The grade that you score on your science fair project is usually dependent on just how much effort you have put into the project. The more you work at it, the better the science project will be and the higher is your likely grade. There is no short cut to a great grade. You will need to work on the project.

That said, it does not mean that working hard has to be drudgery. If you pick your topic with care you will end up learning all about something that really interests you. And time always flies when you are having fun. So think about what seems like a more fun topic before you start working on the science project.

Naturally it will have to be be an experiment that is possible at your level. Don’t pick something that needs a rocket scientist to accomplish. At the same time remember to make the project challenging enough to keep your interest alive. Check with your teacher for some possible suggestions based on your interests.

Pick something that you can collect fact about easily. Plus something that lends itself to easy testing and maybe even a working model. Remember in the end its about impressing the judges and getting a good grade. So it has to have enough presence on its own. You can help by being well prepared when you present it to the judges. Here’s more help on finding the right project for yourself. If you make a good beginning you are half way to a good grade.

What is Air Pressure and how can you use it in a science project? As you know air is all around us. It tends to push against us at a standard pressure. This is measured as 14.7 psi. However what happens when the air pressure around us is disturbed?

Ever feel the wind blowing? That is a direct result of the air pressure getting disturbed. However the wind can not be controlled in a science project. So let us pick an easier test for air pressure. All kinds of motion is possible to manipulate if you decide to meddle with the pockets of air pressure around you.

For instance if you blow under a balloon it will rise and float away. This happens because the pocket of air pressure under it is disturbed. So once the balloon moves and the effect of your blowing ends it will float down to its new location and sit there till some thing else disturbs the air pressure around it.

A balloon is light and so is easily influenced with the slightest change of air pressure, but how about water? Can air pressure effects be tested on water? Of course they can. In fact there is one trick here which magicians use in their show. It is not really magic but the science of air pressure at work. Here’s a whole list of experiments based on air pressure for you to try out. Using stuff like bottles, cans and balloons you can test the air pressure in the atmosphere around you.

No matter what field of science  you want to do your science fair project in, you can use liquids. If you want to do your project in Physics you can use the density of the different fluids around to make a good comparative study. You can use different materials to test the density of the fluids. Anything from a pencil to a balloon can be used to check buoyancy of the liquid as well.

If you wish to use chemistry as your subject of choice, you may use something more exciting like acids. However as these can be potentially dangerous these experiments are best done under adult supervision. That does not mean that all chemistry science projects involving fluids have to use acids. You could even do solvent tests. How much is each liquid on your list able to dissolve?

Did you know that water is known as the “Universal Solvent”? That is because it is able to dissolve more salts or chemical compounds than most others. So how about doing a science project to see if that is really true? Pick some other liquids and get yourself a few common salts. Make sure none are going to react. Check with your teacher before you begin the actual experiment.

If that seems a bit too much work check out this experiment.  Will the bowling ball sink or float? There truly is a whole world of experiments and science projects out there. All you need to do is pick one which matches your level of experience, your interest and your budget. All the best.

Liquids interact with each other in many ways. If you were to do a science project about different types of liquids, it would make an interesting experiment. Think of vinegar and oil. If you pour them into the same glass what will happen? How about whiskey and water. If you pour them in a glass together what will happen?

You can test the density of liquids. Which is easy to do with simple buoyancy tests. Take a set of three or five liquids. Get them poured into similar containers and in equal measures. Now collect a few light and heavy things that you can check buoyancy with. If you record your observations in a systematic manner, your science fair project is done.

All you need to do is get a basic principle and test it. That’s an instant science project for you. Take Surface Tension for example. Is it the same for all fluids? No it isn’t. How do you prove it? That can become a good science fair project if you delve into it.

It is not possible to talk about fluids and not mention bubbles. You know its great fun blowing bubbles with soapy water. But do you know the kind of soap you mix in the water affects the kind of bubbles you will be able to blow. Check it out some time. Here’s one simple experiment of interacting liquids that you might enjoy.

Science is at  work all around us. To understand how these scientific principles work all we need to do is take a better look at things around us. Shiny spoons reflect light. This can teach us about the nature of light. If we look at a dull spoon the light does not get reflected that well. This teaches us about the nature of metal.

Mirrors reflect images if there is light in the room. If it is dark the same mirror becomes a playground of dark shadows. This teaches us that light is needed to reflect images in a mirror. In fact the image that we see in the mirror is nothing more than light waves reflected back at us from our body.

Sunlight is great for all kinds of experiments. Ever try lighting a pile of straw with a magnifying glass? If you don’t hold the magnifying glass at the right angle you can spend the full day trying to get a spark going and not get anything. There is science hiding in that as well.

Artificial light is the kind that lights up the insides of our homes. Of course it is not limited to being inside buildings, there are artificial light street lights out on the road as well. These lights are of many different kinds and each uses different scientific principles in generating light.  Besides light there are emissions of many other kinds in our universe. Check out a few more details here.

The food that we eat is actually a whole chemical experiment on its own. The kitchen can be a great chemistry lab for those interested in some science projects. Think about it. What is a chemical reaction all about? It is about taking two things and adding some external energy to make it a whole new thing.

