Science Fair Ideas

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Question	How would you do it?	Difficulty	Topic
Which masquito repellant works best?	Use four different leading brands of mosquito repellant on four equal sections of your arms. Go out on a night in an area where mosquitos are common, see how many bites you get in each section of your arms.		Product Testing
Are there gender specific behaviors of cats/dogs?	You could do a brief behavioral study of two or more cats and note easily observable behaviors and generate data from them.For example: Time it takes to eat, amount of water consumed each day, activity level, closeness to humans, etc		Zoology
What is the relationship between cloud type and weather patterns?	You would do a long term log 6 - 10 weeks of observation of the cloud type and measureable weather conditions, then from that data you draw relationships.	High	Meteorology
Which is the preferred food of cats?	Ask yourself how does a cat show that he or she likes a food. These would be your operational definitions. [For example: Eating the food faster indicates that the cat likes the food better. Or running to the food, or begging for more, or greater activity, or reluctance to eat.] Pick a couple or few of these observable behaviors and record them for each type of food.	Medium	Product Testing
How does the greenhouse effect and sun distance affect the inner planets?	Set up an apparatus with a hot, light source and maybe a box, saran wrap and a thermometer. Use the box as the planet model and place at it various distances from the light, let it sit for a while and take a temperature reading. Then, place 1 layer of saran wrap on the box opening, place the wrap-side facing the light and repeat at the same distances. Then place 10 layers of saran wrap on the box opening and repeat again at the same distances.	High	Astronomy
Is there a correlation between test scores and studying time?	Use some of your friends as willing test subjects. When you have a test coming up survey students on how many minutes they studied prior to the test. As them later to volunteer their test scores. Graph and compare.	Low	Learning
Do atheletes have better reaction time?	Choose a group of students, half atheletes, half not. Hold a ruler or yardstick between their index finger and thumb (open), note the beginning mark on the ruler. Drop it and record at what distance the person caught it. Repeat three times to get an average for each person.	Low	Physiology
What is the effect of temperature on seed germination?	Use several of the same kind of seed and place them in small containers with moist cotton. Place them in different places that have different temperatures ex. fridge, outside, inside, measure those temperatures periodically. See what happens with the seeds.	Low	Botony
What can cool a hot mouth?	Have you ever eaten a jalapeno pepper, or tabasco sauce? They burn. Why don't you try different things that can cool your mouth? You should use more than one person. Have people eat a hot sauce and rate the hotness in their mouths on a scale of 1-10. Then have them eat or drink something cooling and rate the hotness again. See which substances work best. Some suggestions: Milk, Water, Soda, Ice Cream, Mint Gum, Yogurt, Coffee.	Low	Physiology

Tips for experimenting and experiment design:

Make sure to ask yourself, "Am I only changing one thing here?" It is important that if you are comparing two or more things that you are testing them in the exact same conditions. Only the thing in question should change.
Repeat the experiment several times to get better results. In science, not only must a study be repeatable, but increasing the number of data points that you have increases the validity of your data.
Use as many people as possible in studies involving human subjects, for the same reason as above.
Be sure that no animals or humans are hurt in the process of the study or experiment.
When dealing with studies of sensitive information about students, keep that information private and do not publish the names with the data in your presentation.
Make sure your experiment actually answers your question.
Use operational definitions when dealing with behaviors or abilities. This means if you say something like "perform better," "do better," etc make sure you tell your audience what you are using to determine that.