Science fair projects at high school give teens an excellent way to explore their scientific interests while honing research skills, as well as gain confidence when presenting scientific work to others.
Teens should carefully consider their time commitment when choosing an experiment; some require greater time investment than others.
Newton’s Cradle
Students who enjoy engineering and designing will adore this hands-on STEM challenge! Students are encouraged to build various contraptions that perform simple tasks.
Newton’s Cradle is an effective way to demonstrate conservation of momentum. Additionally, it illustrates how potential energy can convert to kinetic energy and vice versa. To demonstrate these concepts as clearly as possible, each ball should have equal size, weight, and mass; although different-sized balls may still work but this makes seeing their equivalent more challenging.
Steel balls used in Newton’s cradle allow for near-elastic collisions that minimize energy loss, making the device more effective at transferring energy. This makes the cradle an essential tool in demonstrating conservation of momentum principles – particularly with respect to linear momentum conservation (F = ma). By contrast, Rene Descartes used pendulums that demonstrated linear momentum conservation through mass times velocity equations; Newton’s cradle shows potential energy being converted to kinetic energy via potential energy conversion processes.
Sticky Note Friction
Normal forces required to separate two stacks of sticky notes are relatively minor, yet when interleaved pages from two similar stacks are combined it becomes significantly harder even with hard pulling force to separate them; this phenomenon is known as adhesion hysteresis.
Students can gain insight into friction force, how materials affect it and gain key skills such as controlling variables, taking accurate measurements and analyzing data with this straightforward yet engaging experiment.
Assemble two stacks of sticky notes with equal pages before beginning this experiment. Shuffling them together could work just as easily or overlap each page one at a time until both stacks have fully interleaved pages – this may take time, but is worth your while; once completed try pulling apart and take note of how much force is necessary before it separates without friction occurring between pages! You may be amazed to find how much friction there actually is between pages!
Muon Cloud Chamber
High school science fair projects give students the chance to explore subjects they’re curious about while also showing their intellectual vitality and initiative, both of which could come in handy when applying to colleges.
Muon cloud chambers are an excellent way to observe subatomic particles without needing particle accelerators, with their low cost and user-friendly instructions making it an excellent option for young scientists.
The mantle of a cloud chamber resembles that of a standard smoke detector in many ways: radioactive elements such as an isotope of Americium that decay into muons can leave slow, curved tracks visible when activated with water and isopropyl alcohol.
Muons are among the longest-living unstable fundamental particles we know of; on average they live for 2.2 microseconds before reaching Earth’s surface from where they were generated by cosmic rays.
Catalase Isolation
This physics science experiment allows teens a hands-on way of exploring circuitry and electricity with an affordable homemade version of the Tesla coil, providing an engaging way for engineering or technology students to gain practical knowledge.
Science fair projects for high school require more than posters and models; they necessitate scientific research as well as an in-depth exploration of concepts being explored. If you’re searching for an impressive science project idea to impress both your audience and classmates, try one of these high school STEM challenge experiments!
Discover why certain people experience seasonal allergies while others do not, investigate the role of bacteria in food chains with this captivating science experiment, or study osmosis using film canister explosions to study its chemistry. Or use your home laboratory to calculate calories in beverages using Home Science Tools’ special kit; just be sure you know both chemistry and math!