A little seed is a very important part of our lives. The potential plant lying dormant within the seed can produce food that will feed us enabling us to live. This biology based science experiment is simple and easy to follow. Just take a look at the various ways nature has provided plants to protect their seeds.

In this experiment here we are going to take a look at the different kinds of seeds that fruit plants produce. If we try and make a comprehensive study of all kinds of plant seeds the scope of the experiment will be way beyond your grade level. So pick between five to ten fruits that are commonly available to get started.

A few good ones are Apples, Peaches, Coconuts, Mangoes, Grapes, Oranges, Kiwis, etc. The things that are going to be observed and recorded in the project include the size of the fruit as compared to the size of the seed, the number of seeds per fruit and the protection provided by the fruit.

You can pick other factors if you want to make a more detailed science project out of it. You will need to physically examine each fruit and its seeds to record your observations. Make sure you take plenty of pictures to make it visually appealing.

As far as science projects go, this little science experiment is great fun to do. Imagine getting a hard boiled egg into a bottle with a mouth that is actually smaller than the egg. It demonstrates a number of  science principles at work. The utilization of oxygen to burn a match, the creation of depression due to air pressure being the two most noteworthy.

Here is what you need. A hard boiled egg, which has been shelled. A bottle with a mouth that is marginally smaller than the diameter of the hard boiled egg. And a box of matches. You are set to go.  Just make sure that you have an adult around to help you with the matches.

What is to be done is really simple. You light a match and throw it into the bottle. Then immediately cover the opening of the bottle with the hard boiled egg. As the match uses up the oxygen present inside the bottle it will eventually suck down the egg into the bottle due to the difference created in air pressure inside the bottle and outside.

Now if you are looking for more science experiments involving air pressure you may enjoy these.

Did you ever laugh at the Chemistry lab being blown up by Archie? Did you sympathize with Professor Flutesnoot? Did you ever think that you could do the same science experiments in your kitchen?

Now hold on and pay attention. I don’t want you to go blowing up the kitchen at home and saying it was my idea. However I do want you to understand that you can do a whole lot of chemical reactions in the kitchen.

Think of the kitchen as a place where you have acids available to you without adult supervision. Citric acid for instance, is present in the lemon you cut to make your lemonade. Add rock salt and the lemonade turns pink because of the chemical reaction that takes place.

Another highly reactive substance lying around in a kitchen is Baking Soda. You mom makes use of it to make the cakes she bakes light and fluffy. Ever wonder about the chemical reaction behind that which helps trap air in the cake batter?

If you are looking for a safe and easy experiment to do in your kitchen check out this article here. It may prove that you have some kitchen wizard skills. Cook up a magical batch of science experiments as you understand the chemistry behind it. Have fun!

Making a science fair project is more than just putting up any old thing as your entry to the science fair. It involves learning something new and then putting it to practical use. There is a whole lot of work involved if you choose to do it properly and well.

Picking the right idea for your project can make a huge difference to the way you handle your project. If it is something that interests you then you will be willing to work on it at the cost of your social time and despite school work.

Yes the science project will make demands on your time, but if you organize yourself well, you will be able to generate more than enough time to get the project done well. To do this, you will have to ensure that you don’t leave everything to the last minute.

A little bit of work done every day is much better than trying to produce a science project overnight the day before the science fair. Read here about the four secrets to success at the science fair. May be they will inspire you to do your best.

Science is best explained with practice experiments. You may talk about air pressure and its effects, but the same principle when seen in action will have a far higher impact. Similarly you can talk about the buoyancy of fluids, but to actually see a ship floating in the tub is far better.

The more you put science into action the faster you understand how it works. That’s why when the air comes rushing out of a deflated balloon the concept of air pressure catches your attention far better. The mere reading about it, is never as much fun or memorable as the experiments or science projects that you can do.

Education is not just what you read in the books. It is what you live out in life each day. Learning never stops, it is only the forum which changes. In fact no matter how many days we studied there would never be enough time to actually go through all the knowledge  that has been collected by the human race.

If you have fun you learn faster. That is an accepted truth. So why not have fun with science at home?Here are some slimy and silly experiments for you to do. If you enjoy them you can read up more about why exactly these materials tend to act the way they do.

And if these science experiments appeal to you there are a whole lot more that you can try out. There is a whole world of fun and learning out there. Chart your way into it.

A question we get a lot around here goes something like this: “My kid needs a project, but we’ve got soccer, gymnastics, homework, and chores every day… we need a good science fair project and QUICK!”

Unfortunately, I don’t have an easy answer for this.  Most folks are still trying to cram a week’s worth of activities into a mere 24-hours, and then wonder why they have trouble coming up with great science project ideas.  It’s a miracle if dinner’s even on the table on soccer night.

Science fair projects can feel this way a lot.  They are usually something added ON TOP OF all the other stuff you have to do – homework from math, extra credit assignments from spelling, extra books to read and report on… and the last thing you need right now is yet another project, only this one is going to be judged.

