Science fairs offer children an ideal way to gain knowledge about scientific processes. Many first experience the thrill of designing an experiment outside the classroom and presenting it before an audience.
Discover chemical reactions and color mixing with this fun hands-on experiment that creates sugar water rainbows, or test Boyle’s law with an old CD and balloon!
Colored Sugar Water
Colorful and simple, this science experiment will thrill your children while teaching them about density. As more sugar dissolves into water, its density will increase; those solutions with the least sugar will remain at the top while those containing more will sink to the bottom of each glass.
This amazing experiment with food coloring shows how people’s perception of taste depends heavily on its color – an invaluable lesson for food manufacturers!
Sundials
Sundials are timekeeping devices that display the hours of the day by measuring shadows cast upon objects. One of the oldest forms of scientific experiments, they can also be quite complex to construct.
Simple sundials consist of a flat plate with an attached gnomon that casts shadow. Once properly aligned, these sundials can accurately display local solar time but must also be adjusted for national clock time due to longitude and daylight savings adjustments.
Casein Plastic
Before petroleum was the primary material used to make plastic, milk casein polymer was made for this science experiment. Children can follow along and learn more about chemistry while making casein polymers themselves!
This classic experiment should be included on every child’s to-do list. It provides an easy and fun way to teach children about chemical reactions and physics – not to mention satisfying to see those colorful soap bubble layers form!
Electricity
Many science fair projects use electricity as an exciting way to demonstrate how atoms and molecules function. Kids will love this experiment that shows how static electricity can separate pepper from salt or even bend water!
Your household items are all that’s needed for this battery-powered pop bottle motor! Children will delight in watching its simple mechanism dance using powerful neodymium magnets!
Bacteria
Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms belonging to the domain prokaryotes. Like archaea and certain fungi, bacteria lack nuclei.
Most bacteria reproduce via binary fission, where each cell copies its DNA to form identical daughter cells that mirror its parent cell and become offspring.
This experiment allows students to swab items they use daily and compare their growth as bacteria colonies proliferate – an excellent way to introduce taxonomy and the scientific method!
Oceans
Oceans cover most of Earth’s surface, and hold an enormous amount of salt water that contributes to our climate. With these exciting ocean science projects for 4th graders, learn what role they play in shaping its weather systems.
Kids gain insight into density through conducting this experiment. By watching, oil floats while freshwater sinks due to having more matter packed in it than oil; additionally, water molecules adhere to paper towel fibers through adhesion process which leads them to adhere more firmly.
Magnets
Magnets make an ideal science project for fourth graders as they’re typically easy to set up and provide instantaneous hands-on experimentation that produces immediate results. Furthermore, magnets help children better comprehend concepts such as magnetic attraction/repulsion/compasses and electromagnets.
Provide children with an assortment of objects and ask them to predict which will stick to a magnet before testing each one and explaining that opposite poles attract while like poles repel.
Magic Markers
Magic markers are an ideal way to teach children about the scientific principle that similar compounds dissolve one another. Children can use their markers to draw colorful pictures on strips of paper towel before using chromatography to separate their various hues.
Discover physical and chemical changes through this classic science experiment that turns milk into plastic milk! Kids of all ages love participating in this engaging lesson!
Hovercraft
This simple science experiment is an engaging way to teach the scientific method and air pressure. Children will build a hovercraft before recording their data – an ideal STEM activity for summer learning or in-class labs!
Engage students in investigating the forces acting upon a hovercraft when sitting still on a table surface and when being pushed. Help them draw free body diagrams for both situations.