Science Fair ideas for 5th grade girl

[SSDonut]

Hi!

Any science fair ideas for a 5th grade girl--no "experiments" involving humans or animals this year. . .

I'm looking for something fun, interesting and only medium challenging (needs to be interesting, but not overwhelming to complete)!

TIA!

 

[momrek06]

Anything with the EARTH, or the SUN or the PLANETS?? My son did a science fair project on the STARS and the SOLAR SYSTEM but I think he was in the 4th grade.

 

[dawson5]

mine did the effects of heat and cold on rubber bands. He had fun with it, did well except for one part of the documenting.

 

[daisax]

What does your child want to do?

 

[nskjerven]

mine did the effect of different liquids on metal (trying to create rust)

she used:

salt water
water
vinegar

I think the metal was an unglavinized nail

I love that she thought the vinegar would case more trouble than the other liquids (it did not) she was sure because of the smell it had it would

 

[Geoff_M]

Our 10 year old actually came up with a great idea for a science fair project while riding in the car last week. He was playing with his GameBoy when the batteries died. As is customary for his peers, he took the batteries out of the unit, rolled them back and forth for a minute between his hands, and put them back in the unit. Kids, I've found, believes that doing so will briefly "recharge" the batteries so you can get a few more minutes out of them. I told him that rolling them in your hands doesn't do anything and that if you left the batteries in the unit and left it turned off for a couple of minutes, they'd do the same things. He said "Hey, that'd make a great idea for a science fair project!!!" He thought you could experiment with several things that "might" put some juice back into a depleted battery, like rubbing them, freezing them, or heating them. I said I thought that would be a great idea.

 

[georgina]

Our school always gave us pages of suggested projects. I can't remember most of them, but a few we did - test the effects of additives on how long flowers stay fresh, buy a bag of M & M's and count how many of each color (not sure how this was science?), and something about a potato clock(?). I would try Google!

 

[WDWisOurHappyPlace]

I helped my daughter with her science project in 5th grade, and it turned out to be really fun. (She is in sp.ed. so I really did have to help her.)

We tested to see if plant fertilizer really works. We bought 4 plants, it was in December so we went with flowering cabbage plants. We planted them individually in four different pots in ordinary top soil. They were all watered with only faucet water for 6 weeks, mostly every day, but sometimes we skipped at day, ahem, ok we forgot. The only difference was, we added miracle grow to 2 plants once a week, the other 2 got nothing but plain water throughout. We took pictures once a week to see how the plants progressed. It was AMAZING to see how well the fertilized plants grew compared to the ones without.

Her friend tested different brands of microwave popcorn. The experiment was to see which brand had the least amount of kernels left in the bag. (And the class got to taste the popcorn after.) The store brand actually popped the best.

Good luck and have fun with it!

 

[WhateverLolaWants]

I lucked out and never had to do any fancy schmancy science projects (science has always been my worst subject), but I remember my sister doing one on cryogenics. I don't recall specifics, but I remember her icing plants in the freezer. Another one could be the best care options for plants. Get a bunch of plants that are the same and just change the different combinations of care (sunlight, water, music, fertilizer, etc).

 

[CruiserMom]

Two suggestions:

1. Growing crystals - google it if you are not familiar with what you need to do this

2. There is some kind of experiment you can do with flowers and using food dyes in the water, getting the flowers to change color.

 

[Sparx]

how about the effect of sound on plants? (yes, i saw it on myth busters)

you take three or four different plants, and you have one that has no "extra" sounds. thats your control group. one you play classical music for for lets say, an hour a day? and one you play heavy metal for for the same time. see which one grows better.

(hint, it should be the heavy metal)

 

[Kae]

One that we did was the effect of salt on the boiling temp of water.

Kae

 

[LUCiD]

How about what I'm doing? Seeing if crime rates really do increase during a full moon? It may require some help going through the crime rate data, though. You know, comparing each phase of the moon with each other and such.

 

[quentina]

Not sure if this would be considered science....however, I would love to know the answer.....Why doesn't anyone take the top newspaper or magazine when purchasing from the store???

 

[lotzasunshine]

One of the students at the school I work at did a comparison of how well the "green" cleaning products and regular cleaning products worked, and which one was better. Couldn't have taken him very long to do either.

 

[Rose&Mike]

This is probably technically an animal project, but you don't have to actually observe the animals. DS did this in 4th or 5th grade.

He observed which color bird feeder birds prefer.

He painted the outside of clear pop bottles different colors and cut holes in the middle for the birds. Put a small piece of dowel rod for a perch. Screwed the lid into his swing set, this way he could easily take the feeders down to fill them and made it harder for squirrels. Once a day he'd observe how much food was eaten and refill. The prep takes a couple hours, but after that it was pretty easy.

 

[clh2]

Is she a "girly-girl" ? Then she might find it fun to do a study on hairspray. Maybe checking how long each brand keeps it hold.

What about "which" nailpolish lasts the longest?

She will most likely have more fun working on a project that is somehow related to something she is interested in!

 

[Calliaz]

I've seen some great mold experiments (using breads with different preservatives and sugar contents, different places, etc.).

Also, see:

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/register_guest.php

 

[Bearvet]

At our science fair last year, a 5th grade girl tested the Debbie Meyer(?) green bags to see if they really do keep foods fresher. I think she used bananas, 1 or 2 different vegetables and some flowers. She put 1 of each item in the green bag (separate bags) and left 1 of each item out. Very interesting results!

 

[3boymthr]

Here's one that requires no "lab" time...

DS did a display on nuclear fission. He did a history of nuclear power, who the inventors/discoverers of nuclear power were, how they use it for weapons, and told about the mechanism of how they separate the atoms; how they deal with the waste. He then made a model of various sizes of atoms showing a giant atom being broken into smaller atoms with all the labels. The whole project was done in a weekend. Including the painting of the various foam balls he used for the atoms. The hardest part was figuring out how to get the balls to stick together to form an atom (toothpicks coated in glue then inserted into both balls). ETA - he also told about the mechanics of fission vs. fusion.

BTW - this got him an A+ and extra credit. I guess most people don't think to tackle this topic.