Middle School Projects, Lessons, Activities (Page 49)

You Are What You Eat!

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Thinking about improving your sports performance? Want to help friends and family make the most of their physical fitness activities? One factor to consider is food! Whether you realize it or not, what you eat does change your body! It affects how you feel, and can even change how you perform in sports. This science fair project will help you explore the link between what goes in your mouth and what your legs and arms can do. Read more

Afterimages: The Colorful Tricks Eyes Play

STEM Activity

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Have you ever wondered how visual illusions are made? When we see special effects in movies, or a magic show, we often witness illusions that challenge our ability to correctly perceive things. One way in which our eyes play tricks on us is through afterimages. Afterimages are the images you see after staring at an object for several seconds and then looking away. In this science activity, you will look at afterimages to reveal the secrets of how your eyes see color. Read more

Balance the Forces Within a Mobile

STEM Activity

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Have you ever seen a mobile? Not a mobile phone, but a hanging art sculpture. You might have had such a mobile in your room when you were little. These mobiles hang from the ceiling and are usually made up of many layers of rods to which lots of differently shaped objects are attached with strings. When you look at the mobile sculpture, you might wonder how it can stay balanced all the time even when it is moving in the air. In this activity, you will make your own mobile sculpture and find out… Read more

Balloon Morphing: How Gases Contract and Expand

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Expanding gases are everywhere, from the kitchen to the cosmos. You've tasted their pleasures every time you've eaten a slice of bread, bitten into a cookie, or sipped a glass of soda. In this chemistry science fair project, you'll capture a gas in a stretchy container you're probably pretty familiar with—a balloon. This will allow you to observe the gas expansion and contraction as the temperature changes. Read more

Bet You Can't Hit Me! The Science of Catapult Statistics

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

If you have ever tried to hit a target (such as a trash can) with a wad of paper, you know that aim is everything. But it is not always easy to get it right every time! Missing is not that big a deal with a wad of paper, but what if you were in an invading army in the Middle Ages, using a catapult to hurl huge stones and knock down castle walls? For a successful invasion, it would be important to know exactly how far, and how reliably, a catapult could launch a projectile. In this project you… Read more

Build a Bird Nest

STEM Activity

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Different types of birds lay their eggs in different places. Some build tiny nests in bushes, some build enormous nests in tall trees. Some lay their eggs directly on the ground or on rocky ledges. Those that build nests use many different types of materials. In this project you will try to build your own bird nest using only natural materials that you can find outside. Can you do better than a bird? Read more

Build a Model Planetary Lander with micro:bit

Science Fair Project Idea

Engineering Design Process

How do you make a spacecraft land safely on the Moon or another planet like Mars? It probably helps to know how far away the ground is so you can deploy landing gear, activate a parachute, or fire thrusters to help slow down. In this project you will build your own "lander" vehicle with a sensor that can measure distance to the ground, allowing you to program outputs like blinking lights or an audible alarm. Read more

Build a Recycling-Sorting Machine

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

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In this lesson plan, your students will build their own recycling sorting machines that use various methods, like magnets or puffs of air, to separate shreds of paper from paper clips. This lesson is inspired by the real-world engineering challenge of separating various materials, like paper, plastic, and metals, that get combined in single-stream recycling programs. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-PS2-3. Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.
MS-PS2-5. Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.
MS-ETS1-2. Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

Building Junkbots—Robots from Recycled Materials

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

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Junkbots are easy-to-build robots that you can make using a simple circuit and some recyclable materials. In this lesson, your students will learn about engineering design as they compete to build the fastest robot. No previous robotics experience is required! Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

Can Nanotechnology Help Clean Up Ocean Oil Spills? Try It Yourself with Ferrofluid

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

The enormous task of cleaning up oil spills in oceans and seas has burdened industry, government, and environmentalists for decades. The cleanup is almost always difficult. It involves great amounts of time, resources, and money to remove the oil from the water, and the cleanup is often only partially successful. Today, however, scientists are coming to the rescue, developing a new technique that combines nanotechnology and magnetism. In this science project, you will test the proposed… Read more

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