Fall Inspired Project Ideas

 It's only been a little over a week since Halloween, but if you're already counting down until next year's trick-o-treating, here are some spooktacular fall project ideas to get you through!

 1. How many germs are on Halloween candy?

 These days many parents are worried about the germs their children come in contact with.  How many germs do you find on the candy wrappers of a typical haul of candy?  This would be easier if you have siblings and can compare hoards.  Another idea is to have two bags, one for houses where the homeowner hands out the candy, and another for houses where children reach in for a handful.  Just remember to swab the wrappers before eating!

 2. Does pollution/air and soil quality effect leave color?

 This one is a little tricky, but maybe you could look at the leaves in different areas of town or state with different known pollution levels.  Or have small potted trees with different nutrients in their soil and look at the colors of the turning leaves.  This would be a project that requires a lot of planning and patience!

 3. How do you keep a plant from hibernating?

 Even here in Florida we get colder weather, which causes our beautiful flowering plants to hibernate, sometimes even dropping all their leaves.  I would love to keep my plants blooming and beautiful all year long!

 4. What lightweight materials will keep northern trick or treaters warm without ruining their costume?

 Growing up in Massachusetts, my costume was often restricted to what I could fit around a snow suit! Just like this year, snow could happen at any time in the north.  It would be great to have a lightweight material that would keep you warm without bulking you up and ruining your costume!  It would be a great patentable idea too.

Fall may be giving way to winter (for those of you with seasons) but
it's never to early to start investigating for next year!

Until Next Time!

The Science Fair Girl

3 Brothers, 2 Junkers, and 1 Amazing Prize

This week I'm going to shake things up a little, and instead of lecturing you, I'm going to tell a story about one of my life changing experiences because of science fairs.

My freshman year, I competed in the Discovery Young Scientist Challenge (DYSC). I was one of 50 middle school science fair competitors who traveled to Washington, D.C. to compete for three top prizes and a myriad of smaller prizes. The competition itself was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but that is not the story I'd like to tell today. This is the story of the Techno Challenge prize from The Learning Channel (TLC).

I won the Techno Challenge prize for technical innovation - this was for my 8th grade project where I built a five foot "Tower of Terror" like free-fall device, and a car with different weights and a "weightless sensor" controlled by a simple electric circuit. You may or not remember a TLC TV series that was popular in the late 90s and early 2000's - Junkyard Wars. This show is about two teams who compete to create a machine that completes a specified task, built completely from items found in a junkyard. The prize I won was to travel to Pittsburgh, PA to the Carnegie Science Center to build two cars with the Long Brothers - the then national and international Junkyard Wars champions. Suffice it to say, the boys I competed with were quite jealous that I won.

I spent a long weekend in PA building a dune buggy and a dragster - bending pipes, welding, and altogether having a blast. The Long brothers even tried to teach me how to drive a standard car when one of the junkers needed to be moved (all under parental supervision and in a closed lot of course!). One of my best memories was using an acetylene torch to cut the the gear shift out of one of the cars. Well, the heavy safety gloves they gave me were a little too big. The extra fabric in the thumb hit the gas control, my torch slowly shifted from an excellent cutting flame to an amazing bonfire torch, and I lit the car carpeting into a minor fire. It was very small, and very easily put out, but it was thrilling. I learned the proper way to use an acetylene torch and welding equipment - how many 13 year old girls can say that? The absolute best part was watching the car I helped build drive down the street. That weekend is what made me want to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. All because of a science fair prize, I discovered what I wanted to reach for as a career.

My Small Fire

Finding a Topic, Part Two

So you're still trying to find that perfect topic for your science fair project? Take a deep breath and relax, here are three more tips to get you started.

1. Take Notes

Keep a notebook with you, either in your backpack or carry it with you around the house.  When inspiration strikes, and I promise you that it will during the day, write down the question or topic that came to you.  Use the rules of brainstorming, don't criticize any idea or try to think in too much detail, just write the ideas down as they come.  Later, when you have a list of a few days or week's worth of inspirations, sit down and objectively go through the list.  Which ones would you like to explore further?  Which can you already think of a way to test?

2. Research

When you have a few ideas, or even if you have no concrete ideas but a general topic you are interested in, perform some research to help you find a topic.  Check out a book at the library, or contact a scientist or company that specializes in something you are interested in.  Even if you read a general article such as on Wikipedia or in a general magazine, you will come up with a project topic, and already begin familiarizing yourself with the topic more.

3. Ask for Help

Talk to your teacher or parents for a science fair topic they always wanted to do and never did, or browse a book that offers thousands of experiment ideas.  You will still need to expand on one of these experiment ideas, for most of the "Science Fair Topics Made Easy" sources are enough for a topic, but not enough for a more than passing project. 

