Parents play an important role in fostering enthusiasm for science in their children.
Doing science projects together at home can make a wonderful weekend or "day off"
activity. The following list of projects contains projects from our library of science
Project Ideas
that meet the following criteria:
- 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.
Gone With the Wind: An Experiment on Seed and Fruit Dispersal
Gone With the Wind: An Experiment on Seed and Fruit Dispersal
| Difficulty |
|
| Time Required |
Very Short (≤ 1 day) |
| Prerequisites |
None |
| Material Availability |
Readily available |
| Cost |
Very Low (under $20) |
| Safety |
No issues |
Up, up, and away! If you have ever made a wish and blown the fluff of a dandelion, you have witnessed how some plants are adapted to spreading their seeds using the wind. The tiny, furry parachute allows the seeds to be picked up by the wind and to be carried far away from their parent plant. In this experiment, you will make models of seeds and fruit to investigate dispersal by wind and to evaluate
the relationship between the structure of…
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How Does a Chick Breathe Inside Its Shell?
How Does a Chick Breathe Inside Its Shell?
| Difficulty |
|
| Time Required |
Very Short (≤ 1 day) |
| Prerequisites |
None |
| Material Availability |
Readily available |
| Cost |
Very Low (under $20) |
| Safety |
Adult supervision required while boiling the eggs. |
Have you ever wondered how a chick breathes inside its shell? Every animal needs oxygen to survive, so the chick must get air somehow! Try this science project to discover the answer.
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How Does a Hovercraft Work?
How Does a Hovercraft Work?
| Difficulty |
|
| Time Required |
Very Short (≤ 1 day) |
| Prerequisites |
None |
| Material Availability |
Readily available |
| Cost |
Very Low (under $20) |
| Safety |
If using epoxy, adult assistance is required, use caution, and follow all of the instructions and safety warnings on the packaging. |
Have you ever ridden on a hovercraft? It is like gliding on a cushion of air! In this science project, you will make your own mini hovercraft using a CD or DVD and a balloon and investigate how the amount of air in the balloon affects how long the hovercraft hovers.
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How Many Letters?
How Many Letters?
| Difficulty |
|
| Time Required |
Very Short (≤ 1 day) |
| Prerequisites |
None |
| Material Availability |
Readily available |
| Cost |
Very Low (under $20) |
| Safety |
No issues |
Can you remember all of your ABC's? Computers need to "remember" letters too. Every time we use a computer to write a story, the computer needs to "remember" the letters in the story by saving them to the computer's memory as a file. In this experiment find out how much memory it takes for the computer to "remember" a series of letters.
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How Many Numbers Can You Remember?
How Many Numbers Can You Remember?
| Difficulty |
|
| Time Required |
Very Short (≤ 1 day) |
| Prerequisites |
None |
| Material Availability |
Readily available |
| Cost |
Very Low (under $20) |
| Safety |
No issues |
Are you good at remembering addresses and phone numbers? How many numbers do you think you can remember? Try this experiment to test your digit span, the maximum number of digits that you can remember.
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