Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Smarter Than Your Average Slime: Maze Solving by an Amoeboid

For Students 9th - 10th
In this science fair project, grow the acellular slime mold Physarum polycephalum and test its ability to find the shortest path through a maze.
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Paper Chromatography: Basic Version

For Students 3rd - 8th
Many substances are actually mixtures of different things. For example, milk, which looks like it is one substance, is actually a mixture of many different solids and liquids. Chromatography is a technique that is used to separate...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: How Bright Is Your Glow Stick? Measure It!

For Students 9th - 10th
Objects that glow in the dark hold a special place in the imagination of both children and adults. The lights go out at night, but these odd things refuse to disappear. Where does the light come from? Do they work in any climate? In this...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: The Strength of an Electromagnet

For Students 3rd - 5th
Has anyone ever told you that you have a magnetic personality? Have you ever heard that opposites attract? These common phrases are both based on the properties of magnets and magnetic electricity. In this science fair project, learn how...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Bomb's Away! A Ping Pong Catapult

For Students 3rd - 8th
With this project you'll send ping pong balls flying through the air with a rubber-band powered catapult. This catapult makes it easy to reproduce the launch angle, and to measure the amount of force applied to the projectile. Armed with...
Lesson Plan
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Circumscribing a Circle About a Triangle

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Here is a project that combines Computer Science and Mathematics. Prove a method for circumscribing a circle about a triangle (as shown). You'll also learn how to create an interactive diagram to illustrate your proof, using an applet...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Taking Off on a Tangent

For Students 9th - 10th
This is an interesting geometry project that goes back to the time of Archimedes, the famous Greek mathematician. You can combine this mathematical project with computer science and take this ancient problem into the twenty-first century...
Website
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Image Compression vs. Image Quality: Finding the Best Tradeoff

For Students 6th - 8th
In this project you'll learn about how digital image files are encoded, and how digital images can be compressed so that the files take up less storage space and can be transmitted more quickly. You will also measure the quality of...
Website
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Image Compression vs. Image Quality: Finding the Best Tradeoff

For Students 6th - 8th
In this project you'll learn about how digital image files are encoded, and compressed. You will also measure the quality of compressed and uncompressed images, which will give you important insights into the tradeoffs between file size...
Website
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Follow the Bouncing Ball: A Web Animation Project

For Students 6th - 8th
This project is a fun way to try your hand at programming. You'll learn how to create some simple animations, and you'll perform tests and make measurements to help you create more realistic-looking animations. All you need to get...
Website
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Follow the Bouncing Ball: A Web Animation Project

For Students 6th - 8th
This project is a fun way to try your hand at programming and expand your knowledge of web design. You will learn how to create some simple animations, and perform tests and make measurements to help you create more realistic-looking...
Website
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Programming Nanor Gs in a Virtual World

For Students 9th - 10th
Imagine yourself as a software engineer, a decade and a half from now. You are called upon to help solve the world energy crisis by programming nano-organisms (NANORGs) to extract energy from industrial sludge. Your program must be small...
Website
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Programming Nanor Gs in a Virtual World

For Students 9th - 10th
In this two week long project, you will design an assembly-language control program for the microprocessors of a colony of nano-organisms (NANORGs) in a virtual world. If you're up for a real programming challenge, this is the project...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Speed Quest

For Students 3rd - 8th
In this sports science fair project, you will find out how to compute speeds needed to achieve world records. Not only that, but you'll learn what speed is, and how to measure it in almost anything that moves. So head for the track,...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Pump It Up: Mountainboarding Speed and Control

For Students 6th - 8th
Are you a "lawn shredder"? Do you like nothing better than carving a sweet path down a mountain on your souped-up skateboard? If so, then this mountain boarding sports science fair project is for you. You'll investigate tire pressures...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Which Orange Juice Has the Most Vitamin C?

For Students 9th - 10th
In this project you'll learn how to measure the amount of vitamin C in a solution using an iodine titration method. You will hypothesize which juice will contain the most vitamin C, and then compare the amount of vitamin C in three...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: How Blue Is Your Sports Drink?

For Students 9th - 10th
Do you read the list of ingredients in foods and drinks before you buy them at the grocery store? If you do, you may have noticed that many of the items that are blue in color have the same dye, called FD&C blue 1. In this chemistry...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Using Pennies to Test How P H Affects Copper Corrosion

For Students 3rd - 5th
In this science fair project, use a color-based reaction to test how pH affects copper corrosion in pennies.
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Which Materials Are the Best Conductors?

For Students 3rd - 5th
There are two main types of materials when it comes to electricity, conductors, and insulators. What are they made of? Find out by testing different materials in a circuit to see which ones conduct the most electricity.
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Spin Right 'Round With This Simple Electric Motor

For Students 6th - 8th
If you put on clothes that were washed in a washing machine, rode in a car, ate food from a fridge, warmed up lunch in a microwave, or played a video game, you used an electric motor. Try this science fair project and you'll learn how to...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Shaking Up Some Energy

For Students 3rd - 8th
Shake N' Light flashlights have been advertised on televisions across the nation in the recent year. But many do not understand just how they get energy to light up the bulb without using batteries. Do this experiment to make your own...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Rainbow Fire

For Students 9th - 10th
Astronomers can determine the atomic composition of distant stars by measuring the spectrum of light emitted by the star. Sound cool? Well in this project you can do something similar by observing the color of flames when various...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: One Bad Apple Spoils the Whole Bunch: Plant Hormone Ethylene

For Students 6th - 8th
We have all heard the old saying, "One bad apple spoils the whole bunch." Due to the production of the plant hormone ethylene during the ripening process, this saying proves true. This experiment will investigate the role of ethylene in...
Website
Discovery Education

Discovery Education: Science Fair Central: Choose a Science Fair Project Idea

For Students 3rd - 8th
Great science fair project ideas! Learn how to ask a testable question and choose from elementary, middle school, or high school science fair project ideas. View examples of testable questions, and see what is changed, what stays the...