Projects, Lessons, Activities (Page 55)

How to Harvest Water from Fog

STEM Activity

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43 reviews

How long do you think you could survive without drinking any water? Only three to four days! Your body needs water to function properly. We also rely on water for cooking, cleaning and many other activities. You might not think about getting enough water if you can get it easily by turning on your faucet. But what about areas that don't have a reliable water supply? In this activity you will learn about one creative way to collect water—from the air! Read more

How to Make a Dimmer Switch with a Pencil

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Dimmer switches let us control the brightness of a light, anywhere from completely off to full brightness. This can be nice when you want to set the brightness "just right," as opposed to a regular light switch that only lets you turn a light on or off. It turns out that you can make a dimmer switch out of an everyday object—a pencil! Try this project to find out how a dimmer switch can control the brightness of a light. Read more

How Well Do Different Materials Create Static Electricity?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

When your parents were kids, they probably wore polyester. Static cling was a major household issue! Now everybody wears cotton, which does not get static cling nearly as much. Why are some materials more susceptible to static cling than others? Investigate how well different materials produce static electricity by making a homemade electroscope and testing it out in this science project. Read more

Introduction to Arduino

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-12th

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This lesson plan will introduce your students to physical computing: the process of building circuits and programming a microcontroller (an Arduino UNO®) to interact with them. The lesson is broken into seven activities that will walk your students through the basics of setting up the Arduino and interacting with circuit parts like LEDs, buttons, and resistors. This introductory material will help prepare your students for more advanced Arduino projects. Read more

Investigate Alien Genetics

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

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In this lesson, students will model how traits are passed on from parents to their offspring by creating baby aliens based on their parents' traits. As students compare the physical features of their alien families, they will be able to make the connection between an organism's genotype and phenotype. Students will also learn the difference between dominant and recessive traits. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-LS3-2. Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.

Investigate the Greenhouse Effect

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Has the temperature in your house felt hotter or colder recently? This could be due to the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect states that gases in the atmosphere, such as CO2, might increase the surface temperature of Earth. In this science fair project, you will build a small model of Earth and use it to see how the temperature varies, compared to outside of the model. If you select this science fair project, you will be a part of the effort that is working to figure out what role… Read more

Ion Thruster: Build an Ion Wind Rotor

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Ion thrusters, also called ion engines (Figure 1), are a type of electrically-powered spacecraft propulsion. While they provide very low thrusts (and thus low accelerations), they can do so for very long periods of time using a very small amount of fuel. So, while not appropriate for escaping Earth's gravity like chemical rockets which are less efficient but generate higher thrusts, they are useful for deep-space probes or making small adjustments to satellite orbits. You can read more about… Read more

Is That Really Bacteria Living in My Yogurt?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever noticed that most yogurt containers say they contain "live cultures"? What does that mean? The label is suggesting that the yogurt has living bacteria in it! While some types of bacteria can make you sick, some are actually important to keep you healthy. But individual bacteria are so tiny that you cannot see one with the naked eye, so how can you tell if bacteria are really living in your yogurt? In this science fair project, you will investigate whether yogurt actually… Read more

Keeping You in Suspens(ion)

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Suspension bridges, with their tall towers, long spans, and gracefully curving cables, are beautiful examples of the work of civil engineers. How do the cables and towers carry the load that is on the bridge? Can a suspension bridge carry a greater load than a simple beam bridge? This science project shows you how to find out. Read more

Knock Your Blocks Off: The Mechanics of Carnival Games

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

"Hey kids, step right up! Toss this ball and win a prize!" shouts the carny barker. Sounds easy enough—until you try it. Why are those "simple" games at the fairs, carnivals, and boardwalks so hard? Is it really lack of skill or coordination or do those concessionaires use some basic laws of science to help them set up the games in their favor? This science fair project can help you find out for yourself. Read more

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