Science Fair

When I was either in the 4th grade or 6th grade (I'm thinking the later), I did a food dehydrator. It was made out of a cardboard box, a 300 watt bulb, a few dowel rods, and a baking rack. I literally cut pieces of fruit, meat and such (bananas, strawberries, etc) into thin pieces and dried them in the homemade dehydrator. I had samples for the judges to try as well as information on how dehydrated food was beneficial. I remember placing in the top 3 at my school and going on to compete at another school. It was fairly easily done and I learned something too. Good luck!!

I recently bought a book that has some very interesting ideas, they can be anywhere from 1 week to 6-8 weeks projects. I can help exchange ideas if interested(____@____.com or ____@____.com could also just do a search of schience fair projects online. I'm sure you'll get MANY ideas there
Hope that helps
S. J

One of my children tested bean seeds and fertilizers.

Two projects that my son did when in the 4th and 5th grades that earned him ribbons were: (1) Which paper airplane goes further? The only materials needed are paper and a book with paper airplane designs. He made about 6 or 7 different designs, measured how far each one flew under identical conditions, and then charted the results. The display consisted of the actual paper airplanes used, the conditions of the experiment, his preliminary predictions, and the final results. (2) What is the best liquid for "watering" plants? In small pots, he planted green bean seeds (2-3 per pot) in regular potting soil. He set them in a sunny spot and then watered each pot every other day, using different liquids (plain water, milk, soda, juice, etc.) The display consisted of the actual plants, with a small bottle of the liquid used on that plant beside each, the conditions of the experiment, his preliminary preditions, and the actual results. Both are easy, cheap, and bring fairly fast results.

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/sciencefaircentral/s...

I did some searching and found this website. It gives you lots of ideas. Remember, it is about your kids. Try not to stress about it. I remember when I was little, my dad would help me (pretty much do the project) every year. Then one year I recycled paper and did the whole project myself (great idea for your older 6th grader) and I won a ribbon at the science fair! It was cheap, easy and educational!

Hi, I asked this same question in March of this year and got some good responses. You should be able to look it up...my title was "help with science project ideas". My fourth grader ended up doing "Which room has the most dust?" and he made a prediction, collected dust on tape for a couple of weeks, and made a graph showing the result. He won a trophy for it! We spraypainted the science fair board and made everything nice and colorful. We also had bags of dust bunnies with a magnifying glass to look at them. The gross part was a blown up photo of a dust mite. UGH!!! Good luck to you and your children! When all else fails, get a book of ideas at the library.

I have no ideas of my own to give you, but I know there are big books of these things that you can get. I saw one in a bookstore the other day, and a relative of mine is having a book party with Usborne books, and they sell a book that is 100 ideas for science fair projects. I'll bet you could just google either "science fair projects" or "science fair project books" and get lots of leads. Good luck!

Hi E.,

I just wanted to let you know that I am an independent Usborne Book consultant, and we have wonderful books and flash cards that give you tons of ideas for science fairs. If you would like to check out my website it is www.bookskidsaskfor.com. While you are on the site be sure to sign up for the drawing for $50 in FREE books. They draw once a month.

Just to let you know a little bit about Usborne Books , we have over 1700 titles that we offer, and they are for ages newborn up through high school, but as adults you will love them too. They are very educational, well written, beautifully illustrated, and they engage all types of learners. My kids absolutely love these books! That is why I became a consultant so that I could have a wonderful home library for my children.

Just wanted to share this option with you. Good Luck on your science project.

C. McKim

To teach my 3rd, 4th, 5th grade students about the scientific method we do a project called, "Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere". We test different kinds of dish soap (Ivory, Dawn, etc.) and use a straw to blow a big bubble. A second child measures the bubble while the first blows the bubble. The question is, "What type of dish soap makes the biggest bubble."

This project is VERY simple and a lot of fun. I have taught at 4 different schools and all use different "science fair" formats, so depending on your kids format this could work great.

I may use some of these ideas too.
My daughter did a "Which tastes does a cat like better: Salt, Sugar, Vinegar" We used our three cats and all our neighbors cats and tried to get them to eat tuna laced with different "flavorings".
My son also did a which wood is more dense and we got different kinds of wood from Lowe's and he floared them.
You could take syrup, water and oil and put them in the same glass then float different objects at the different leve;s. Corks, grapes, bolts, etc.
We have done the lemon battery too, I think that one is online. He did that one in 5th or 6th and he is now almost 20.
Put different foods in baggies and tape them to your windows and see which ones mold fastest.
Those are ours so far. I may be using some of these mentioned this year though.

Hey, E.! Below you will find a few links to some sites with ideas for science projects, and some helpful hints on how to make a successful one! With our world becoming more ecology conscious, you might want to suggest to your kids that they consider projects leaning in that direction (if only for the 'brownie point' factor). Hope this helps.

http://www.sciencefairadventure.com/

http://sciencefair.green-machine.info/

http://www.multcolib.org/homework/physcihc.html

http://www.terimore.com/chemistry-science-projects.htm

http://www.yoursciencefairprojects.com/index.html

When I was in school (boy, I didn't think I would ever be saying that!), I had a project that was the effects different typs of music had on monkey grass. I'm thinking the categories were Heavy Metal/Hard Rock, Pop and Classical/New Age-ish instrumental. There really is a big difference! I used a measuring cup so each plant got exactly the same amount of water each day. Then I surrounded each plant with speakers for one hour each a day. They all were together in the window during the day and then I night they were surrounded with music. I took pictures every day and you really could tell a big difference in each!

Last year, in the 6th grade, my nephew tested different soils for growing. He got some seeds that were recommended as fast growing. Planted some in three different pots with 3 different types of soil/fertilizer. One was just soil from the yard (I think this was his control group). One was Miracle Grow, and the other was some other type (I can't remember what). He took pictures and kept a log of measurements of each plant's growth.

Do a volcano..it is just baking soda and vinegar for the lava and you can paper meche' (sp?) the volcano. You can google it to find out how to make the actual volcano. You can do research on Mt Vesuvias-Pompei in Italy.

W.