Be sure to give your students an exciting science fair project that challenges and interests them while not needing expensive equipment. Furthermore, these experiments should be easy enough for children to complete at home with some guidance from parents.
Discover the science of rainbow-colored candy with this food-based experiment that teaches chemical reactions and physics concepts! It is sure to delight children!
Rube Goldberg Machine
Rube Goldberg Machines are intricate mechanical devices with complex chain reactions that employ logic puzzles to accomplish simple tasks. Named for 20th-century cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who created sketches depicting machines that performed mundane and everyday tasks in overly complicated ways, each year students across the United States compete in an annual Rube Goldberg Machine competition.
Teamwork on this project promotes social interaction and communication skills while simultaneously increasing problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity among children who design machines from household materials.
This type of machine teaches children about simple machines such as wheels and axles, levers, inclined planes, pulleys and screws. Furthermore, they gain an understanding of energy flows within machines as well as each part’s role in reaching their ultimate goal of their device.
UV Beads
This UV-sensitive product is an engaging way for students to understand that light has an effect on living things – including ourselves! When exposed to UV rays, its presence alters its color – with it returning back to white once removed from its source. Each pack includes 240 beads.
Use these beads to demonstrate how various materials absorb or transmit UV light. Students can also use these beads to illustrate the effectiveness of various sunscreen products – it is crucial that skin be protected from damaging UV radiation that could lead to sunburns and skin cancer.
Place a small cluster of beads onto a piece of acetate and shine a UV flashlight on them; their colors should change from red or purple as the UV light strikes the beads and changes their hue.
Optical Illusions
Optic illusions provide a fascinating way to explore how our eyes and brain interpret visual information. There are three main categories of optical illusions: literal, physiological and cognitive.
Optic illusions are created through the combination of multiple images that appear clear individually but, when seen together, create one unified picture. Salvador Dali was an expert at this technique; his portraits would transform from portraits into horses or ships as viewers changed focus.
Physiological optical illusions exploit our brain’s unique way of processing light, color and distance. One such illusion is the Hermann Grid; when looking at its white space between black lines you’ll notice dark blobs where these intersect – this occurs because our eye and brain perceive an alternate image than that presented visually.
Cars
Use an ordinary car as the foundation for an engaging science fair experiment! Children will gain valuable experience learning about friction, speed and force as they construct a model car and test its capabilities.
Students will combine physics, engineering and culinary science for this project. They’ll build a solar oven and see how it cooks food; an excellent way for them to learn more about renewable energy!
Help your students create successful science projects by selecting topics they find intriguing. With these fun experiments, you can help them discover a passion that may even impress judges! Good luck to rookie scientists!
Batteries
Utilizing an all-in-one kit, this battery-powered project will explore how batteries store energy. An excellent idea for an eighth grade science fair project.
With this exciting experiment, your students can explore the chemistry that gives candy colors their vibrant hues. They’ll gain knowledge in chemical separation, density and surface tension.
Get kids excited and their minds moving with this project that encourages them to track their heart rates during different activities and create a layered water filter to see which material works best at cleaning contaminated water.
Students can explore optics using color-changing UV beads in this experiment. They’ll gain knowledge of refraction and how light passes through different materials; additionally they can create optical illusions to test their vision.