Remember, any topic can be a great science fair project, you just need to follow up with a well thought out experiment, data collection, and analysis.  So stop worrying and over-thinking, and just find a topic that you are truly interested in!

Until next time,
The Science Fair Girl

The Dos and Don’ts of Choosing a Topic

By now you should be thinking about what topic to choose for your project.  The topic you choose to explore can make or break your chances of a winning project.  Here are some simple dos and don’ts to help you get started.

DO be interested in your topic.  I’ve said it before, and I will say it again; it is vital you are interested in the topic you are exploring.  This will make the task of completing your project more enjoyable, help you answer questions about your project, and make the judging process easier.  What is something you’ve always wanted to learn about, but never covered in school?  This is a great opportunity to explore those unanswered questions!

DON’T choose a topic just because you think it sounds important or impressive.  How are you going to convince others that your project is worthy of a prize if your only answer is “it sounds good”?  Also, if an idea sounds important to you, chances are someone already thought of it, it’s a controversial issue, or there is already a strong opinion on the subject which may affect the judging.  By all means, if you want to do a project on which roof design is most hurricane resistant because you heard about the damage from Hurricane Katrina or even the recent Irene, go ahead, but make sure you have at least a spark of personal interest in hurricanes or architecture or you will be bored.

DO choose a topic you can properly test in a few months.  If you have big ideas, you can break your idea into more sizable pieces.  Break the testing into phases, or identify all the testing you would like to do but attempt only a subset.  For example, with the hurricane roof example, there are many types of roof designs and many different categories of hurricanes.  Specify that you will be testing hipped, gabled, and pagoda roofs in category 1 and 2 hurricane winds.  By properly specifying the scope of your project you can save yourself a headache or negative judgment.  It is better to identify the best way to test a hypothesis with all of the variables and options, and then choose a smaller group to test, than to not finish your project because you attempted too much.

DON’T choose a topic because it sounds super easy.  If it sounds easy to you, it’s going to sound easy to the judges.  Uncomplicated and easy are different though.  You can have a project that can be tested with a simply designed experiment, and you can have a super easy experiment.  Testing decomposition by burying different items and digging them up X weeks later to inspect is a super easy project, but it probably won’t win you favor with the judges.  Testing decomposition of the same item in different soil compositions, measuring the soil temperature over time, and comparing the initial and final mass of the item is a simple but well thought out project.

If you really get stuck on a topic, just pay attention to the world around you for a day or too.  How many times do ask yourself “Why?” or “How?” in a day?  Remember, topic ideas are all around you if you keep your eyes (and your mind) open.

Until next time.

The Science Fair Girl

The Value of a Science Fair

Science Fairs have gotten a bit of a bad reputation.  How many times have you heard someone say “oh goody, I have to do a science fair this year”? If you search “science fair” on Facebook, you will find many groups about how awful science fairs are before you come across any support groups.  Some school districts have even debated discontinuing mandatory science fairs.  Have science fairs outlived their purpose?  What is the real value of a science fair?

The real value is not learning the scientific method; this concept can be adequately driven home in a middle school classroom. Yes, participating in science fairs will strengthen your understanding of the scientific method, but that is not the real value.  Science fairs will encourage students to think critically, search for answers, and solve problems on their own. Since this is a multi-month project, long range planning and time management skills are reinforced. By presenting, and not just completing, your project you strengthen your written and verbal communication skills and become more comfortable discussing possibly complicated topics with a wide range of individuals.  These are critical skills for an independent adult, no matter what industry you eventually pursue.

Aside from the life skills learned, science fairs are a great opportunity to meet interesting new people, both your own age and potential professional contacts.  I made a lot of friends in science fairs: good friends who shared similar interests and motivation to succeed.  While exploring potential colleges, I actually traveled with one of my friends from Discovery Young Scientist Challenge (DYSC) to visit schools.  At a middle school regional fair, one of my judges was so impressed while talking to me that he gave me his card and told me to contact him when I was ready for college – he was a professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (which I later was accepted to with a substantial scholarship offer). I also received a high school job offer from judges to be teacher’s aide for Saturday morning robotics classes.  You really never know who you will meet or what doors will open because of science fairs.

Each year, college applications become increasingly competitive.  Participation in science fairs can increase the competitiveness of your application.  Not only could I list my awards in the “honors and awards” section of my application, but my experiences gave me unending fodder for essays.  I am proud to say that I was accepted to every college I applied to, and received many merit based scholarships from various organizations.  It’s an unfortunate fact of our society that you need to start planning for college as early as possible if you want to be the most competitive applicant you can be.  Middle school and junior high science fairs are not too early to begin networking and creating a marketable list of accomplishments for college applications.

