Science Buddies'
eighth grade science projects are the perfect way for
eighth grade students to have fun exploring science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Our
eighth grade projects are written and tested by scientists and are specifically created for use by students in the
eighth grade. Students can choose to follow the science experiment as written or put their own spin on the project.
For a personalized list of science projects,
eighth graders can use the Science Buddies Topic Selection Wizard.
The wizard asks students to respond to a series of simple statements and then uses their answers to recommend
age-appropriate projects that fit their interests.
This is a challenging first computer science project. You'll learn the basics of how digital devices can represent numbers using only 0's and 1's, and you'll write a JavaScript program to convert numbers between binary, decimal and hexadecimal notation.
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CompSci_p005
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Time Required
Short (2-5 days)
Prerequisites
You should be able to:
Write a basic HTML file with a text editing program (like Notepad);
Create HTML [[ SourceCode []<FORM>[] SourceCode ]] elements for user input;
Write basic JavaScript functions using [[ SourceCode []Arrays[] SourceCode ]], [[ SourceCode []Strings[] SourceCode ]] and simple flow control statements (e.g., [[ SourceCode []if...else[] SourceCode ]], and [[ SourceCode []for[] SourceCode ]] or [[ SourceCode []while[] SourceCode ]] loops).
Help is available for each of these topics. See the Introduction section for details.
How much air do you think you breathe in when you take a deep breath? Can you increase your lung capacity by exercising regularly? Do athletes have greater lung capacity than non-athletes? This project shows you how you can find out.
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HumBio_p009
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Time Required
Long (2-4 weeks)
Prerequisites
[# Fragment Name="ProjectIdeas.Human.Subjects.Prerequisites" Value="Html" #]
Motors are used in many things you find around your house, like your refrigerator, coffee maker, and even a lawn mower. In this electronics science fair project, you will get to build a simple motor, using a kit, and then test how the number of batteries (amount of voltage) used to power the motor affects its performance.
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Elec_p057
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Time Required
Average (6-10 days)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
Specialty items: You will need a switch motor kit, ready for assembly. See the Materials and Equipment list for details.
Cost
High ($100 - $150)
Safety
Minor injury is possible, so be sure to wear safety goggles. Adult supervision is recommended.
Have you ever seen a cat chase a laser pointer or a flashlight beam? What if you could make a robot do that? In this project, you will build a robot that can automatically drive toward a bright light source. The robot uses a simple electronic circuit to track light, so there is no computer programming required! You can also do three other robotics projects using the same kit of parts, so this is a great way to get started with robotics before moving on to more advanced projects.
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Robotics_p022
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Time Required
Short (2-5 days)
Prerequisites
You will need to know how to use a breadboard to do this project. See the Science Buddies reference
[# ProjectGuide Name="Breadboard.Tutorial" Value="HtmlAnchor" #] if you have not used a breadboard before.
Material Availability
A kit is available from our partner
.
Cost
High ($100 - $150)
Safety
Short circuits can get very hot and present a burn hazard. Be careful to follow the directions in the Procedure in order to avoid short circuits when building your robot.
In this project, water fleas (Daphnia magna), a semi-transparent freshwater crustacean, are used to study the effects of caffeine on heart rate. Don't worry about having to learn how to take a crustacean's pulse: you can actually see the heart beating under a microscope. Many variations of this experiment are possible.
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Zoo_p048
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Time Required
Average (6-10 days)
Prerequisites
You will need a microscope for observing Daphnia closely enough to monitor heart rate. Either a dissecting microscope or a compound microscope with low-power objective and a depression slide could be used.
Crown gall is a plant disease caused by the soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens. This project uses tomato plants to investigate whether garlic extract can prevent crown gall infection.
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MicroBio_p024
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Time Required
Long (2-4 weeks)
Prerequisites
You will need a plant with an existing crown gall infection as a source of bacteria for this project.
Material Availability
Readily available
Cost
Low ($20 - $50)
Safety
Use caution when cutting with sharp knife or razor blade.
Have you ever heard that two phone books with the pages interleaved are impossible to pull apart? This might seem crazy, right? It is not that hard to slide a sheet of paper off the top of a stack of paper. How much friction can there really be between sheets of paper? In this experiment, you will use pads of sticky notes instead of phone books. How much weight can they support when you interleave the pages? Do you think you will be able to pull them apart by hand? The results might surprise…
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Phys_p103
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Time Required
Short (2-5 days)
Prerequisites
None
Material Availability
Readily available
Cost
Average ($40 - $80)
Safety
Adult supervision required for testing heavier weights.
Have you ever had to adjust to a new time zone and noticed that it takes a while before you start to feel normal again? By shifting your sleep and activity schedule, you have altered the pattern of your body's circadian rhythms. Human beings, like many other living things, have a number of internal processes that show a distinct circadian rhythm. The most obvious is our sleep cycle, with activity during the day, followed by sleep during the night. Circadian rhythms have also been demonstrated…
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Many medicines come in bottles with special child-proof caps so that small children can't accidentally open the bottle and eat the pills. To a small child who can't read the label, the pills might look just like candy. What cues do we use to tell the difference between medicine and candy? At what age can we tell them apart? This project can show you how to find out.
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HumBeh_p016
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Time Required
Long (2-4 weeks)
Prerequisites
Parental consent must be granted for each child participating in this experiment. In addition, the experimental design (including consent forms) must be approved by the fair's [# ProjectGuide Name="Advanced.ScientificReviewCommitteeSRC" Value="HtmlAnchor" HtmlText="SRC" #].
There is a lot of energy that can be harvested from moving water. Energy can be extracted from water rushing over a waterfall and from the regular patterns of the ocean's tides. The energy that propels waves forward in the oceans can also be extracted and used. But can wave energy power plants be built anywhere there is water? In this energy science fair project, you will use ocean buoy data and mathematics to determine which locations along the coasts of the United States can sustain a wave…
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Energy_p031
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Time Required
Average (6-10 days)
Prerequisites
You must have a computer with access to the Internet and spreadsheet software, such as Excel. This science fair project requires that you are familiar with spreadsheet software. If you need help learning more about the software, try using the tutorials that are part of the package, or an online tutorial.
