If you enjoyed creating flashes of color in the milk pan in the last science experiment described on the blog you may like to convert it into a full fledged science project. All you need to do is have a definite question to answer. For instance you could consider a couple of variables and frame questions like – how does the shape of the milk pan affect the experiment.

Here you need to get an assortment of different shaped baking trays together before you begin the experiment. Now follow the same process of creating flashes of color in the pan by pouring the liquids into the different shaped baking trays. See which shape allows the most spectacular display of colors to be seen. Note down your findings.

Another question that you could seek an answer to is how different brands of dish washing liquids affect the experiment. Use the same shape of baking tray or milk pan in this set of experiments, just change the liquid soap brand as you repeat the process with a minimum of three different types of liquid dish washing soap. Record the observations to see which liquid soap works the best in the science project. You could even try to figure out why one works best or if all work the same way.

Do you find plain old white milk boring? Well here’s a simple science experiment which will make you see milk with flashes of brilliant colors in it. You’ll never look at your cup of milk the same way again. Here’s a list of things that you will need to perform this experiment.

A baking tray that is long and flat, a cookie tray will do fine. A cup of whole fat milk, please note that low fat milk will not work for this experiment as the milk fat plays a key role in it. Liquid food color in three different shades, ideally red, green and yellow. Dish washing liquid soap, a small bottle fitted with a nozzle that allows you to gently drop the liquid in small amounts.

Okay now we’re ready to begin. Place the baking tray on a flat surface where it can not be jolted. The dining table is a good spot. Pour out just enough milk into the baking tray to cover the base. Now add the three different colors of liquid food color in three different locations inside the tray. About eight to ten drops should be enough.

On top of the food color add about five or six drops of the dish washing liquid. Now sit back and watch the flashes of color displayed in the milk filled pan. The liquid soap tries to break down the fat in the milk and scatters the food color in the process. Talk about a colorful science experiment.

Who doesn’t like the sight of  freshly minted coins? The shinny pennies have fascinated more than one child. However did you know that even the old, dull and rather grimy looking pennies can also be made to shine again? Here’s how you would do so.

Collect all the old and dirty pennies that you can find. Your parents are sure to have some in their wallet or purse. Now get a flat plastic bowl or container. Pour some white vinegar into the plastic container and add a spoonful of salt to it. Stir to dissolve the salt and then add the pennies to the solution.

Let it stand for about ten to fifteen minutes. Now remove them from the solution and wash them in regular water from the kitchen tap. Now wipe them off with a paper kitchen towel. All the grime and dirt would have come off leaving you with a few really shinny new coins.

The science behind this trick is simple. The coins have  a layer of copper oxide on them which gets dissolved in the acid from the vinegar as it reacts with the salt.  This chemical reaction is what cleans out all the dull coating from the pennies leaving them in mint fresh condition.

The multicolored blobs of a lava lamp can be quite fascinating to watch. How cool would it be to make something like that by yourself at home? Its a very simple science experiment which you can do with your friends at home. Make sure you ask your mom before you use the materials needed to make these blobs in a bottle from your kitchen.

And here is a list of the things that you will need for the experiment. One clear transparent plastic bottle. You can use a one liter cold drink bottle by taking off the label. One cup of vegetable oil, water, some liquid food coloring and a couple of fizzing tablets. You can use any effervescent tablet that is used for digestive purposes.

Use a funnel to pour the water into the bottle till its 3/4 full. Now add the vegetable oil to the bottle. Add about ten to twelve drops of the food coloring and wait for a while for the water and oil to settle down. Now add the fizzy tablet and watch the lava lamp effect come to life as blobs move in the bottle.

To make it even more fun shine a flashlight from the bottom of the bottle. As the tablet wears out you will need to add another one to keep the spectacular effects going in this science project.

Crystals are stones which have formed as layer over layer of the material they are made of cooled and added to the rock. There are all kinds of different colored crystal stones in the world. The most common one would be the pure white colored crystal stones that a number of people use in prayer beads across the world.

A large number of semi precious stones like agate, amethysts, and cat’s eye are also basically crystal rock formations. So how would you like to make your own edible crystal rock candy? Here’s what all you will need. A glass of water, about three glasses of sugar, a wooden satay stick or chopstick, a tall narrow glass of water or glass jar, and a helpful adult.

Get the adult to boil the water in a pan and then dissolve the sugar in the water. You will need patience to let all the sugar dissolve so its better to add a few spoons at a time. Once the water is super saturated with sugar keep it aside to cool a bit and then pour it into the tall narrow glass.

Next dip the wooden satay stick into the glass and keep turning it every four to five hours as it cools. You will find that the sugar syrup begins to cool off and form a rock candy in crystalline form on the wooden stick. An edible science project is the best kind.

