Titanic related Science Fair Projects?

[castleview]

DD8 (2nd grand) couldn't be anymore fascinated with the Titanic. Does anyone have any science fair ideas? TIA

 

[Northstar]

Something on the design features that made the ship vulnerable to iceberg damage sinking it... and the way modern transatlantic cruise ships' hulls are different? I'm thinking scale models and a poster showing the stresses and the design features.

 

[storzo]

I am not strong in science at all, but how about something with the sinking and the whirlpool it caused, but did not pull in the lifeboats as some feared it would?

 

[AmazingGrace]

I'll ask him if he has any ideas.
One idea might be how they say the shipped wouldn't have sunk if the iceberg had headed straight into it, rather than hit it with a glancing side blow.

 

[amid chaos]

Found this..mentions the Titanic at the end.

BIO-RUSTING
I heard someone theorizing that the normal rusting process of iron might depend on bacterial action. If bacteria are not present, will iron rust extremely slowly? It shouldn't be too hard to see if this is true. Get two glass jars and two iron nails. Clean the iron with sandpaper to get rid of any oily coating. Fill the jars with distilled water. Drop in the iron. One jar should have normal bacteria from the environment, so add a small bit of dirt. Put a tiny bit of powerful bactericide in the other jar. (Or sterilize it in the same way you do "canning" at home) Wait a few days, and see if one piece of iron obviously rusts more than the other. What kind of bactericide to use? I dunno, maybe anti-bacterial hand soap. Better put some normal soap in the other jar as a control, since I don't know if soap affects rusting too. Nobody has tried this project yet, as far as I know. If it doesn't work, it still is interesting: it tells you that bacteria doesn't accelerate rusting. Search for: IRON BACTERIA, IRON-LOVING BACTERIA, IRON-EATING BACTERIA, NANNOBACTERIA, HYPERTHERMOPHILES.

(I recently heard that those big chunks of rust that cover the sunken ship Titanic are full of iron bacteria. Titanic is being eaten by bacteria!) (The possible bacteria in the "Martian meteorite" would be iron-eating bacteria.) (Iron-eating bacteria may be one of Earth's earliest life forms.)
Bill Beaty
USA - Wednesday, September 18, 1996 at 23:13:49 (PDT)

 

[amid chaos]

Google bio-rusting..

here's one hit
http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2002/Projects/J0523.pdf

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

What about the technology that was used on the Titanic that may have been brand new at the time? Since it was the largest ship in the world at that time, technology was probably state of the art (for that time period), maybe looking at that would be something to explore.

 

[BunsenH]

How about a cut-away section of the ship from the 'good' side that shows the internal damage from the iceberg that caused the sinking.

 

[daisax]

Some of the suggestions seem pretty sophisticated for an 8 year old!

How about a project on icebergs? He could "build" one, draw posters showing how much of them are below rather than above water, etc.

 

[BunsenH]

Does every entrant at this science fair get a trophy or just the real winners?

 

[castleview]

Does every entrant at this science fair get a trophy or just the real winners?

The real winners were given medals up until last year. Some parents complained about "hurt feelings" due to judging and the mom who ran the Science fair received some viscious phone calls and e-mails. Unfortunately, she said she'd step down if it were judged because it was too stressful. Of course, no one else (including the complainers) volunteered to run the fair. '

I think they're easing back into some sort of judging though. This year there's a teacher's choice and student choice award.

Thanks everyone! Great ideas!