Elementary School Projects, Lessons, Activities (Page 18)

Mixing Your Own Marshmallows: Finding the Right Ratio of Sugar to Corn Syrup

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Whether you are sitting around a campfire, or drinking hot chocolate after a day in the snow, nothing says fun quite like a marshmallow! Even its name is soft and spongy! In this cooking and food science fair project, you will make your own marshmallows several different ways, and discover the three special ingredients that give marshmallows their unique texture. You will also find out why they melt so quickly. Explore the science of these sticky, spongy sweets! Read more

Model the Rock Cycle with Crayons

STEM Activity

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Use crayons to model the rock cycle in this fun activity! You will make colorful sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous "rocks" from crayon shavings. Read more

Paper Bridge Design Challenge

Lesson Plan Grade: Kindergarten-2nd

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Your students have probably walked or ridden over a bridge at some point in their lives. In this engineering activity they will design and make bridges out of folded pieces of paper, and test how much weight they can hold with pennies. How does the shape of a bridge affect its strength? Let your students explore and find out with this lesson! This lesson can be expanded to a second lesson looking at how the material a bridge is made out of can change its strength; see second lesson for details. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
K-2-ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

Racing Bristlebots: On Your Mark. Get Set. Go!

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever wanted to build your very own robot from scratch? Bristlebots are a cheap, easy, and fun-to-build robot made from the head of a toothbrush, a battery, and a small motor. Once completed, they buzz along the top of a table like bugs. How can you make a bristlebot go faster? In this project, you will build bristlebots from two different types of toothbrushes, and race them against each other to find out. Read more

Rusting Out: How Acids Affect the Rate of Corrosion

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever left your bike outside in the rain? If so, you might have discovered unpleasant surprises afterwards—reddish-brown patches, known as rust, and your wheels, brakes, and gears might have stopped working so smoothly. In this chemistry science fair project, you'll learn why rust, a type of corrosion, is a serious problem. You'll also discover that not all rains are the same! Find out which ones can speed up the rusting process. Read more

Tallest Paper Tower Challenge for Grades 3-5

Lesson Plan Grade: 3rd-5th

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Teach your students about the engineering design process with this fun lesson plan. They will design and build the tallest possible tower using nothing but paper and tape, but there's an additional twist on this classic activity. The tower must support a heavy weight at the top without collapsing! Teachers, note that middle school and high school versions of this lesson plan are also available. The 2021 Engineering Challenge is over, but you can still try this fun lesson with your students,… Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

The Effect of Temperature on Chemical Reaction Time

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Alka-Seltzer® tablets fizzle furiously when dropped into water. The moment the tablet starts dissolving, a chemical reaction occurs that releases carbon dioxide gas. In this science project, you can even measure how long and loudly your tablet fizzes using a smartphone equipped with a sensor app. Do you think you can make Alka-Seltzer fizz faster or more loudly by changing the temperature of the water? How big of a difference in the rate of a chemical reaction can temperature make? Read more

The Science Behind Tsunamis: Study the Effect of Water Depth on Wave Velocity

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

A tsunami is a series of waves made in a body of water, like the ocean, that can cause serious destruction when they hit the coastline. In deep water, a wave can be just a few feet high and travel very fast. As it nears the coastline, and moves into shallower water, tsunamis usually slow down, but the wave height can grow to 100 feet! In this ocean science project, you will model a tsunami and investigate how wave velocity (speed) depends on water depth. Does it match the mathematical equation… Read more

The Surprising Strength of Eggshells

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever seen an arch structure in a building, such as over a doorway or surrounding large windows? Arches have been used for structural engineering since ancient times. This experiment tests the strength of a naturally occurring arch shape: the shell of an egg. How much mass do you think an eggshell can support? Read more

What's The Best Way to Land a Model Rocket?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

What's the best way to land a model rocket? What makes the rocket hit the ground safely at a low speed? What prevents the rocket from drifting too far if it's windy? In this project, you will make your own rockets from paper towel tubes and drop them to test different recovery methods like parachutes and streamers. What method do you think will work the best? Read more

Elementary School Projects, Lessons, Activities (1,087 results)

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