Science Fair Project: Could someone please help me with this...?

Question

Hi all,

I have a Science Fair Project which needs to be completed in 7 weeks, and I still have no topic or idea of what I am going to do. If someone could inspire me for an idea (or suggest one), that would be a great help. I'm not necassarily going on to a regional competition, but I am going for the high end marks.

I'm in Year 9 (USA = Grade 8 or 9) and I have a budget of under $50. I don't mind whether it is an experiment or technology.

I'm pretty flexible as to what areas of science the project is based on, but for those people who want specifics, I might want to do something in chemistry or physics.

I've searched the internet for 3 weeks for an idea, and like most other people who do that, still end up finding nothing. In other words: website links aren't really much of a help, sorry.

I would prefer the idea to be original or obscure (although still interesting), if possible.

Thank you for those who take their time to answer/post, it's greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I would build a scale model of a solar panel that can be used to heat water. This can be used to augment or replace the hot water heater in a house or as an aid in heating the house itself. Given the cost of oil (see "peak oil") we need to be creative about how we can minimize the use of energy from fossil fuels.

You can heat the water you use directly, or allow the heat to transfer between the fluid in your solar panel and the fresh water using a heat exchanger (copper pipes in contact with each other).

Unlike photovolatic cells (15% efficient), a solar panel to directly heat water is very, very efficient because there are no energy losses as you convert from one form of energy to another. You can find plans on the interenet. I'd scale the plans down to a small panel that show how much heat is obtained from the sun and the idea angle to mount your solar panel.

The technology is simple and easy for you to do yourself. It takes just a little bit of plumbing knowledge. It will also teach you about how to calculate heat, heat capacity, energy savings, and efficiency. It's a very educational project and one that has practicial and economic applications today.

Answer 2

7 weeks is a lot of time. If you want to do something original, you could do something on theoretical physics, like black holes, neutrinos, dark matter etc. Many people will find that interesting, but most people aren't experts in these topics.

E.g., if you do a project about dark matter then you could explain the observational evidence for it, and then discuss the theories about its composition and experiments that are currently underway to try to detect it.

I can point you to information about this subject if you are interested.

Answer 3

I had the same block when I was in grade 10 and I had to do a science fair. I much rather preferred to experiment on my own. I ended up BSing my science fair the night before and actually staged my experiments and made up data and still passed with a high 70 lmao.

But I'm sure you don't want to do that...

If I were you, I'd try something with alternative fuels - like trying to make garbage into alternative fuels because it's heavily chemistry oriented. Do some research as to what is the most common material found in garbage dumps and try to figure out a way how that material can be safely and environmentally-friendly modified to serve as a fuel. That would be a lot of fun to do because you get to play around with fire :).