Science Fair
Science Fair
Due to circumstances outside our control, my daughter and I have between 3:00pm and 5:30pm tomorrow to make her science fair project. This is not, I think, nearly enough time, and most of the ideas we'd already had are impractical given the scheduling limitations. My initial idea - making a model atom bomb - has been, so far, poorly recieved by nearly everyone, so that's idea one knocked down. [Apparently, the apple has fallen far enough from the tree that at 8 years of age, she's not fascinated by kiloton weapons.]
My other ideas are making a bonsai juniper - which we have the equipment and the resources for - or making a leaf collection [since I live across from a forest]. On the other hand, we only have one un-bonsai'd juniper, and leaf collections aren't exactly the most original idea. [I've already nixed suggestions that we make a volcano.]
So, I turn to you, creative and intelligent veterans of many science fairs: do you have any novel ideas for cool, educational science fair projects that can be done in a minimum of time?
My other ideas are making a bonsai juniper - which we have the equipment and the resources for - or making a leaf collection [since I live across from a forest]. On the other hand, we only have one un-bonsai'd juniper, and leaf collections aren't exactly the most original idea. [I've already nixed suggestions that we make a volcano.]
So, I turn to you, creative and intelligent veterans of many science fairs: do you have any novel ideas for cool, educational science fair projects that can be done in a minimum of time?
- UncleJoseph
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- UncleJoseph
- Wuffle Initiate
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- Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2002 8:32 am
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Do you have access to a couple of guns? I once did a project on ballistic forensics. Pretty fun, and of course it disturbed the teachers.
How about building a still? That freaks them out as well. (Course it's illegal in the states, but do you really care about that? )
Seem to recall a classmate once doing a study of different gases, comparing their weight by filling balloons with them. Something like that.
How about electroplating some stuff? Neat results, though not a particularly exciting presentation.
How about building a still? That freaks them out as well. (Course it's illegal in the states, but do you really care about that? )
Seem to recall a classmate once doing a study of different gases, comparing their weight by filling balloons with them. Something like that.
How about electroplating some stuff? Neat results, though not a particularly exciting presentation.
_
Cain is a Whore
Instant Cash is a Slut
Cain is a Whore
Instant Cash is a Slut
Dissect a small animal?
There is then a need to guard against a temptation to overstate the economic evils of our own age, and to ignore the existence of similar, or worse, evils in earlier ages. Even though some exaggeration may, for the time, stimulate others, as well as ourselves, to a more intense resolve that the present evils should no longer exist, but it is not less wrong and generally it is much more foolish to palter with truth for good than for a selfish cause. The pessimistic descriptions of our own age, combined with the romantic exaggeration of the happiness of past ages must tend to setting aside the methods of progress, the work of which, if slow, is yet solid, and lead to the hasty adoption of others of greater promise, but which resemble the potent medicines of a charlatan, and while quickly effecting a little good sow the seeds of widespread and lasting decay. This impatient insincerity is an evil only less great than the moral torpor which can endure, that we with our modern resources and knowledge should look contentedly at the continued destruction of all that is worth having. There is an evil and an extreme impatience as well as an extreme patience with social ills.
- Thorn
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Thanks to my dad's radiator shop tools, I did a project on the temperature water boils in a vacuum. Didn't turn out well - we couldn't find a dish strong enough to withstand the vacuum portion of it long enough for the water to boil. But then, you're a bit smarter than my dad, so maybe you'll be able to come up with a way for it to actually work.
_<font color=red size=2>Just wait until I finish knitting this row.</font>
- Lord Death Hand
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Although along those lines, some kind of project incorporating the words 'gasoline,' 'vapor pressure,' and 'flammability' in the title.
