High School Science Projects (Page 32)

Measuring Enzyme Activity: Yeast Catalase

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Yeast contains an enzyme, called catalase, that acts as a catalyst for the reaction that breaks down hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water (2H2O22H2O + O2). Safety note: oxygen is a highly reactive gas, adult supervision recommended for this project. For your background research, be sure that you understand substrate, catalyst, reaction rate, catalase, enzyme saturation and protein denaturation. Use a solution of 3% H2O2 for the substrate. Construct an apparatus that allows you to collect… Read more

Coastal and Marine Geology

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

You can study hazards that affect coastal areas. What geological forces cause a tsunami? A tsunami (Japanese for 'harbor wave') is a wave generated by an undersea earthquake, landslip, or volcanic eruption. You can demonstrate what causes a tsunami by simulating an undersea earthquake with a water table. How does the depth of water effect the height of the wave? Do different slopes of bottom change the speed of the wave? Visit the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program to find out about… Read more

Antibiotic Resistance

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Antibiotics work by destabilizing the metabolism or cellular structure of bacteria, preventing growth, and causing bacteria to die. Some strains of bacteria have mutated and found a way to resist the actions of antibiotics. These are called resistant strains because they resist the actions of available antibiotic treatments. There are many different types of antibiotics that are continually being developed to combat new strains of resistant bacteria. Some antibiotics work better on different… Read more

Turn Plants into Biofuel with the Power of Enzymes

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Are biofuels the wave of the future? People often talk about these plant-derived fuels as a way to someday cut down on our dependency on non-renewable carbon-based fuels, like gasoline. Ethanol (a type of alcohol) is a common biofuel used today. In the United States, ethanol is a common biofuel additive to normal gasoline. In fact, some states mandate that when you fill up your gas tank, 10 percent of the total fuel volume be made of ethanol. Brazil, the world's second largest user of… Read more

BLAST into the Past to Identify T. Rex's Closest Living Relative

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Believe it or not, scientists were recently able to recover tissue from a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex fossil! Not only were they able to purify non-mineralized tissue, but they also succeeded in obtaining partial sequence information for protein molecules in the T. rex tissue. In this genomics science fair project, you will use the T. rex's protein sequence to search sequence databases for the its closest living relatives. Read more

Classify Spam Emails with Natural Language Processing

Science Fair Project Idea

Engineering Design Process

Have you ever wondered how your phone or email automatically detects and filters junk messages into spam? This feature helps ensure you focus on the messages that truly matter. In this project, you’ll build your own spam detector using natural language processing (NLP) techniques. Read more

Identify Road Signs with Machine Learning

Science Fair Project Idea

Engineering Design Process

Driverless cars use machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, to identify road signs and other things they encounter on the road, like pedestrians and other vehicles. In this project you will take your own pictures of different types of road signs and use machine learning to identify the signs using a free online tool (no programming is required). You will then attempt to improve your machine learning model so it can identify signs in a variety of environments. Read more

Disinfectants

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Disinfectants are products that kill harmful bacteria that inhabit surfaces. Disinfectants can be in household and personal cleaning products. Which products work best? Compare different household cleaning products, like bleach or Lysol, to see which ones kill the most bacteria. Compare different brands of antibacterial hand soap or dish soap to see which brand is the most effective. How do hand sanitizers work? Compare rub-on hand sanitizers to see if they work better than alcohol, or compare… Read more

Are Composite Faces More Attractive than Real Faces?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Psychologists have long studied why people find certain faces more attractive than others. One interesting method used in this area of research is mixing several faces together to make a composite face. The composite face averages the input faces, so that small, non-symmetric features tend to get lost. In this human behavior science project, you will use an online tool to make composite faces, and determine how they compare to real faces in perceived attractiveness. Read more

Going Green as You Clean: Are 'Green' Detergents Less Toxic Than Conventional Detergents?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

There is strong interest in "going green," including using products that cause less environmental damage when they are disposed of. In this environmental sciences project, you will compare the toxicity of "green" and conventional liquid detergents using worms as test organisms. Read more

High School Science Projects (695 results)

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