Project Ideas for Home

• Use readily available materials.
• Can be completed in a few hours.

To find other projects you and your student would enjoy, browse the complete library or use the Topic Selection Wizard to see a list of recommendations that match up to your interests.

Beginner

• A Battery That Makes Cents
• A Magnifying Discovery
• A Matter of Time
• A Puzzling Parallax
• A Soluble Separation Solution
• Apparent Motion & Animation
• Are You Gellin'? ®
• Are You Left or Right Sided?
• Balancing the Load: The See-Saw as a Simple Machine
• Bouncy Polymer Chemistry
• Bridges That Can Take a Shake!
• Bubble-ology
• Building Beaches
• Building the Tallest Tower
• Cabbage Chemistry
• Can the Color of Your House Reduce Your Energy Bill?
• Catching Stardust
• CD Burning: Take it to the Edge
• Changing Constellations
• Coke® & Mentos® - Exploring Explosive Chemistry!
• Crank Up the Music!
• Craters and Meteorites
• Do Preferences Bias Our Choices?
• Do the Eyes Have It?
• Do-It-Yourself DNA
• Drawing Circles Around Ants
• Estimation and Population Size
• Go Wild! Try a Wildcard
• Gone With the Wind: An Experiment on Seed and Fruit Dispersal
• How Can Your Faucet Save Water?
• How Do Different Materials React to Static Electricity?
• How Do the Seasons Change in Each Hemisphere?
• How Does a Chick Breathe Inside Its Shell?
• How Does a Hovercraft Work?
• How Does a Wind Meter Work?
• How Far Will It Fly? Build & Test Paper Planes with Different Drag
• How Greasy Are Your Potato Chips?
• How Many Letters?
• How Many Numbers Can You Remember?
• How Many Seeds Do Different Types of Fruit Produce?
• Induction: How Many Coil Turns Do I Need?
• Juice Box Geometry
• Jumping Distance
• Keep Your Candy Cool With the Power of Evaporation!
• Keeping Up
• Let's Go Fly a Kite!
• Liver Stinks!
• M&M Geometry
• M&M Math
• M&M Survival Challenge
• Mag-nificent Breakfast Cereal
• Make Your Own Markers
• Making Mixtures: How Do Colloids Size Up?
• Measuring Up
• Oil and Vinegar Do Mix…When You Have an Emulsifier
• Outer Space, The Silent Frontier: An Experiment on Sound Waves
• Pedalism and Movement
• Pencil Resistors
• Pick a Card, Any Card
• Pinholes, Light and Aperture Size
• Play-Doh Math
• Point Your Ponies: How Horses Keep Warm in the Wind
• Polar Puzzle: Will Ice Melting at the North or South Poles Cause Sea Levels to Rise?
• Porosity and Particle Size
• Printing Power! Save the Environment, One Printer Page at a Time
• Ready, Set, Search! Race to the Right Answer
• Rubber Bands for Energy
• Rubbing Up Against Static Electricity
• Shape Changing with the CyberSquad
• Skipping Science: An Experiment in Jump Rope Lengths
• Slinking Slinkies
• Slip Sliding Away: Experimenting with Friction
• Soil Color and Moisture
• Soil Compaction
• Squirmy Wormy: Which Soil Type Do Earthworms Like Best?
• Swing Low: Investigate the Motion of a Pendulum
• The Bouba-Kiki Effect
• The Brain-Body Connection: Can Exercise Really Make Our Brains Work Better?
• The Golden Rules of Photography
• The Moon and Tides
• The Pixel Puzzle: Why Video Game Characters Look Better Today
• The Swimming Secrets of Duck Feet
• Think Fast!
• Turn Milk into Plastic!
• Wave Blockers
• Weather and Climate in Your Neighborhood
• What Are You Blubbering About?
• What Color Are the Leaves Really Turning?
• What Goes Up, Must Come Down: Conduct Galileo's Famous Falling Objects Experiment
• Which Animals Have Genome Projects?
• Which Materials are the Best Conductors?
• Which Stars Can You Use for Navigation in Different Parts of the World?
• Whirl-y-bird vs. Whale-y-bird
• Who Has the Biggest Genome?
• Yeasty Beasties

Intermediate

• Applying Hooke's Law: Make Your Own Spring Scale
• Archimedes Squeeze: At What Diameter Does an Aluminum Boat Sink?
• Balancing Act: Finding Your Center of Gravity
• Balloon Morphing: How Gases Contract and Expand
• Baseball Bat Debate: What's Better, Wood or Aluminum?
• Bottled-up Buoyancy
• Can Water Float on Water?
• Circus-Trick Science: How to Balance Anything
• Fear Factor: Using Pulse Rate to Measure Emotion
• Frequency of Outcomes in a Small Number of Trials
• Fresh Whipped Cream That Lasts
• From Sauce to Solid: The Science of Cranberry Condiments
• Gears-Go-Round!
• Give It a Lift with a Lever
• Help! What File Format Should I Use to Save My Favorite Photo?
• How Does Soil Affect the pH of Water?
• How Salty Does the Sea Have to Be for an Egg to Float?
• How the Strength of a Magnet Varies with Temperature
• It's All in the Wrist: Moving Water with the Archimedes Screw Pump
• Keeping You in Suspens(ion)
• Knock Your Blocks Off: The Mechanics of Carnival Games
• Leaky Clues to Dam Design: How Reservoir Height Affects Hydroelectric Power Production
• Maple Syrup: For Pancakes, Waffles, and...Crystal Candy?
• Measuring the Surface Tension of Water
• Measuring Your Taste Threshold
• Molecular Scissors
• Now You See It, Now You Don't: A Chromatic Adaptation Project
• Parachutes: Does Size Matter?
• Shaking Up Some Energy
• Soda Straw Robot Simulator
• The Birthday Paradox
• The Brains Behind 'Where's Waldo?'
• The Nose Knows Smell but How About Taste?
• The Power of Heat Is Right Under Your Feet!
• The Reasons for the Seasons
• Throwing You Some Curves: Is Red or Blue Longer?
• Tightening the Turns in Speed Skating: Lessons in Centripetal Force & Balance
• Twirls, Whirls, Spins, & Turns: The Science & Reflexes of Dizziness
• Under Pressure: Ball Bouncing Dynamics
• What A Drag!
• What Makes a DNA Fingerprint Unique?
• What's the Fastest Way to Cool a Soda?
• Which Fruits Can Ruin Your Gelatin Dessert?

Advanced

• A Change in the Winds: Studying Bernoulli's Principle
• Don't You Fret! Standing Waves on a Guitar
• Guitar Fundamentals: Wavelength, Frequency, & Speed
• How to Make a Guitar Sing
• How to Make a Piano Sing
• Measuring the Speed of 'Light' with a Microwave Oven
• The Measure of Mercury: Analyzing Impact Craters on the Innermost Planet
• Using a Laser Pointer to Measure the Data Track Spacing on CDs and DVDs