Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi, I need help finding a college level or 11-12th grade science fair project that is related to Chemistry. I tried looking on here, but all the chemistry projects are too easy and certainly won't win state level science fairs. I tried looking at this website for projects (http://www.projects.juliantrubin.com/sc ... istry.html) but this website contains projects from old Google Science fair winners, and copying these projects are probably against the rules for ISEF Science Fairs (I think). Any project ideas then?

try this one

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p013.shtml

Hi khalidh226,

It sounds like you want to do a science fair project with the aim of competing in a top science competition, like the Intel ISEF or Google Science Fair. Is that correct?

It's definitely not OK to directly copy someone else's science fair project, but perhaps you will get some ideas as you read past projects. Does one of the past projects trigger a question in your mind that you find interesting and would like to explore further?

Another option would be to start by looking at the "advanced intermediate" and "advanced hard" Project Ideas in the chemistry category on this website (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... 8,9&x=,0,0). Doing one of these projects exactly as written may or may not get you very far. (The cell phone spectrometer project is quite nifty, however). But, you can use these projects as a launch pad for your own ideas. Look at the "variations" section of each project. Sometimes these are more difficult or challenging than the original project. Can you think of your own variations? What questions do these projects raise in your mind? You could then follow those chains of thought until you find a question that is really interesting to you.

If you haven't already, you will probably find the "roadmap" in the Advanced Project Guide very useful. The roundtable discussion on finding ideas for advanced projects might also be helpful to you. Full disclosure - I was one of the people who participated in that roundtable discussion several years ago. I would answer some of the questions differently now that I have several more years of experience doing research.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... dmap.shtml
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... 2008.shtml

Let us know how else we can help you!