And what does a chef do? He takes a number of different ingredients and adds some heat to them and cooks up a new dish. You can even do a whole range of experiments with temperature as well. How soon does milk boil? Does it boil in the same time that water boils? What about coffee? Does adding coffee to milk before boiling make it boil sooner or later?

Then we can do some experiments with mixing things. Some things get easily dissolved. Such as sugar teaspoons in milk. Then there are others that don’t dissolve, but we mix together anyway to make suspensions. Say blending tomato and adding it to water to make soup. If you need more ideas check out this article here.

The food that we eat has a whole lot of science hidden it in. You can look at the ingredients of the humble kitchen shelf with a whole new attitude. There is a whole pile of fun chemistry experiments just waiting to be done there. Just make sure that you warn your mom before you move into the kitchen

Last time I spoke about how eggs and sugar can be used in science projects.  This time we talk about other possible ingredients that you can get off the kitchen shelf and use in your experiments. One fun experiment involves using yeast. Considering that it is essential in making bread, understanding how it works would also be fun.

Essentially the yeast works on the gluten in the flour. You can try different types of flour with various amounts of yeast. See which type rises fastest. Check what the commercial bakeries use. Ask what that aunt of yours who loves baking bread uses. There is a whole lot of fun to be had in making different shapes as you bake the bread as well.

You can learn about oxidization using fruits. In fact an apple is a great fruit for such experiments. Cut up an apple into four pieces. Just leave one side open to the air. Seal up one of the other ones with foil. Use a few drops of lemon juice on the third. And wrap up the last piece in cling film. Then examine all the pieces after an hour or two. The results will be amazing.

The cabbage is a great vegetable to learn about acids and bases. Try out the experiments here to learn about acids and bases in a way that you never imagined before.  It will make the common place ingridients such as vinegar, cabbage juice and water seem really exciting. Don’t think that’s possible? Just check it out.

Did you know it was possible to come up with a dozen different science projects using the food in the kitchen? I am not kidding. Take the humble egg for instance. You can use it in so many ways. I’m not talking about cooking it boiled, scrambled or poached. I am talking about science experiments that you can conduct with it.

How about baking a cake with eggs and one without. The difference in the texture would give you a good idea about why the egg is an essential ingredient. You could see how using merely the egg white in a souffle makes it rise better. You could even think up of other ingredients that you can use as a substitute for your friend who is allergic to eggs.

You can use it as a fragile package that you drop from a hight in different types of material. Try using different material to see which serves the purpose of protection best. I got an email once talking about how an egg was fried using two mobile phones. As you can see there is a whole lot of experimentation that you can do with just one small egg.

Sugar is another good food to use. You can see how it makes candy, or how you can caramalyze it. How the taste changes and the way caramalyzed sugar changes the color of the food it is cooked wth. Similarly there are a number of other foods that you can use to make a science project interesting. Just think up of interesting combinations.

Science is at work all around us. The various branches of science that you can use for a science experiment are Biology, Physics, and Chemistry. Biology is the science of the living things. The subject is further demarcated into Zoology or the study of animals. You can derive that from the use of the word “zoo” in the name of the science branch.

Botany or the study of plants is the other branch of Biology. You can base your science project on what you observed about plants and animals around you. This would mean that you used Biology as the base of your project. Biologists are also responsible for cutting edge technology such as genetically modified plants and animal clones. Remember the sheep Dolly?

With Chemistry you have two main branches. Organic Chemistry which deals with carbon based chemical compounds and Inorganic Chemistry which deals with all other sorts of chemical compounds. However my favorite is Physics. There are many different branches in Physics. If you study the movement of heavenly bodies in the starry sky above it is Astrophysics.

If you study tiny molecules and atoms which are so small that they cant be seen by the naked eye, you are studying Atomic Physics. As you can see the scope of the subject is really vast from the minuscule to the magnificent. From pure theory to pure practical, you can do a lot with the many sub branches of Physics. Here’s one example that you can use as a science project.

One of the most common pitfalls of starting with a science project is that you are not specific enough about exactly what it is that you wish to do. When you decide to plant trees in your garden, do you say to yourself  “I’ll plant a few fruit trees in my garden” or “I’ll plant one banana tree in the rear garden, one orange tree in the area below my bedroom window and one apricot tree near the gate”?

See what I’m getting at? If you know you what you want you can get it faster. Suppose you went to buy tree saplings and at the nursery the gardener asked you what plant you wanted how would you respond? If you were not specific about the trees you wanted before you went to buy them, you would waste time.

You would look at what all was available and wonder what would look good in the garden at home. Naturally you would still get the same trees you wanted, but the process would take much longer. This is because in the first instance you were not specific about exactly what you wanted.

It is the same with any science project that you may undertake. The more specific you are the easier it is for you to implement your idea and make the project. This is why you must have an eye for details. When you get a fledgling idea, whet it out for all the details that you can think of. That way you will save time at a later date. Besides the project will flow faster as well.