Students should select science fair projects that reflect what they are studying in class and ensure maximum benefit from their experiments, with clear understanding of results and insights gained from results.
Observing natural phenomena and creating models are fun STEM activities that help develop close observation skills while practicing fundamental physics principles like gravity.
Dinosaur Cage Building
Learn the fundamentals of color, texture and shape by creating dinosaur art! This simple science project also helps students comprehend density.
Use this model of tectonic plates to demonstrate how earthquakes occur and illustrate shifting movement within Earth’s surface layers.
Children of all ages will love this captivating experiment with soap bubbles, glycerin and different solutions – perfect for science fair projects!
Wind Speed Test
Use this easy wind experiment to test air speed. Your students will observe how quickly a cup anemometer spins; stronger winds produce quicker rotational speeds.
Use this project to teach about the Beaufort scale for measuring wind strength and how it varies by place. Combine your findings with rainfall and air pressure measurements for an in-depth weather report.
Kaleidoscope
This kaleidoscope project helps children gain a tangible understanding of light and mirrors. The device includes mirrors as well as colorful beads or sequins through which light passes, making this an engaging hands-on learning experience for young minds.
Kids then create a pattern by rotating the tube, creating an engaging yet educational science fair project for 4th graders.
Volcano Model
An educational volcano model provides a fun way for students to gain insight into the inner workings of Earth. Featuring hand-painted magma flow and an educational key for identification of volcanic materials erupted, this hand-painted model makes learning about volcanic processes fun!
This experiment employs baking soda and vinegar as ingredients to demonstrate how chemical reactions produce an eruption. You can modify its parameters by altering either its amount of baking soda or vinegar used, in order to observe any effects it might have on its effect.
Marble Transfer of Energy
Demonstrate how energy can move from potential to kinetic with this marble run science experiment! It’s an ideal way to teach about conservation of energy, how its forms change from one form to the other and its overall importance in society.
Ask students to use a protractor to measure distances when flicking marbles onto sandpaper with different forces and angles, in order to understand how these factors influence speed. Repeat the experiment using different angles and variations of force in order to see what affects speed.
Basketball Bounce
Playing basketball requires immense amounts of energy. One element of that workout involves dribbling the ball. As soon as a basketball hits the court, some of its kinetic energy dissipates into sound waves or heat, releasing some additional forms of energy such as sound or heat.
Invite volunteers to test different surfaces by dropping a basketball and recording how high it bounces back up, recording which surface allows it to bounce the highest. By comparing results from these tests, it should become evident which surface offers optimal basketball bouncing conditions.
Mineral Resources Exploration
Mineral exploration is an integral component of mining industry operations, helping ensure critical minerals for applications such as electronics and renewable energy are available for supply.
Children can explore physical science through engaging activities that incorporate scientific inquiry and method skills. These activities cover subjects like physics, biology, earth science and chemistry – in addition to meeting Next Generation Science Standards.
DNA Strand Building
Learn the structure of DNA through engaging and hands-on experiments. Identify some of the scientists responsible, like Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick and Linus Pauling who all played an instrumental role in unlocking its structure.
By using gumdrops, toothpicks and DNA identity cards students create their own DNA strand and connect complementary bases to form its sugar-phosphate backbone – this experiment offers an excellent visual of human DNA structure.
Boyle’s Law Marshmallow Experiment
Marshmallows are air-filled foamy substances formed from sugar-gelatin mixture. Their air pockets respond to changes in pressure; in this experiment, kids test whether a marshmallow will expand when subjected to heat.
Boyle’s law can be hard for kids to grasp. Sorting marshmallows demonstrates density’s impact on buoyancy. Sorting increases color recognition skills as well as fine motor ones!
Chocolate Chip Scramble
Exploring the properties of various materials is always a fascinating science experiment, and this variation of Oobleck shows one such non-Newtonian fluid with liquid and solid qualities.
This easy flower science experiment helps kids to understand the life cycle and capillary action of flowers as well as their color and pigmentation in an engaging way. Perfect for 4th graders!