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...

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.

Before the Industrial Age, people relied on muscle power for moving and lifting heavy objects. Here's a project that shows you how you can use your head to make heavy lifting easier on your muscles - and your back.

Piezoelectric barbecue fire starters work by creating a spark that ignites the volatile lighter fluid, which then starts the charcoal burning. They are low current, high voltage devices. This project shows you a way to find out by with...

You know how to make new colors by mixing paint or crayons. For example, you get green by mixing yellow and blue, or orange by mixing red and yellow. With paint, blue, yellow, and red are primary colors, which you can use to make other...

Foundations for many types of structures rest on soil. This project shows how you can investigate the bearing capacity of different types of soil.

Enzymes speed up chemical reactions by factors of at least a million. This project investigates some of the factors that affect how fast enzymatic reactions occur.

You may have read about criminal cases where innocent people have been wrongly convicted of a crime. Sometimes, modern DNA analysis techniques have provided the evidence to exonerate these innocent people. In many cases, mistaken...

Many medicines come in bottles with special child-proof caps so that small children can't accidentally open the bottle and eat the pills. To a small child who can't read the label, the pills might look just like candy. This project helps...

Antlion larvae are known for their predatory ways. In sandy areas, they dig pits to trap ants or other crawling insects that happen to stumble in. This project shows you how to create a mini-environment for antlion larvae to test their...

The human body has an impressive ability to heal itself after injury, but humans have nothing on planaria. Planaria have an amazing ability to regenerate. An entire animal can regenerate from just a fraction of the body. This project...

We all recognize what friction is, but do you really understand what causes it? This project focuses on friction, its causes and forces and specifically how it affects how fast you can slip down slides.

Have you ever wondered what goes on in your dog's mind? Even though humans have the benefit of language, trying to understand another person's thoughts can be hard enough sometimes. This project will show you some behavioral tests you...

If you're looking for an experiment that will gross out just about everyone, you probably can't do much better than this. This project investigates an important question in the field of forensic entomology. Just make sure to get...

Antimicrobial agents are chemicals that are used against bacteria. There are many such agents available. Because there are many different situations where bacterial control is important, no antimicrobial agent is effective in all...

Here's a practical project that sheds light on safe practices in the kitchen. Use this information to determine which method of defrosting meat is safest and which method of cooking kills the most bacteria.

The problem of protecting food from spoilage has been with us since prehistoric times. The solutions to this problem have changed with advances in technology and knowledge about what causes food to spoil. This project uses liquid...

This project is an experiment in classical physics. You'll be following in Galileo's footsteps, and investigating Newton's laws of motion, using a metronome as your timing device. This resource will help you get a firm understanding of...

Here's a project that shows you how to use a laser pointer and some knowledge of physics to figure out the concentration of sugar dissolved in a liquid.

The funny thing about friction is that you couldn't get anywhere without it, yet it still acts to slow you down as you're getting there. Here is an easy project to measure the effects of friction.

When something goes wrong, do you like to try to figure out why? Engineers do this all the time. They even have a fancy name for it: failure analysis. Understanding how different materials break is an important part of failure analysis....

Concrete is one of those things that most of us don't think about much, yet we use it every day. We walk on concrete sidewalks, drive on concrete roads, and live and work in buildings with foundations made of concrete. It is a durable...

This project shows you how to build a simple model system to simulate underground water flow. Underground water flow is important for understanding replenishment of underground aquifers, migration of underground contaminant plumes, and...

Want to stretch your imagination? One good way is to try to imagine how far it is to a distant star. How much farther away is it than the moon is from the earth? In this project, you'll learn one way of measuring the distance without...