Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Ninth Grade Science Projects (Page 17)

Strength of Different Construction Materials

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

There are many types of construction materials used for wood-frame houses. Compare the different uses for and strengths of different building materials, e.g.: particle board, plywood, pine, oriented strand board (OSB), and drywall (gypsum board, SheetRock). The Science Buddies Materials Science Resource Stress, Strength and Strain will be helpful for learning about different ways to measure material strength. You should be sure to use the same cross-sectional area of each material in order… Read more

Soft Robots with Built-In LEDs

Science Fair Project Idea

Engineering Design Process

Check out the soft robotic gripper and artificial robotic skin projects. These projects show you how to use flexible silicone rubber to make robots or robotic parts. The second project shows you how to connect external LEDs using an Arduino. The LEDs light up when an embedded piece of conductive fabric stretches. What about embedding LEDs in the silicone rubber? You can do this by embedding the LEDs between layers of silicone (Figure 1). The trick is to solder flexible stranded wires to the… Read more

Go, Gadget, Go! Building Robots with LEGO® Mindstorms®

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

In the mid-20th century, people thought of robots as futuristic tools. But in the 21st century, robots are not a figment of our imaginations, but are a part of our reality. Robots even perform tasks that humans can't do. In this engineering science fair project, you will use LEGO Mindstorms to build a robot that is fast, lightweight, and stable. Who knows? You might end up building a robot that does housework or even your homework! Read more

The Turn of the Screw

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

How much force is required to advance a lag bolt (large wood screw with a hex-shaped head) into a piece of wood? You can measure the force by using a spring scale attached to the handle of ratchet. Pull on the spring scale until the bolt starts to turn, and note the required force from the spring scale. There are many potential experiments you could try. Think about answering the following questions: How does the force change as the bolt advances deeper into the wood? Why? How does the… Read more

The Power of Balance

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal near Falkirk in central Scotland. It consists of two diametrically opposed caissons which rotate to lift boats between the two canals through a height of 35 meters. The wheel is always perfectly balanced and, despite its enormous mass, rotates through 180° in less than four minutes, using just 1.5 kilowatt-hours (Wikipedia contributors, 2006). Do background research… Read more

Manipulating Sound Files

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Learn how to edit sound files so that you can manipulate the recorded sound mathematically. You can either find specialized audio editing software or do background research to teach yourself about sound file structure so that you can write your own simple program to manipulate sound files. Try arithmetic operations on the sound values (e.g., adding or subtracting a constant, multiplying or dividing by a constant). How do these operations alter the sound? Try other mathematical operations:… Read more

Digital Image Processing

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Students who are mathematically inclined can use the student version of a program like MatLab or Mathematica to convert a digital image into numbers, then perform operations such as sharpening or special effects. This is a great way to learn about image processing algorithms. Read more

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Ninth Grade Science Projects (167 results)

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