There is then a need to guard against a temptation to overstate the economic evils of our own age, and to ignore the existence of similar, or worse, evils in earlier ages. Even though some exaggeration may, for the time, stimulate others, as well as ourselves, to a more intense resolve that the present evils should no longer exist, but it is not less wrong and generally it is much more foolish to palter with truth for good than for a selfish cause. The pessimistic descriptions of our own age, combined with the romantic exaggeration of the happiness of past ages must tend to setting aside the methods of progress, the work of which, if slow, is yet solid, and lead to the hasty adoption of others of greater promise, but which resemble the potent medicines of a charlatan, and while quickly effecting a little good sow the seeds of widespread and lasting decay. This impatient insincerity is an evil only less great than the moral torpor which can endure, that we with our modern resources and knowledge should look contentedly at the continued destruction of all that is worth having. There is an evil and an extreme impatience as well as an extreme patience with social ills.
Feng shui
There is then a need to guard against a temptation to overstate the economic evils of our own age, and to ignore the existence of similar, or worse, evils in earlier ages. Even though some exaggeration may, for the time, stimulate others, as well as ourselves, to a more intense resolve that the present evils should no longer exist, but it is not less wrong and generally it is much more foolish to palter with truth for good than for a selfish cause. The pessimistic descriptions of our own age, combined with the romantic exaggeration of the happiness of past ages must tend to setting aside the methods of progress, the work of which, if slow, is yet solid, and lead to the hasty adoption of others of greater promise, but which resemble the potent medicines of a charlatan, and while quickly effecting a little good sow the seeds of widespread and lasting decay. This impatient insincerity is an evil only less great than the moral torpor which can endure, that we with our modern resources and knowledge should look contentedly at the continued destruction of all that is worth having. There is an evil and an extreme impatience as well as an extreme patience with social ills.
- Serious Paul
- Devil
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- Serious Paul
- Devil
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1. Stuff a napkin into the bottom of the cup so it stays inside when you tip it upside down.
2.If you keep the overturned cup held as perfectly level as possible, and push it below the water, the air inside the cup doesn't escape as it's immersed. You're left with an air bubble inside the cup, which keeps the napkin dry.
This works great because it's easily explained to a child ("Since the air can't go up, and the pressure of the water keeps it from going down, it stays inside the cup and keeps the napkin dry.") but can be elaborated enough to make the kid seem all professional and stuff.
2.If you keep the overturned cup held as perfectly level as possible, and push it below the water, the air inside the cup doesn't escape as it's immersed. You're left with an air bubble inside the cup, which keeps the napkin dry.
This works great because it's easily explained to a child ("Since the air can't go up, and the pressure of the water keeps it from going down, it stays inside the cup and keeps the napkin dry.") but can be elaborated enough to make the kid seem all professional and stuff.
8? Hmm....I think I confiscated every small vase and glass in the house, some food coloring and a spoon and played with the sounds of containers based on height, width, temp and depth of water. I think the original idea was to try and build a scale, but it just got more interesting.
You can always do the surface tension thing too with powder and soap and water.
You can always do the surface tension thing too with powder and soap and water.
10:41 Kai: Ohayou minna
10:42 Adam: ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER!
10:44 Kai: Fuck off, how's that? ;P
10:45 Adam: Much better.
My 5th grade science project consisted of a diorama of a few constructed dinosaur skeletons complete with era accurate backdrop and a nest of unhatched eggs that one of the dinosaurs died protecting (hence the bones). It took me two weeks though...
<center><b><font size=1><font color="#FF9900">"Invaders blood marches through my veins, like giant radioactive rubber pants! The pants command me! Do not ignore my veins!" -Zim</font></font></b></center>
I had a book full of science experiments when I was little. I wonder where it's gotten to. I'll check the garage sale pile and see if it's in there. I've been meaning to go through that stuff anyway.
I remember doing some physics thing with a button and string...something with a magnifying glass.....poking a pin through a baloon with tape on it and watching it not pop....making rock candy....making a soda bottle tonado....I'll have to check for the book. Oh, there was one about making a circut with batteries and small light bulbs too. I know I was trying to do that one when I was 8.
