Science Project ideas?

[Fireprufe15]

I have to do a science project for school and it is worth a lot of marks, but I just can't think of something to do. It can be about anything really, I just have to be able to do an experiment to test it and right about it's influence on the world. I have to 'solve a problem' or something like that. It has to be something I can finish it little more than a week and shouldn't be too hard, but should sound complicated. It's an 11th grade project.

Any ideas???

 

[Lordlaneus]

I won my regional science fair with a project on how simulated burrowing insects damage affects plant growth, basically I just took seeds, poked half them with a needle and measured how much they grew, it would take more than a week for the plants to grow, but if your how shall we say, "less than scrupulous" I could send you the data I collected.

 

[Fireprufe15]

I won my regional science fair with a project on how simulated burrowing insects damage affects plant growth, basically I just took seeds, poked half them with a needle and measured how much they grew, it would take more than a week for the plants to grow, but if your how shall we say, "less than scrupulous" I could send you the data I collected.

Thanks for the offer, but the whole being dishonest thing isn't really my style hehe. But that's a good idea I might use it next year when I have more time to do it. Any other ideas?

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

For my A-level course work, I modelled how human tissue absorbs radiation, using a geiger counter, a beta source, and strips of wafer thin ham. The actual set-up was fairly ridiculous, but I managed to scrape a low A because of my report.

 

[Fireprufe15]

For my A-level course work, I modelled how human tissue absorbs radiation, using a geiger counter, a beta source, and strips of wafer thin ham. The actual set-up was fairly ridiculous, but I managed to scrape a low A because of my report.

It could work, but I have no idea how to get the equipment in this short timespan.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Try and cross-breed insects


If it suceeds, you get a good grade, and may doom the human race

 

[Fireprufe15]

Hahaha what like Spido-roach?

 

[DoPo]

Hahaha what like Spido-roach?

Yes, cool. Because the only thing spiders needed was for them to be even harder to kill. And now they can survive nuking. Good job there.

OT: Are you into programming? You can do a report on different sorting algorithms - compare and contrast, pick the best one for given circumstances, and so on. It's not too hard, should be doable within a week or so, but you do need some programming background. Also it may just be too geeky for a science project.

Sorry I can't think anything more "normal".

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Hahaha what like Spido-roach?

Hell yeah, and add Mantis claws to it too.

It will be unstoppable.

 

[King of Asgaard]

What kind of science are we talking here? Physics, chemistry, biology etc...

If physics:
Have you considered the 'Monkey and the Hunter' experiment?
Basically, it's a demonstration of linear motion, specifically a projectile, and shows how the velocity sending a particle in an arc can be split into vertical and horizontal components, which are independent of each other. The experiment thus shows that, no matter how fast a particle is moving horizontally, it moves vertically, i.e falls, at a constant gravitational acceleration g, which equals 9.81ms^-2, or 9.81m/s^2. Therefore, if an object is dropped, and another is thrown perfectly horizontally (not up and not down) they will fall at the same speed and hit the ground at the same time.

I can't help you with other sciences, not my area of (very limited) expertise.

 

[Lizardon]

Wow that's awfully vague. When I was given similar assignments, the experiment/project was always based around whatever topic we were currently studying; electricity, force and motion etc. I would recommend having your project be at least somehow related to what you've covered in class. Are you going to have access to any lab equipment or is this something you have to do on your own?

Here a some things I remember myself and other classmates doing as experiments in Year 11 and Year 12 physics.

-Comparing surface area of parachute to fall time (using paper parachutes and weights)
-How salinity effects the conductivity of water
-How different arrangements of resistors affect the resistance of a circuit
-Something about pendulums... I can't remember what they were testing

That might give you some ideas. They are nothing special and you would find the results in a quick Google search, but we could conduct fairly decent controlled experiments and write plenty about the importance of our results.

 

[mateushac]

I got some really nice grades from making a hydraulic press to prove the usefulness of Pascal's principle. (used pvc pipes of different calibers)

Have some wikipedia, will you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_press

You can also prove limit angles for refraction using a laser pointer and containers filled with different fluids. (used in real life for data transfer - fiber optics)

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Clone yourself.

 

[No social life]

You could investigate the effect of electrical fields on insects, I used that as a pretense to build a small basic generator. Or you could try building a basic galvanic cell consisting of copper and zinc plates immersed in a salt solution, I tried it and failed as there was only a weak electrical charge.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Oh, Oh, OH, make a potato battery! Those are always interesting, or, better yet, a lemon battery! No, wait, that's a terrible idea.

I'd give you a good idea, but my science fair projects were always pretty lame and I stopped having to do them after middle school.

 

[NightHawk21]

We never really had to do any science projects in highschool that actually required experimentation. That said, because its grade 11 and you say just science I'm going to assume that you probably covered a topic from each of the big three and maybe one extra one (that's how we did it in my school if you took science in the upper years and not something specific). That said, it would be better if you told us what you guys covered, since you'll probably get a better safer mark if you do something you covered in class. Also shame you don't have longer, or I could've given you some really easy university experiments.

As for my suggestion, I'll give you what I used in elementary school. Basically its a simple circuit composed of an LED, a battery source, a switch (optional), and some wires with a cut that ends in 2 needles (or even just the stripped wire itself). The premise was to test conductivity of different materials. Obviously for a grade 11 project it would be better if you focused on a few objects and then explained why their molecular properties are responsible.

Depending on the resources at hand, you can also set up a simple galvanic cell (takes ~.5-1 hour once materials acquired) and explain that or do something with antibiotic resistance and bacteria (takes about ~1-2 days once materials acquired; most of that time is just for bacteria growth however).

 

[Navvan]

Well it depends on what resources you have access to.

1. Physics/Engineering: You could always go with engineering projects. Make some cool gizmo and talk about it (as someone already mentioned a hydraulic press is an example of this) or any number of interesting things. You could also demonstrate some fundamental physics with a standard project. Not exactly innovative but its a common sight in most high-school science fairs.

2. Biology: This is probably the easiest category for you to perform an experiment in and be at least somewhat original. Just form a hypothesis involving plants or invertebrates and test it. What is the required nutritional intake of X pest insect for survival. How does Y variation effect plant growth. Its easy to come up with a unique project that is also easy to do.

3. Chemistry: I don't recommend it unless you are either knowledgeable enough to do something fun with it or don't care if your project is completely unoriginal. There are plenty of chemical experiments you can just copy paste, but between getting you hands on appropriate reagents and the technical skills not to fuck things up the pool of stuff you'll be able to do is very limited.

The only science fair I ever had to do was in the 6th grade. I did a project on the food preferences of bunnies. Judges love bunnies.

I've done a number of presentations/projects in college of course but that won't really help you unless you have access to expensive equipment.

Captcha: Beer in a bottle... That gives me an idea. You could do a project on yeast strains and/or fermentation processes. Easy enough to get your hands on yeast and mess around with it.

 

[Virus0015]

Never tried this for a science project, but a coil gun might be a good idea. Lots of variables to assess, and plenty of room to talk about potential applications.

It can be done easily and quite safely using components from a disposable camera. Not powerful by any means, but good for experimentation.

I have built one myself, but never used it for my A level physics coursework. My up-scaled version was not in keeping with the health and safety ethos of the physics department...

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Build a rail driver. Build a laser gun. Build a working tesla coil and/or electrolaser. Perform quantum levitation.

In other words, rape phsyics as much as humanly possible with dangerous/unstable tech.