Projects, Lessons, Activities (Page 131)

Science Fair Project Idea

Engineering Design Process

When you need a calculator, what do you use? A physical calculator? An app on your phone? A web browser? What features does the calculator have? Does it just do basic arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division)? Can it do other mathematical functions, like square roots or exponents? Can you use parenthesis? Does it have a backspace button? That is a lot to consider for a seemingly very simple device or program! For a computer science project, can you write your own… Read more

X Marks the Spot: Finding the Center of Mass

STEM Activity

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You can probably find the center of simple shapes, like circles and squares, pretty easily. But, how do you find the "middle" of an irregular shape, like a drawing of a dog or a cat? This project will show you how to do it using nothing but string and paper clips! Read more

You Nailed It! Hammering Force for Different Types of Wood

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

How much force does it take to drive a nail through different types of wood? In this project you'll build a simple test apparatus to swing a hammer reproducibly so you can find out. Read more

You Want Fries With That? The Science of Crispy Potatoes

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

The first bite of a fresh-picked apple, the crunch of morning toast, the deep cut into rich, flaky layers of baklava, the pleasing snap of a chip. Besides being delicious, what do these foods have in common? They're crisp. They have a brittleness that causes them to shatter in your mouth when you first bite into them. It's a sensation that many people enjoy. Making potatoes crispy requires some extra cooking steps, as you'll discover in this food science project, but the results are well worth… Read more

Yuck, What Happened to My Apple? How Food Wrappings Affect Spoilage

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever eaten half an apple and saved the other half for later, only to find that, by time you were ready to eat it, the apple did not look as tasty anymore? It may have turned brown and shriveled, and, if left out long enough, it may have spoiled. Do you think you could have prevented the other half from spoiling, or made it spoil less, if you had stored it differently, such as in the refrigerator in a food wrapping? In this cooking and food science project, you will investigate which… Read more

2022 Paper Ball Run Challenge for Grades 9-12

Lesson Plan Grade: 9th-12th

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Add a twist to a classic activity with this fun lesson plan. Your students will design and build a ball run for a ping pong ball using nothing but paper and tape. Their goal is to make the slowest ball run possible. How long can they make it take for the ball to go through their ball run? The 2022 competition is over, but you can see what students built and learn about the winners on the 2022 Engineering Challenge summary page. Teachers, note that elementary and middle school … Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

High School - Science & Engineering Practices

A Box Office Disappointment: Why the Book is Always Better than the Movie

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

The author of this project hypothesized that movies often disappoint readers because book-based movies tend to "dumb down" the works on which they are based (Fuhrman, 2002). Naturally, selective compression is necessary when telling a story as a movie, or no one would sit through it. (Hey, maybe there's an idea for a different experiment!) Selective compression is not necessarily the same, however, as simplification. There are ways to objectively measure the complexity of written language with… Read more

A Ground-Breaking Revelation: Testing Longitudinal Waves in Different Soil Types

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Did you know that waves travel through the Earth's crust all the time? One major source of these waves is earthquakes, although ground motion can also be caused by something man-made, such as a mine blast or nuclear explosion, or other natural events, such as landslides or volcanic activity. How does an earthquake cause these waves? The entire outer shell of the Earth, known as the lithosphere, is made up of tectonic plates that are constantly moving. There are seven or eight large… Read more

A Prescription for Success: Drugs & Your Genetics

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever known someone who had a bad reaction to a prescription drug? Although pharmaceutical companies test new drugs on a large number of people to make sure the drug works the way it is supposed to, often a small percentage of people respond differently to the drug. A person's genetics plays a large role in determining his or her response to a given drug. Our genes are made up of hundreds to millions of nucleotides of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the genetic code. If just a single… Read more

A Roundabout Way to Mars

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

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Students explore orbit transfers and, specifically, Hohmann transfers. They investigate the orbits of Earth and Mars by using cardboard and string. Students learn about the planets' orbits around the sun, and about a transfer orbit from one planet to the other. After the activity, students will know exactly what is meant by a delta-v maneuver!Engineering Connection Aerospace engineers must be creative when planning the best routes and methods to send a spacecraft from Earth… Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-ESS1-2. Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.

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