Science Fair

3278 · Post by **3278** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:22 am

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?

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:40 am

How about a makeshift wind tunnel showing Bernoulli's Principle, with a model wing, a fan and a smoke streamer?

Rev · Post by **Rev** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:42 am

I once measured the relative viscosity of iced and near boiling water.

Suprisingly I actually detected a difference just by measuring the time it took for a bucket full to pour through small hole.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:46 am

You could also do a presentation on the wavelengths of white light with a small crysal prizm and a light source...

MooCow · Post by **MooCow** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:14 am

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.

Marius · Post by **Marius** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 3:30 am

Dissect a small animal?

Thorn · Post by **Thorn** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:47 am

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.

Lord Death Hand · Post by **Lord Death Hand** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:26 am

The effects of gasoline on fire.

Sorry, I'll leave now.

Marius · Post by **Marius** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:54 am

Although along those lines, some kind of project incorporating the words 'gasoline,' 'vapor pressure,' and 'flammability' in the title.

Marius · Post by **Marius** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:54 am

Feng shui

crone · Post by **crone** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 10:09 am

Lemon battery.

White carnations in coloured water (though that needs to sit overnight, at least).

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 10:40 am

Some ideas that I found neat.

The Tornado Genrator was cool, but I think a littel complex.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 10:40 am

Some ideas that I found neat.

The Tornado Genrator was cool, but I think a little complex.

Szechuan · Post by **Szechuan** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:22 pm

Something more an 8-year-old's speed: Air pressure keeping a napkin dry when you immerse an upside-down cup in water.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:32 pm

Szechuan wrote:Something more an 8-year-old's speed...

Whew. Thank you!

Szechuan wrote:Air pressure keeping a napkin dry when you immerse an upside-down cup in water.

Explain? How do you do that?

Szechuan · Post by **Szechuan** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:37 pm

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.

Thorn · Post by **Thorn** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:39 pm

Dude, Szech, that's a really cool one.

(Sorry 32 - my only science fair was in junior high)

3278 · Post by **3278** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:41 pm

Not at all! I think there are a /lot/ of really cool, really appropriate choices for an 8-year-old. Just not, you know, all of them. Although I personally think making a fuel air explosive would be way cooler than a leaf collection!

Kai · Post by **Kai** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 3:06 pm

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.

Gunny · Post by **Gunny** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 4:56 pm

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...

MissTeja · Post by **MissTeja** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:41 pm

I was just obsessed with simulating tornadoes and volcanos when I was 8. Both are quite easy to do.

Liniah · Post by **Liniah** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:52 pm

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.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 12:31 am

In a fit of irony, it ended up not mattering, because you have to pre-register. But now we've got a year to do one!

Thanks, everybody. Tons of cool ideas for us to try, even if they're /not/ for the science fair.

Liniah · Post by **Liniah** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 1:38 am

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.

Anguirel · Post by **Anguirel** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 1:53 am

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.

lorg · Post by **lorg** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 7:58 am

We never had a science fair in school. Man I wish we had had them.

Kai · Post by **Kai** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 2:31 pm

Well if you have time and all, best stuff in the world, American Science & Surplus

Anguirel · Post by **Anguirel** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 2:58 pm

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).