Science Fair Project ideas for Elementary School

[TwingleMum]

Does anyone have any ideas for a good elementary school science project??

 

[MushyMushy]

What grade?

I remember my son doing a really easy one where he planted some flower seeds and compared their growth with natural sunlight, artificial light and no light at all. Very easy, but he did well on the project.

 

[luvmy3]

Thank goodness my dh is a scientist because I am never any help when the kids are looking for ideas This year my ds is going to measure the efficiency of solar cells. Here are some of the things we have done in the past, and all were done with household items.
Make your own yogurt
Color Chromatography
Electroplating coins (This was a favorite at the science fair)
Measuring plant nurishment when it is fed with things besides water

Our kids are also allowed to do displays/presentations in the lower grades so some of the ones we have done are
Volcano
Display of rocks and minerals
Diagram of the Eyeball, and how it works
All about a microscope including viewing samples of what the kids collected.

 

[aprilgail2]

Over the years we have done-

The effects of cigarette smoke on plant growth

The effects of caffiene on plant growth

The effects of aspirin on plant growth

(yes we killed plants three years in a row LOL)

Can color effect the way you think something tastes-- changed the colors of jello and had people taste them and try to guess the flavor...even though the purple jello was really orange most people said "grape".

Does the material a sponge is made out of make a diffence in the amount of water it absorbs. (of course it does!)

How to tell how if an item is acid, neutral or a base---boiled purple cabbage leaves and used the water as a tester then tested things like lemons, limes, and other things that were not acidic.

 

[left210]

I would love to hear ideas too. My son is in 4th grade.

 

[Tinijocaro]

I love the quicksand project-easy and fun. Cornstarch and water is all you need. Student can learn about how quicksand works, make a poster and visitors can try it out and see that the more you struggle, the tighter it grips you. Make a few bowls of it to put on your table.

Two of my kids did this and always had lots of kids around their table-kids love hands on stuff. Nothing worse than having people take a quick glance at your project and walk on by.

a recipe:
http://www.education.com/activity/article/Quick_Sand/

and a video that explains the science behind it:
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000088

 

[pumba]

if you want to do something gross..
Fingernail scrappings ....put it in a petrie dish and let the yuck grow...

Stopped a few kids from chewing their finger nails...

 

[dawson5]

My youngest did one on rubberbands. How heat and cold effected them. We took pictures to show/compare how far ones that were frozen, boiled and untouched were. These were stretched in front of a yard stick.

Our old neighbor's daughter did one on static electricity. I don't remember what it was about but remember they took pictures with a balloon, one showing the static electricity pulling her hair toward it and another with the balloon next to water coming out of a faucet and how it curved. That was interesting.

One kids like to do is cookies with and without baking soda I think. Judges seem to like it also (taste testing at least).

 

[mickeyplanner08]

Local college had Super Science Saturday....

How/why does taco sauce clean tarnished pennies.

You can remove tarnish with taco sauce, but do any of the 4 main ingredients do it?

Try with tomato paste, vinegar, salt and water.

None work, so then try with combos of 2 ingredients.

 

[OceanAnnie]

if you want to do something gross..
Fingernail scrappings ....put it in a petrie dish and let the yuck grow...

Stopped a few kids from chewing their finger nails...

That sounds like a good one! I'm thinking about suggesting this one for one of my little scientists for his project.

I am forever telling the kids not to put their fingers in their mouth. It would help me for them to see why.

 

[barkley]

both ds and dd have done this one (different schools)- can dietary iron be extracted from breakfast cereals, and does a higher iron content in an individual breakfast cereal reflect in the extraction?

get 4 different types of breakfast cereals, a few boxes of each. get a large non metalic bowl and for each type of cereal put the multiple boxes of cereal into the bowl covering it with distilled water. stir the cereal and mush it up. allow the cereal to settle then take a non metalic slotted spoon and remove as much of the cereal as possible (gently, so as not to disturb the water as much as possible). get a strong magnet (we got one at the hardware store), and run the magnet along the bottom and bottom sides of the bowl.

you will actualy see little iron shards attach to the magnet

we did this, and when we put the shards into small test tubes the result was the highest iron fortified cereals did yield greater amounts (total cereal had the greatest yield).

it's pretty cool, and can be done in one evening.

