Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Effects of Exercise: Changes in Carbon Dioxide Output

For Students 9th - 10th
Everybody knows that your body needs oxygen to keep going, and that you breathe out carbon dioxide as waste. What happens when you exercise? You've probably noticed that you breathe faster, and your heart beats faster. What triggers your...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Lichenometry: An Accessible Method for Dating Recent History

For Students 9th - 10th
Geology and archeology are examples of historical sciences. Their practitioners rely on multiple methods for establishing dates and temporal sequences as they seek to construct a history from the available evidence. This project will...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Leaves and Light

For Students 2nd - 5th
Leaves use sunlight to make food for the plant. Sunlight contains all of the colors of the rainbow, but are all of those colors used by the leaf? Can you find out if some colors of light are more important than others?
Unit Plan
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Attack of the Killer Cabbage Clones

For Students 3rd - 5th
Do you like to watch outdated science fiction and cheesy horror movies? Many fictional tales of cloned organisms have been created based upon the scientific method for cloning animals or plants. In the real world, the cloning of plants...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Do Potatoes Regulate the Formation of New Roots?

For Students 3rd - 5th
Propagate potatoes by giving it the right environment for the eyes to sprout.
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Shoots: How Do Mint Plants Branch to Form New Stems?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Do you like to climb trees? The branches of trees are what make them so fun to climb. Each branch starts out as a tiny shoot that grows out from a stem. How is the growth of shoots along a stem regulated?
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Color Saturation

For Students 3rd - 5th
Lively, vivid colors can add pizzazz and turn a dull photo into a work of art. Learn how changing the saturation levels of the colors in your photo can really make it pop.
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Measuring the Moon

For Students 3rd - 5th
Sometimes a full moon can be so bright, you can walk around in the dark without a flashlight. How much brighter is a full moon than the other phases of the moon? How is the brightness of the moon measured?
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: The 'Ultimate' Science Fair Project: Flying Disk Aerodynamics

For Students 9th - 10th
Tossing a Frisbee with your friends is a great way to have fun in the sun. As you practice your throws and become more accurate, you're learning about the aerodynamics of Frisbee flight intuitively. You're learning the body mechanics...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: How Food Supplements Affect Weight Gain of Juvenile Mice

For Students 9th - 10th
As your mom and dad always tell you, a healthy diet is important to good health. This project is designed to see what happens to mice when they are allowed to load up on sugary snacks. Do you think that they will gain excess weight? Do...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Why Do Aerobie Flying Rings Go So Much Further Than Frisbees?

For Students 6th - 9th
Use the instructions from this Science Buddies project to develop your hypothesis on whether flying rings fly farther than flying disks. The Science Buddies project ideas are set up consistently beginning with an abstract, objective, and...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Stressed Out? Take a Break With This Project!

For Students 6th - 8th
Is an I-beam as strong as a solid beam of the same size? What if you include weight in the comparison: which beam has the greater strength-to-weight ratio? Would an I-beam be stronger than a solid rectangular beam of the same weight?...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Strength in Numbers?

For Students 3rd - 8th
Ever try to tear a telephone book in half? Even though you can easily rip one or a few pages to shreds, the entire phone book has strength in numbers and holds together. This project is an introduction to measuring and comparing the...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Keeping Up

For Students 3rd - 5th
Do you ever feel like you need to walk faster than your parents just to keep up with them? This is because of the difference in leg length between you and your parents. In this experiment you will test if the height of a person is...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: How Many Seeds Do Different Types of Fruit Produce?

For Students 3rd - 5th
Do you like your strawberry jelly with or without the seeds? Are you glad to have a seed-free watermelon, or do you enjoy spitting the seeds into the garden? You might not like to find seeds in your fruit, but fruit is nature's way of...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: A Matter of Time

For Students 3rd - 5th
Do you wake up at the crack of dawn, or do you need an alarm clock to wake you up each morning? It may surprise you that the two are not always in synch. Nowadays, we use Standard Time to set our watches instead of Solar Time. Which...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: The Milky Way and Beyond: Globular Clusters

For Students 9th - 10th
Globular clusters, compact groups of about a million stars that move around together in galaxies, are among the oldest objects found in the universe. Since they are found most galaxies and since they've been around for so long, globular...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Sunspot Cycles

For Students 9th - 10th
Sunspot activity has been monitored continuously since about 1700. The historical data shows that sunspot activity rises and falls in a roughly 11-year cycle. This project shows you how you can use both graphical and statistical analysis...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Pick a Card, Any Card

For Students 3rd - 5th
No matter what your favorite card game is, we all wish we could use psychic powers to draw the card we want on our turn. You may not have psychic powers, but you might have the power of probability on your side. Do this experiment and...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Finding Phyla

For Students 3rd - 5th
Animals come in all shapes and sizes, each a small part of the amazing diversity of life. These differences can also help us to classify animals into different groups. Which group do you belong to? Do this experiment to investigate the...
Lesson Plan
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: An Experiment in Visual Perception

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Graphical methods of data presentation are a key feature of scientific communication. This project will get you thinking about how to find the best way to communicate scientific information.
Lesson Plan
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Interpreting Area Data From Maps vs. Graphs

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Graphical methods of data presentation are a key feature of scientific communication. This project asks the question, "What's the best way to compare the land area of states: a map or a bar graph?" You'll be measuring performance on two...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Air Particles and Air Quality

For Students 3rd - 5th
What does the phrase, "Like a breath of fresh air," mean to you? This common phrase can have different meanings: calming, relaxing, invigorating, energizing or clean. In this experiment you will test the quality of air by measuring the...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: The Big Dig

For Students 3rd - 5th
Even though many cities have recycling programs, a lot of trash still ends up in the dump. Find out which materials will break down and which materials won't. Will the results of this experiment change which products you often buy?