Archive for May, 2010

Science Fair Project Ideas

What sort of science fair project should you make? This is the main question that you need to answer before you begin work. Naturally the project for a high school student should not be in the realms of something that an elementary school student can produce.

It is necessary to pick a science project which goes a bit beyond what you have been taught in class. The extra effort and learning that you put into the science fair project gets counted in the judge’s decision. The award winning science fair projects are more likely to be original ideas than copies.

So think of new and original projects that you can do. A simple magnetic train on iron tracks would be more interesting than a baking soda volcano. If you can conceptualize something more interesting, such as a steam boat in a water tub all the better.

Why restrict yourself to things you can do by yourself. Get a team together and work on a more elaborate project. Each individual will bring their own expertise to the science project and make it all the more interesting.

Get help from your science teacher if you feel there are some aspects that you can not handle alone. Browse through these science fair project ideas to see what you can pick up for your project.

Leave a Comment

Does Sunlight help plants grow better than Artificial light?

This is a simple experiment to do. The science project is based on the simple biological principle of growth. We are trying to find the better growth conditions for a couple of identical plants. So you will need two different plants of the same type. Make sure that they are the same age and size.

You can germinate some beans so that you have the ideal candidates for your experiment. Once you have transplanted them to a pot and they have taken root you are ready to subject them to your experiment. The hypothesis that we are hoping to test is “Do plants grow better with sunlight exposure”.

This means that one of the plants must receive proper sunlight and the other plant must be exposed only to artificial light. Label the pots of the plants with “sunlight” and “artificial light” so that you don’t confuse them. Now record the height of both the plants in a notebook.

You must now record the growth of both the plants at intervals of five days to see how they are progressing. At the end of the month or 30 days you can compare the two plants to see which one has grown more. Results may be surprising. Check out more science projects here.

Leave a Comment

Simple Projects can be Educative too

Are you the kind of person who believes that unless you have spent a great deal of money to make the science project it can possibly not be good? Nothing can be further than the truth. You need to change your attitude to look at the simple science projects which cost very little and can be very educative.

Tell me what pencil cells do you use in your flash light? The simple battery powered torch can become the base of an interesting and educative science experiment. Answer the simple question, “Which brand of battery will last the longest.”

Make a guess about the one you think is the longest lasting battery and that becomes your hypothesis. Use at least three different brands so that you can compare the test results. Now test the hypothesis with a simple experiment. See how long a pair of batteries lights up the torch.

Record the number of hours each battery runs the flash light. Now check the records to see which brand battery set lasted the longest. Was it the one that you predicted? Or was it some other brand? Now you will know which the best brand of batteries to buy is. Look up more ideas for interesting projects here.

Leave a Comment

Generating Ideas for Science Fair Projects

There are a million things that you can do for your science fair project. Unfortunately you can simply not do a million things for you science fair project. So how do you generate the right ideas for your project? Maybe this article can help.

To generate ideas the best thing to do is read a science magazine. There is so much information there that you can mold to your purpose. Think of what articles interest you and why they attract you. Minute you find the common underlying factor; you will have a head start on your project.

For instance if you like to read about machines that use artificial intelligence, you know that you will enjoy making a simple robot. Now all you need to do is decide what your budget is and then get designing the robot you will build.

Similarly if articles about flying and different kinds of flying machines interest you, you may want to build an aero model. There are many ways of designing aircrafts and you can get them to fly with a small engine fitted in them.

Just pick what you enjoy reading about and you will be interested in building it. Try more ideas for science fair projects here.

Leave a Comment

Science Projects to Preserve Our Heritage

Some years ago in 2001 the Taliban led government of Afghanistan decided to destroy the ancient Buddha Statues at Bamiyan. These huge Buddha Statues were part of the Buddhist Heritage which are now lost to the new generations forever. They were not even documented or photographed properly.

This action has inspired a non profit organization called CyArk to an interesting science project to help preserve the heritage of our earth for future generations. They have been making digital scans of the Moai statues of Easter Islands, the ruins of Pompeii and now the sculptures of Mount Rushmore.

Should these structures ever get damaged or need to be rebuilt the scans will allow a full scale 3 D model to be developed. These models can then be used to restore the monument to its original glory. These scans are going to be freely available on the internet and can be studied on their website.

Saving the world is not just about the natural environment anymore. It is also about the human environment and the work of past civilizations being preserved.  The inventor of the laser scanner could never have predicted this use of the equipment. What will your science fair project be used for?

Leave a Comment

Boost your memory with a nasal spray

One of the most popular science projects deals with experiments to help boost the memory skills of human beings. People eat foods that are supposed to boost memory such as Almonds. They take supplements with herbs that are said to enhance brain activity. They even practice mental exercises to keep the brain cells sharp.

And now they will be able to get smarter by merely using a nasal spray. Researchers working with Christian Benedict at the Institute for Neuroendrocrinology in Munster in Germany may just have developed the ultimate memory booster in the form of a nasal spray. The spray is said to improve transfer of information from short term memory to long term memory.

The key ingredient in the nasal spray is interleukin-6 or IL-6. This is essentially a neurotransmitter which is produced naturally in the body. The memory boosting spray was to be sniffed at before sleeping. And the next day the participants in the experiment were asked to recall words that they had read the day before in short stories.

The researchers found that those members of the experiments who had received a dose of the nasal spray containing IL-6 were much better at remember the words they had read the previous day than the ones who had not been sprayed with it. Sometimes science projects can have very real and practical uses instantly.

Leave a Comment