Finding an Experiment for Science Fair

What are you curious about?     

        What makes you  wonder? 

                                                                             

           What are the things that make you ask        

                  “WHY?” 

Those things can often make great science fair projects! Talk to the adult that will help you and look around on some of the websites I have recommended on the right side bar for ideas if there are just too many possibilities to narrow down. The next thing to consider is if you think you can make that interesting thing into an EXPERIMENT.

So what makes an experiment? There are lots of fun science activities that are NOT experiments. Making a 'volcano' explode with baking soda and vinegar is an awesome demonstration of some basic chemistry, but it is not an experiment. Learning a little about capillary action by watching colored water creep up a celery stalk is interesting, but not an experiment by itself. Picking up little pieces of paper with a drinking straw you have charged by rubbing with the paper wrapper looks like a great magic trick that is based on science, but it is NOT an experiment (it is a very old demonstration first described by an early Greek scientist named Thales of Miletus in 600 BC, but he used a rod made of amber and a piece of wool, not a plastic drinking straw and it’s wrapper!).

An experiment is a lot like a multiple part demonstration where each separate part has a lot of things that are the same – CONSTANTS - and one thing that is different – the VARIABLE. If you try the same thing with one condition that changes you can then see how the result changes. Let’s take the example of the volcano reaction I talked about before… that reaction creates gas – it is what fills the bubbles that make up the foam that spills up and out of the cup. What would happen if you used the same amount of baking soda (a constant) and changed something about the stuff you put in it? You could try different amounts of the same vinegar. In this case the vinegar itself is also a constant and the AMOUNT of vinegar is the VARIABLE.  Or, you could try the same amount of several different liquids… like white vinegar, milk, cider vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice, lime juice, water. In this case the amount is a constant and the KIND OF LIQUID is the VARIABLE. The really fun part comes in when you see how the result of the reaction changes as the variable changes. You can record the results of your experiments and decide why you think the different conditions had the results they did. THAT is an experiment!

In the case of the capillary action in the celery stalks, different colors in water as shown in the picture probably would not be different enough to see a change. However, you could put one stalk in a cup of colored water in the refrigerator, one at room temperature, and one in a box warmed with a light bulb. You could then check on them at different times to see how far the dye had crept up the stalk. The different temperatures might make a difference in how fast the celery takes up the colored water. In this example what do you think the CONSTANTS are? What about the VARIABLE?

There are other things to think about when doing your chosen experiment, but the first step is to choose something you are curious about and decide how to make it into an experiment. There will be posts soon about how and why to keep a lab note book and go about figuring out a hypothesis, and things to keep in mind that will help you follow good experimental procedure. For now, get yourself a composition note book and start by writing down some ideas about things that make you wonder and how you might do an experiment with that idea or activity.  If you can't think of a way, ask for help from either an adult or by leaving a comment here or emailing me. I would love to hear what excites you and makes you curious.

Until next time... keep wondering!