So how can you survive this stressful science season and still enjoy the process? Well, I generally don’t think as well under pressure as I do when I am free to be creative and enjoy the process.  And one of the most powerful ways to generating great content (and projects) is total immersion.  Here’s what you can do to really make the process enjoyable and educational:

1. Slow down. Schedule time in your week where you can sit with your project for at least a couple of uninterrupted hours.  To get your creative juices flowing and allow for side-tangents, this is the minimum amount of time you’ll need to get the most out of your efforts. This means no phone calls, internet surfing, computer games, or iPODs.  Your mind is totally free to focus entirely on the task at hand.
2. Banish perfection. Take the stress out of trying to find the perfect project and focus rather on what you find interesting.  Bugs or brain cells? Rockets or robotics? Lasers or llamas?  Once you have a ballpark idea on what you want to learn more about, then you can start gathering your information.
3. Start a journal. Even if your kid’s not a writer, it’s important to start logging what you’re finding interesting so you can go back and research more if needed (it’s also a great start to your report’s bibliography).    For non-writing kids, use a video camera to capture the sparkle in their eyes as they delve into their project.  Use still photos to paste into your journal as you go.
4. Get help. Start tapping into resources you already have around you.  You don’t  need to re-invent the wheel, but you do need to make significant progress on your project.  Success always leaves clues, so look for kids that won last year and find out what exactly they did to make it to the top (if that’s your goal).  Chances are it had little to do with the official “topic” of study but rather the way they went about it. Find other local clubs in the area that would be helpful to you, from local astronomical clubs to airplane pilots to the tech at the pharmacy… they can all help steer you in the right direction.

So there you have it – time saving tips for your science fair project season.  While initially these tips may seem to take more time than they save,  you’ll find that the focus and clarity you get in return will be worth tenfold.

Happy Experimenting!

Hi there! It’s been a few months since my last post, so I wanted to be sure to get you great information now that I’m back in the swing of things!  One of the best ways you can encourage your child to do their own work is to provide them with the right tools and information that are interesting to them.  So if your kid is nuts about lasers and light but couldn’t care less about plants (and you’re a botanist!), doing a science fair project about photosynthesis probably isn’t going to work out so well.

However, if you toss a handful of spinach leaves in the blender along with a bit of water and whirl away… and then hit the plant juice with a UV (black) light, you’ll find that it glows red. Not only is this a great start to a science fair project, it will also kick-start their brain in a way that engages them in the project and leaves you on the sidelines as ‘coach’ (which is where you want to be anyway – this is THEIR work, not yours!)

There are tons of great ideas on this website about how to do interesting science just by using regular household materials (did you find the picture of the laser light show build inside tupperware on this site yet?)  And we’re here to help you through it. One of the things you want to do before you leave this site is download the ‘Free Stuff’ and see what you can find inside.

For older kids, the Free Guide isn’t going to be enough – you’ll actually need to check out our science fair project kits, especially the Linear Accelerator and the R.O.V. project.  The physics and math modeling behind the Linear Accelerator is enough to make a college student cry, so don’t go overboard on the the mathematics.  Just have fun and enjoy the process.

I’ll write more cool ideas soon, including how to make a homemade telescope and microscope.  Happy experimenting!

~Aurora

Okay, so if you’re a nut about physics, this is one I can sketch out fo you, but you’ll need to fill in the gaps on your own.  If you want an easier method, check out this post here.

You can recreate Galileo’s mountain-top experiment by arming yourself and a friend with identical digital watches and flashlights.  At a specified time, one of you flashes the light, and the other records the time when the flash is seen. The trouble with this is at unless you’re on different planets, you’re going to have a hard time seeing a less-than-instantaneous result.

You can modify this experiment so that you set up a mirror (instead of a friend) far away, and bounce a beam of light off the mirror and record the mound of time it takes for the light to travel the set distance.  And instead of using your eyeball to record “when” the flash of light returns, you can use a strip of film on a spinning wheel. A further step is to split the initial beam in two, and have one beam take a longer path to return home, and record the time difference on film (which you can back-calculate to get the time difference).

The first successful speed of light measurements were made by a Danish astronomer using an eclipse of Jupiter and Io.

Chemistry Experiment: Indoor Rain Clouds Making indoor rain clouds demonstrates the idea of temperature, the measure of how hot or cold something is. Take two clear glasses that fit snugly together when stacked. (Cylindrical glasses with straight sides work well.) Fill one glass half-full with ice water and the other half-full with very hot water (definitely an adult job – and take care not to shatter the glass with the hot water!). Be sure to leave enough air space for the clouds to form in the hot glass. Place the cold glass directly on top of the hot glass and wait several minutes. If the seal holds between the glasses, a rain cloud will form just below the bottom of the cold glass, and it actually rains inside the glass! (You can use a damp towel around the rim to help make a better seal if needed.)

You can turn this into a science fair project by testing the effects of water temperature… what is the ideal water temperature to really ‘make it rain’?

When you warm up leftovers, have you ever wondered why the microwave heats the food and not the plate? (Well, some plates, anyway.) It has to do with the way microwaves work.

Microwaves use dielectric heating (or high frequency heating) to heat your food. Basically, the microwave oven shoots light beams that are tuned to excite the water molecule. Foods that contain water will step up a notch in energy levels as heat. (The microwave radiation can also excite other polarized molecules in addition to the water molecule, which is why some plates also get hot.)

The following experiment is a quick example of this principle using a naked bar of Ivory soap. The trick is to use Ivory, which contains an unusually high amount of air. Since air contains water moisture, Ivory also has water hidden inside the bar of soap. The microwave will excite the water molecules and your kids will never look at the soap the same way again.

Toss a naked bar of Ivory soap onto a glass or ceramic plate and stick it into the microwave on HIGH for 2-3 minutes. Watch intently and remove when it reaches a “maximum”. Be careful when you touch it after taking it out of the microwave oven – it may still hold steam inside. You can still use the soap after this experiment!