In our last science experiment we saw that sunlight is actually made up of a number of different wave lengths of light each of which can have a different color. So why is it that the sky, on a clear day, appears to us in the color blue? Why is the sky not plain white like sunlight or a kaleidoscope of different colors as found in the rainbow?

The sky above earth is not a vacuum. It is full of gases of all kinds. One of which is oxygen and it is thanks to this oxygen in the air that all of us are alive. This mixed bag of gases in the atmosphere also is responsible for the color of the sky. As the sunlight comes through this set of gases some wavelengths of light pass clear through while others get bounced around by the molecules in the gases.

Colors like red, yellow, and orange pass straight through the mix of gases in the atmosphere while the blue color manages to get reflected all over. The bits of reflected blue hits your eyes as you look up. This is why it becomes the most predominantly present light wave length in the sky making the sky appear blue in color. There are a number of interesting science projects based on the sky that you can try out.

If you say the word “light” there is a vision of white light from a tubelight or yellow light from a bulb that comes first to mind. However that simple light is not just made up of one color. It is in fact a collection of many different colors all rolled into one. In this science experiment we are going to split light up to reveal its spectrum.

This Light Spectrum is the set of visible wave lengths of the light that can be seen by the naked eye. For the experiment you will need a pan two third full of water, a small mirror, a blank sheet of paper, and a nice sunny day which gives you good direct sunlight rays.

Set the pan of water in direct sunlight. You can place it on a table or put it right down on the floor. Now with one hand hold the mirror under the water in the pan. Let the light that is reflected by the sun on to the mirror be caught on the paper that you hold in your other hand.

You will need to adjust the angles of both the  mirror under water and the paper above it till you see the visible spectrum of light on the paper. Then hold it steady and study the light reflected on the paper. It will look rather like a rainbow as the water has acted like a prism and separated the different wavelengths of light in this science experiment.

A visit to the dentist is not the only way to tell if you are brushing your teeth properly. Now with the help of this new brush developed by a company called Beam you can actually get a report on your phone that tells you just how well you brushed your teeth.

The toothbrush is not electric so you will be manually brushing your teeth, but the phone app will be sent a report via Bluetooth. You can time your strokes and also monitor the daily progress ensuring that you brush your teeth more than the average time of 46 seconds that most people spend brushing their teeth.

That duration is woefully inadequate for brushing your teeth properly. It is why the brush also has a two minute timer which lets you know just how long you need to brush your teeth properly. The time is activated by the body’s own bio-electricity when the brush is placed inside the mouth.

The activated toothbrush then automatically sends the data to the smart phone of the user where it can be updated daily. The data is then analyzedlike in a science project based on the log generated and you are told how much of your brushing goal you have met.

Currently navigation of spacecrafts is done by radio waves sent out into space from a network of ground stations located on Earth. As the spacecraft has to wait for instructions from Earth it makes navigation in space a lengthy and time consuming process. Now the European Space Agency is looking at a new navigation technique for spaceships.

They are hoping to use x-rays from dead stars to help the space ships navigate autonomously in space.  Researchers at the National Physics Laboratory have already been working on the navigation system in the solar system and hope to extend its capacity beyond into outer space.

Pulsars are the x-rays from dead stars which will be used to help the navigation of a large number of space crafts. The traditional navigation system can support only a limited number of spacecrafts. The news system will be a major improvement and will allow more than one space mission to be undertaken autonomously.

Researchers at the University of Leicester hope that using pulsars with regular frequency of emission will allow the news system to work as a new space GPS system. This will revolutionize the way space ship navigation occurs. It is still some ways from becoming a reliable navigation system but the ongoing science project is one which will have a major impact.

In a futuristic world it would be possible to charge your phone on the go by merely dropping it into the right pocket in your purse. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? You would never run out of juice for your phone if you were charging it each time you stored it in your purse.

Well, its no longer futuristic and its no longer science fiction. You can in fact charge your phone in a purse today. Its called the “Everpurse” and was developed by Dan Salcedo for his wife Liz Ormesher Salcedo. Dan is a serial entrepreneur who developed the purse to help his wife, a social worker, who frequently would run down the battery of her cell phone.

The problem of the phone running out of juice each day was addressed by a number of experiments that began with off the shelf parts from electronic stores. Eventually Dan came u with the cute clutch that had cutting edge technology embedded in the lining which made it possible for Liz to charge her phone by merely dropping it into the pocket.

The Everpurse was put out on display last month to a crowd funding platform as the couple hope to raise money for its commercial production. This is one science project that is guaranteed to make investors sit up and take notice.