 

[sparklynails23]

You can order this stuff called germ glo, and see how germs are spread. It's easy and fun. You need a black lite to find it.

 

[jenlynn0808]

I always told my students (4th grade) to pick something they would enjoy learning about. If it wasn't going to be fun, then they would get bored and if you were going to spend a lot of time doing a project, then it should be something you enjoy.

I've gotten:

Comparing is different baseball bats (wood, Alum, composite) can effect the distance a baseball hit off a tee (for the control) goes

different types of hockey pucks distance when hit

comparing laundry soaps on stains

can you predict how many of each color of M&Ms are in a bag

comparing the number of kernals left in a variety of micro popcorn bags

if different things (light source, watering (water, juice, pop), fertilizer) effect plant growth

optical illusions

which gum blows the biggest bubble

which perfume last the longest (one lasted for days on the test fabric)

put out 3 different dog treats for 2 weeks and marked which treat the dog went for 1, 2, 3...dogs favorite treat

how deep the water table was in a students backyard (we were by a lake- the student hit water 6 feet down)

how long different hard candies take to disappear (think how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop)

over-inflating and under-inflating balls and seeing how it effects the height of the bounce

 

[aaarcher86]

I think the ones I did around that age were:

The effects of sound on plant growth... 1 plant with just normal household noise, another with classical music, another with rock and roll, and another that was read a story.

What conditions are best for bread mold: 1 piece of bread in heavy sunlight, one in the dark, one wet piece of bread in heavy sunlight, one wet piece of bread in the dark.

 

[Grand Duke]

volcanoes

 

[laurie31]

I always told my students (4th grade) to pick something they would enjoy learning about. If it wasn't going to be fun, then they would get bored and if you were going to spend a lot of time doing a project, then it should be something you enjoy.

I've gotten:
which gum blows the biggest bubble

to the bolded.


When DD#2 was in 2nd grade she did the bubble one. She was extremely NOT interested in doing a science fair project until I told her to pick something she liked, anything at all. She couldn't believe I would let her chew gum for a school project and thought it was hilarious. She especially liked going to the store and buying a pack of every kind of bubble gum they had.

Her hypothesis was that gum with more sugar would make bigger bubbles. She chewed each piece of gum for 1, 3, and 5 minute intervals, blew bubbles (which I helped her measure) and she made a nice presentation board using the wrappers of the gum, showing the sugar content, and pictures of her blowing bubbles.

She won her grade and came in 2nd place overall for the school. I think partly because it was obvious she had done the project herself. (there were some VERY intricate projects with professional-looking presentation boards that got nothing. After all, the parents weren't in the class. )

In 3rd grade she did one about how the color of food affects how people assume it will taste. She added food color to plain milk and let her classmates taste it and guess what flavor it was (with the teacher's permission; we did this during snack time). Many did guess that pink milk was strawberry flavored, and that brown milk was chocolate, even though it wasn't.

DD#1 won overall in 5th grade with a project about what drink makes the stickiest spot on the floor if it's spilled. We had some planks of flooring left from our living room, and she measured 1/4 teaspoon of many different things - coke, sprite, sweet tea, poured them onto the flooring, and let them dry. Then she put a penny onto the sticky spots, held up the board and timed how long it took to fall off. (this is how she measured "stickiness" in an objective way). Most fell off in a few seconds. The sweet tea one...didn't fall off for TWO DAYS!

 

[terribm]

My DD-4th grade did a project on surface tension. You put drops of food coloring in a platter of milk. Then you add a couple of drops of dish detergent and watch the "fireworks". It was a neat little project. I think science projects at the elementary level are to teach the kids basic scientific method.

 

[TwingleMum]

WOW!! These are awesome ideas. My DS is in 4th grade.

 

[TwingleMum]

Thank goodness my dh is a scientist because I am never any help when the kids are looking for ideas This year my ds is going to measure the efficiency of solar cells.Color Chromatography
Electroplating coins (This was a favorite at the science fair)

.

What did you do for the elecroplating coins??

 

[TwingleMum]

Can color effect the way you think something tastes-- changed the colors of jello and had people taste them and try to guess the flavor...even though the purple jello was really orange most people said "grape".

QUOTE]

How did you do this sounds really cool? How did you make purple jello with an orange taste??? What other variables did you use?? Other colored food?

We also did the smokes effects on plants last year. It was a good easy project but my spare room reeked for days after