Science fair project ideas asap

amother

Sun, May 05 2019, 6:46 pm

DS middle school has a science fair project due next week. The whole time the teacher kept telling us it will all be done in school. No work to be done really at home. Great!!! Well today ds says he needs to gather materials for the project, which we do not have, the concept that he had approved with the teacher, actually teacher's idea, is not a science experimnent, dh has been saying this all along so now I am going to hear I told you so, its just a presentation on a type of camera. Not sure how ds was supposed to have a hypothesis with something you are not testing.
DS is now at the point of tears as I tell him, we have to do this at home and chuck the idea he had. he knows I am right, especially considering he can't even explain to me what it is all about, how can he explain it to the school as parents and students look at his project....
In short... Any ideas.. no mentos and coke allowed...

amother

Sun, May 05 2019, 6:52 pm

I wish I could.. he had told the teacher about a mini projector that he made over the summer with a magnifying glass, a flashlight, a shoebox with a pin hole and my cell phone and she said, create a camera onscura. And that is all I got.
There is no research or results or hypothesis in any of this...which there should be..
I just sent the teacher an email saying in a nice way what I said above...

cnc

Sun, May 05 2019, 6:56 pm

Who says there needs to be a hypothesis?
I’ve been a judge at a science fair for the past few years and it’s split into two sections : experiments and models . The models don’t have a hypothesis and are not tested obviously.
It’s usually a poster board stating how the model was created (materials used, step by step instructions) as well as some research / information about the model and then the actual model itself (which in your case would be the camera).

amother

Sun, May 05 2019, 6:58 pm

cnc wrote:

I hope that is what the teacher writes back to me.... I hate last minute and was thrilled that I was not involved...

amother

Lawngreen

Sun, May 05 2019, 7:11 pm

Strictly speaking...A science fair project should have a hypothesis. That's the whole point, to conduct a scientific inquiry.

But it doesn't have to be super complicated. You need to conduct an experiment that can be measured to see how the results compare to the hypothesis. It can be as simple as whether weight affects how things float in water. Fill a basin with water, gather objects of various weights to try out, then measure how deep they sank or how long they took to sink, etc. Try googling for ideas.

amother

Sun, May 05 2019, 7:17 pm

googling right now.. finding some simple interesting ideas.. like does color affect the atse you expect of food.
Does singing help retain information
Is 3ply toilet paer really stronger than 1ply and worth the extra cost...

amother

Lawngreen

Sun, May 05 2019, 7:23 pm

Don't forget...you need to be able to test out the hypothesis and measure it. Singing to retain information sounds like a tough thing to test. How would you measure how colors affect the taste of food? The toilet paper one, I guess you could test. But it's not much of a project to just test 2 types.

amother

Sun, May 05 2019, 7:29 pm

amother [ Lawngreen ] wrote:

Singing to retaining memory would have the the tester giving test subjects a list of words and they would have to repeat that least. then the same group be given a list of words, but the tester would sing the words to them.

The color to affect taste.. take a lemon lime soda and put different color food color in it and ask what flavor the test subject tastes. most likely the test subject will say the red tastes like cherry and blue tastes like blueberry- even though it is all the same flavor..

amother

Lawngreen

Sun, May 05 2019, 7:34 pm

Ok, those sound doable. Have your son make up his hypothesis. As part of it, he will need to write down why--what are the scientific facts that supports his prediction. Then conduct the experiment, show the data in some sort of graph, briefly explain the results, then tell how they compared to his original hypothesis. This should be written as a report or represented on a poster, depending on his teacher's requirements.

amother

Sun, May 05 2019, 7:47 pm

amother [ Lawngreen ] wrote:

She wants a poster... thank you for the chizuk!!! : )

imasoftov

Mon, May 06 2019, 5:11 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I think she meant to type (or you mistyped yourself) camera obscura "Create a camera obscura" is quite clear, plans can be obtained from a search engine. It's rather the opposite of the projector he made, where instead of projecting an image from inside the box to outside, and image from outside is projected on a wall of the box.

She's not expecting research or results or a hypothesis, she wants him to build a simple device that has been known for centuries (I think the first recorded mention is from 4th century China) although she wants the box-sized version, not an entire room like the original. It can be as simple as a shoebox, tissue paper, tape, and a pin.

amother

Babypink

Mon, May 06 2019, 11:20 am

This is a fun experiment I did with my kids at home, and my son actually did last year at his 7th grade science fair. He'll have to do a bit of research on the hows and whys, but if you put Styrofoam packing peanuts (or even a Styrofoam cup) in 100% acetone (has to be 100%--basically nail polish remover with no extras) it melts the Styrofoam. The scientific is that Styrofoam is filled with a lot of air and the acetone sucks the air out--but you need to do research on the chemical bonding, etc. It's a lot of fun to do and watch. Make sure to wear gloves as acetone is really strong.
For my son's science fair he had a hypotheses on different types of nail polish remover and which ones he thought would created the chemical bonds faster/better and melt the packing peanuts faster.

dankbar

Mon, May 06 2019, 11:45 am

I remember the best at our science fair in 7th grade. A looped wire stick going thru a curvy wire maze without the light blinking. Was attached to batteries & lightbulb. Showed that you need a complete circuit to conduct electricity. Was a fun game & amazing how it worked!