I remember doing some physics thing with a button and string...something with a magnifying glass.....poking a pin through a baloon with tape on it and watching it not pop....making rock candy....making a soda bottle tonado....I'll have to check for the book. Oh, there was one about making a circut with batteries and small light bulbs too. I know I was trying to do that one when I was 8.
<center><font face="monospace" color=#0099FF font size="-1">one more blue sunny day</font></center>
Phew, then I'm off the hook for not being able to locate that book. Boy are there a lot of spiders in the garage sale pile. *shudder* Tons of books, but not the one I was looking for. And since you're not on a limit now, try the library- there are a bunch of cool things to try along these lines in books in school libraries...at least there were in mine.
<center><font face="monospace" color=#0099FF font size="-1">one more blue sunny day</font></center>
- Anguirel
- Freeman of the Crimson Assfro
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If you have only a single day next year as well... Buy a $10 laser pointer (that's the cost at my local Target, anyways) and do the single and double slit experiment to show interference and wave effects. I think those are totally awesome, and very easy to set up.
complete. dirty. whore.
_Patience said: Ang, you are truly a font of varied and useful information.
IRC Fun:
<Reika> What a glorious way to die.
<Jackal> What are you, Klingon?
<Reika> Worse, a paladin.
<Jackal> We're all fucked.
_Patience said: Ang, you are truly a font of varied and useful information.
IRC Fun:
<Reika> What a glorious way to die.
<Jackal> What are you, Klingon?
<Reika> Worse, a paladin.
<Jackal> We're all fucked.
Well if you have time and all, best stuff in the world, American Science & Surplus
10:41 Kai: Ohayou minna
10:42 Adam: ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER!
10:44 Kai: Fuck off, how's that? ;P
10:45 Adam: Much better.
- Anguirel
- Freeman of the Crimson Assfro
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- Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2002 12:04 pm
- Location: City of Angels
I'd just like to note that Laser pointers wer eon Clearance for $2.50, so I picked one up and in about 10 minutes (mostly spent trying to figure out how to craft the double slit part of the experiment) I succeeded in demonstrating that interference was happening by using a razor (my box cutter from work, but any razor edge should work as long as it isn't held captive from doing real cutting by being cruelly placed in a safety cartridge), a piece of flat cardboard ripped from a shirt gift box (paper was abysmally difficult to put in two slits and then get both open - of course, I was using some pretty low-quality stuff...) and my shiny new purple cased red beam keychain laser pointer.
This did not, however, produce the banding I was hoping for, probably because I did it in 10 minutes and my slits frankly sucked and were full of frayed bits of cardboard which scattered light a bit worse then I'd have liked. However, the extension of the line (as opposed to the equally shittily constructed single slit) was enough for me to see that interference was happening. I suspect a better pair of slits would be managed by making a single wider slit and then using a piece of thread or wire (preferably very fine wire) to divide it. However, I just wanted to do a proof of concept (because I suggested it, and then wondered if a cheap laser would actually work properly for it).
This did not, however, produce the banding I was hoping for, probably because I did it in 10 minutes and my slits frankly sucked and were full of frayed bits of cardboard which scattered light a bit worse then I'd have liked. However, the extension of the line (as opposed to the equally shittily constructed single slit) was enough for me to see that interference was happening. I suspect a better pair of slits would be managed by making a single wider slit and then using a piece of thread or wire (preferably very fine wire) to divide it. However, I just wanted to do a proof of concept (because I suggested it, and then wondered if a cheap laser would actually work properly for it).
complete. dirty. whore.
_Patience said: Ang, you are truly a font of varied and useful information.
IRC Fun:
<Reika> What a glorious way to die.
<Jackal> What are you, Klingon?
<Reika> Worse, a paladin.
<Jackal> We're all fucked.
_Patience said: Ang, you are truly a font of varied and useful information.
IRC Fun:
<Reika> What a glorious way to die.
<Jackal> What are you, Klingon?
<Reika> Worse, a paladin.
<Jackal> We're all fucked.