Projects, Lessons, Activities (Page 117)

Slinking Slinkies

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Want to do a project with a toy your parents, or even grandparents, might have played with? Slinkies are fun toys that also make great physics and engineering projects. In this science project you will investigate how changing the angle of an inclined plane affects how the Slinky walks down it. What angle will enable the Slinky to go for the best walk? Read more

Slip Sliding Away: Experimenting with Friction

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

As you headed up the mountain to enjoy your last ski trip, you may have noticed a sign reading: Hazard! Icy Roads Ahead—Put On Your Chains. Putting chains on car tires increases the resistance between the tires and the road allowing the car to "grip" the road. This resistance to sliding is called friction. In this experiment, you will be investigating how to increase and decrease the friction between two surfaces. Read more

Slippery Slopes and Sticking Surfaces: Explore the Forces of Friction

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Whoopee! No matter what age, who doesn't like flying down the slides at parks and pools? In this experiment, you might be surprised what you can learn about the fascinating forces of friction while sliding down (or sticking to) those fun, slippery slopes. Caution: only speed demons need apply for this activity. Read more

Small, Tiny, Invisible: How Big Is a Virus?

STEM Activity

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Have you ever seen a real virus? Probably not—they are so tiny that it is impossible to see them with your naked eyes. But how big or small are viruses really? The coronavirus Sars-Cov-2, which causes COVID-19, is about 120 nanometers in size. One nanometer is equal to one billionth of a meter! How many of these tiny coronaviruses do you think can you line up inside a pencil dot? In this activity, you will find out by creating a scale model that allows you to compare the size of many… Read more

Smelly Science: A Sniff Test

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Take a deep breath: freshly baked cookies, smoke from a wood fire, or a rose—your nose is an amazing smell detector! Your sense of smell can not only identify a huge variety of odors, but it is also incredibly sensitive. Think about how easily you can detect if someone in your neighborhood has a barbecue just by smelling the hints of smoke from the grill far away. How strong or weak you perceive an odor depends on its concentration. What do you think is the lowest concentration of a… Read more

Social Media: When and Where Do People Post?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Social media is all the buzz on the internet. What can we do with all the information generated by millions of people posting, tweeting, taking pictures, and chatting? How do companies convert it into profit? While you do not have the tools to analyze data from millions of social media posts by yourself, you will be able to analyze a scaled-down version. Follow the instructions in this project to try your hand at extracting data from a couple of social media sites and use it to create… Read more

Solar Sails: The Future of Space Travel

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

Working as if they were engineers, students design and construct model solar sails made of aluminum foil to move cardboard tube satellites through "space" on a string. Working in teams, they follow the engineering design thinking steps—ask, research, imagine, plan, create, test, improve—to design and test small-scale solar sails for satellites and space probes. During the process, learn about Newton's laws of motion and the transfer of energy from wave energy to… 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.
MS-PS2-2. Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object's motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
MS-PS2-1.. Apply Newton's Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.

Solar-Powered Cars for Junior Solar Sprints

Lesson Plan Grade: 5th-8th

Help your students learn about solar energy, physical forces, and other science topics with this hands-on engineering experience. This lesson plan will show you how to get your classroom started building solar-powered cars that your students can enter, if desired, in regional Junior Solar Sprint competitions. No previous experience with electronics or building things is necessary. Get the dates and location for your regional competition. 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.
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.

Solar-Powered Salt Removal

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever thought about being stranded on a desert island? How would you find water to drink? What would you need to survive? In this science fair project you'll discover how to turn the ocean into a source of freshwater by using the power of the Sun. Read more

Sorbent Science: Cleaning Up Oil Spills

STEM Activity

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Have you ever seen news coverage or other pictures of an oil spill in the ocean and wondered how all of that oil could be cleaned up? Oil spills can devastate wildlife by covering them with oil, and they can damage our precious water resources by contaminating them with oil. Part of the problem of managing oil spills is that the oil can be challenging to clean up. In this science activity, you can test the absorptivity of different materials (called sorbents) to discover which ones are best at… Read more

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