defraction.
You can also try shining a laser through these slits and see what effect that has.
Have fun and good luck.

 

[plusaf]

disproving urban myths...

another idea that could work would be to prove/disprove the coca cola rumors that it will "eat" items such as a steak/coins stuff like that
its rumored that coca cola is caustic/acidic enough to eat away and break down materials such as steaks/meat coins... not sure what else but I'm sure you could google it and find out

more information on "urban myths" can be found at www.snopes.com, too, as an initial point for research.

perhaps you could find some urban myths there and replicate some of the
"disproofs" of them.

+af

 

[quantumlight]

for me i did one on weather control...using water absorbent crystals in diapers to destroy clouds ... ended up in failure because i wasnt able to create a controlled cloud but a year later i found out that the cloudy formation when dry ice sublimes is actually cloud (i know amazing eh?) because it cools down teh water in air sufficiently for it to condense but it was too late

 

[kant101]

Does anyone have any ideas on a 'Mole' Project for chemistry?

 

[southerngirl5390]

I did a project on Red Tied one year... I had to models one of a healthy marine enviorment and one of a marine enviorment infected with red tied.

 

[Jude143]

science kids

Hello ,


Hope this will give a lot of support to kids who wish to for online

science and hold interactive sessions.Science projects for kids specially at

http://www.wonderwhizkids.com"



Best Regards,
Jude

 

[night nurse 991]

My little brother was assigned the topic "weather" for his science fair project.

Anyone have any good ideas for weather projects?

 

[Jude143]

My little brother was assigned the topic "weather" for his science fair project.

Anyone have any good ideas for weather projects?

Try the suggested resource and get back to me

if you could unable to find the concept you needed.

Cheers!

-----------------------
science for kid

 

[HeavenTornApart]

anyone fancy a project on perfecting perpetual motion?

you will learn loads of physics and if you succed you will become quite famous and wealthy

(ps if you do succed i want a 20% cut in all the income)

 

[rashean123]

well!, my plain suggestion is, why not make a hydrogen generator, a hybrid rocket motor, this would be good for indoor experiments because it does not cause smoke, if u use the right fuel, the best part is that you could get the parts from home depot, or lows. the oxidizer would be a gaseous oxygen tank,(non pollutant) and u can find more about that on www.ukrocketman.com they will give good info.

 

[jamesyboy1990]

i remember in grade 6 my friend and i did a project on different types of insulation. With a lightbulb as a heat source, we got the temp of a cardboard box up to 280 degrees Celsius

 

['anybody']

I like the hydrogen burning one personally, but I'd like to separate the hydrogen from water also. As for the weather one, how about trying to create controlled clouds in a heated jar or something? maybe a mini-hurricane in a bowl(heated and non heated), or a research project on lightning?