Students explore physics and engineering by building and testing cars using 3D printing technology. This project also presents students with an excellent opportunity to use their 3D printer!
Students learn surface tension with an engaging demonstration using soap and water, testing how air temperature influences how long bubbles last. They can also explore how air temperature impacts how long bubbles remain active.
Students can utilize Newton’s Cradle to explore how energy converts to momentum, as well as exploring how different genres of music affect plant growth.
Acid Rain
Students can investigate the effects of acid rain on an aquatic environment using household vinegar as part of an educational experiment about environmental toxicity and pH balance. This experience allows students to gain valuable insights into environmental toxicity as well as pH.
An 8th grade science fair project idea for using water-testing kits as part of their investigation of local streams and rivers would be to observe plant growth at various pH levels in soil or compare pea plant growth rate between those with nitrogen-fixing bacteria and those without it.
Tinkering with food-related physics can be extremely engaging. Use an experiment to see how temperature variations impact sugar crystallization when making candy or explore surface tension, the force that causes liquids to stick together, with this incredible chemistry experiment using red onions.
Yeast Fermentation
Students can learn about cellular respiration through yeast fermentation, in which one-celled organisms consume sugar and produce carbon dioxide as a byproduct of their metabolic processes. They can experiment with different conditions to see which ones help the yeast thrive more quickly, such as temperature and pH level testing.
Vintners use fermentation of sugar to produce wine, just as apples or juice stored in your fridge undergo the same process.
Show your students how greenhouse gases trap heat with this easy balloon and thermometer experiment, or build catapults so they can gain knowledge about trajectory and movement. They could even experiment with whether plants prefer sunlight or shade or whether music changes their dispositions.
Root Beer
Root beer is one of the most beloved American beverages. Its distinctive taste stems from an array of roots, barks, and spices such as sassafras, birch tree bark, and sarsaparilla–an exotic plant with an intriguing name which makes the beverage even more intriguing to consume!
Charles Elmer Hires created the first commercial root beer in 1876 and sold it as a drink to coal miners. To appeal more directly to working class men who did not consume alcohol, his drink’s name was changed from root tea to root beer in order to increase sales.
This classic science experiment is ideal for eighth-grade science classes as it illustrates the physical properties of matter – in this case, trapped gas inside root beer float bubbles.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C has long been considered essential to overall immune health, and students can use titration (a chemistry technique which determines chemical concentrations) to measure how much of it there is in various varieties of orange juice.
Variations on this experiment could involve testing other foods for their vitamin C content or investigating whether cooking impacts its concentration. Another interesting variation could involve testing how different methods of ripening fruit affect its nutritional value.
Students can use microscopes to study pond protozoa and determine how heat and pH impact them. Furthermore, students can design a simple water filtration system to mitigate oil spills’ harmful impact on wildlife and plants.
Algae
Algae are photosynthetic organisms found in aquatic environments like ponds and oceans, such as giant kelp beds or unicellular forms like those found in pond water.
Nitrates and phosphates that wash off lawns and golf courses can end up polluting natural water sources like ponds. These chemicals have the ability to disrupt ecological balance by encouraging certain organisms to flourish more than others.
Students can conduct experiments that explore whether supplementing carbon dioxide with their water supplies affects algal growth rates, as well as various environmental conditions that impact such growth. This project would make an ideal 8th grade science fair project focused on ecology, chemistry or biology.
Glowing Waves
Students can use glow-in-the-dark paint to create an optical illusion that reflects light, which serves to teach both scientific method and optics.
Eighth graders can conduct research to understand how air temperature influences how long soap bubbles last or test which ratio of vinegar to baking soda produces the optimal chemical volcano eruption. They could also explore food science by investigating ingredients and processes that influence baking products.
8th graders interested in biology-related projects can test lung capacity or the efficiency of various desalination methods for producing clean drinking water, track plant growth over time or cast animal footprints using various materials.