Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Project Ideas: The Reasons for the Seasons
In this astronomy science fair project, investigate how the earth's axial tilt creates seasons. The Science Buddies project ideas are set up consistently beginning with an abstract, objective, and introduction, followed by a section on...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: How Does the Intensity of Light Change With Distance?
How far would you have to travel so that the light of the full sun would provide "daylight" no brighter than twilight on Earth? This project describes a method to verify the inverse square law: how light, sound, electrical signals, and...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Get Down and Dirty: How Does Soil Change With Depth?
What covers less than 10% of the Earth's surface, yet is a vital natural resource for terrestrial life? What filters ground water and supports most of our food production, not to mention the production of building materials and paper?...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Mapping Troposhperic Ozone Levels Over Time
Ozone in the stratosphere protects the earth by absorbing harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. However, when ozone occurs in the troposphere, it is harmful to health. In this project you can use data from EPA monitoring stations...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Acid Rain and Aquatic Life
Chemicals from the Earth's atmosphere are making their way down to the planet. Not in spaceships, but in rain. The acid rain can infiltrate ground water, lakes, and streams. How does acid rain affect aquatic ecosystems?
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Measuring the Earth's Core With Seismic Waves
When an earthquake occurs, seismic shock waves travel out through the earth from the source of the event. The shock waves travel through the earth (body waves), or along the Earth's surface (surface waves), and can be recorded at remote...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Under Pressure: Sand Under Lateral Compression
Here's a project that involves a different kind of sandbox than the ones you usually think of. This one has a moving wall inside, acting like a piston, to compress the sand. You can make layers using two different colors of sand, and...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Primary Productivity and Plankton
The oceans contain both the earth's largest and smallest organisms. Interestingly they share a delicate relationship linked together by what they eat. The largest of the ocean's inhabitants, the Blue Whale, eats very small plankton,...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: What Goes Up, Must Come Down
Standing on a balcony near the top of the 179-foot tall Tower of Pisa, a young scientist dropped two iron balls into the crowd below. The scientist, young Galileo, was not trying to knock his fellow professors on the head, but was trying...
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Science Buddies: Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria and Nitrogen Fertilizers
Plants need nitrogen to build proteins and nucleic acids to grow healthy stems and leaves. Though the Earth's atmosphere is made up of 79% nitrogen, the form of nitrogen found in the atmosphere cannot be used by plants. In this...
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Science Buddies: Tracking Geomagnetic Storms in the Ionosphere
The Sun is the ultimate source of the energy that powers weather systems on Earth. Geomagnetic storms are sun-powered storms in the upper atmosphere, arising from energized particles that are periodically ejected by the Sun. Among other...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: A Matter of Degrees: Tilt of Earth's Axis Affects the Seasons
In this science fair project, use a globe and a heat lamp to investigate how the angle of the Sun affects global warming. This project includes the objective, background questions, a list of all the materials you'll need, and the...