Last but not least, the prizes you can win by participating in science fairs are just plain cool.  You could win an award to be patented, gift certificates, prize money, trips, or more – I even won a Game-boy once.  At DYSC, I won a TLC sponsored trip to the Carnegie Science Museum in Pennsylvania to build two cars with the reigning Junkyard Wars champions (video available on the Facebook fan page).  If you don’t remember the television show, two teams compete to build a mystery challenge device in 10 hours out of material found in a junkyard.  I suited up and built a dune buggy and dragster using power tools such as jig saws, acetylene torches, welders, and pipe benders – at age 14.  It was amazing, a once in a lifetime experience.  There is of course no guarantee that you will win huge prizes, but isn't it better to compete and try then never have a chance?

So what's the value of a science fair?  Interpersonal skills. Life Lessons. New friends. New opportunities. Amazing memories. Definitely sounds like a worthwhile experience to me!

5 Ways to Save Money on Your Science Fair Project

This week, the discussion is on ways to save money.  We’re still in a recession, and most families are searching for ways to save money anyway they can, so why not look for saving ideas with your science fair project?

5.    Plan:

The easiest way to save money is to simply plan well.  The saying “measure twice, cut once” is a well known saying because it’s true!  If you think things through, you will save money.  Check your testing apparatus plans with your teacher and parents before building it.  Lay out your poster and take a good look for typos and mistakes before gluing down.  When you do glue, use a rubber cement like Ross so that you can rub off the excess (avoid Elmer’s – Elmer’s will stain construction paper, Ross comes off clean).  More importantly than saving money, planning ahead will save you time!

4.    Reuse:

Look for items around the house that you can use to create your experiment.  All of my science fair project experiments were partially made out of my toys: K’Nex, Legos, Roller Coaster Tycoon.  True, I had to augment the designs here and there with plywood board or plastic support beams, but the materials needed were greatly reduced.  You probably already have most of what you need in the basement or garage.  Make sure you have your parents’ permission before borrowing something for your project though! An object reused is one less object you need to buy.

3.    Borrow:

If you need some special equipment for your project, chances are you might not need it again afterwards.  Instead of buying a new microscope, power saw, voltmeter, etc, ask your teacher if you can borrow one from school or see if you can rent the equipment from a store.  I was able to take home a computer voltmeter from my physics department on the weekends for my high school project. Since I used the school equipment and data acquisition software, I had better quality data and it didn’t cost me a penny! If you don’t need to keep something forever, don’t buy it, borrow it.

2. Bargain Shop:

When you do need to purchase supplies, be sure to bargain hunt!  The dollar store is full of construction paper and teacher supplies you can use on your poster.  I’ve also found small tools, zip ties, fasteners, and other useful items which you may need for your project.  You know you will have to do a project this year, so take advantage of back to school shopping now.  Also look around for specialty thrift shops; near where I live now, there is a small shop that buys used electronics, then sells the parts for hobbyists – at much cheaper prices than new components online!  For lumber and such, try a Habitat for Humanity building center – discounted prices, and your purchase goes towards charity! If you have to shop, find the lowest price possible.

1. Network:

Especially if you are in high school, your project may require advanced scientific equipment you do not have ready access to – either at home or at school.  Find a local corporation that works in that industry and reach out to them.  They may be interested in sponsoring your project!  You could have access to a subject matter expert, professional labs, or free materials.  More companies may be willing to help than you might think; if your project does well, sponsoring you could mean positive PR for the company.  Try local colleges too.  Never be afraid to ask for help; the worse that will happen is someone says no.  You may get more help than you expected!  I wrote to Apollo presentation boards asking if I could purchase a slightly damaged board at a discounted price.  They sent me two “damaged” professional boards that snap together to make a six foot display for free!  To this day I can’t find what’s damaged about them. Don’t be afraid to reach out to others around you; you’ll most likely get a hand back.

Until next week!

The Science Fair Girl

Time Management

This is a somewhat touchy but important area of discussion.  Most people struggle with time management, no matter the age or topic.  We have so many other things on our minds.  Students have regular homework, tests, sports practice, music lessons, play dates.  Parents have work, getting dinner on the table, and driving students to sports practice, music lessons, and play dates.  Now you have to fit in a science fair project too?  It can be a lot to juggle.

My recommendation for time management in regards to the science fair is this: think of the science fair as just one more of those regularly scheduled activities.  Now bear with me, don’t click off just yet.  Yes, this sounds incredibly simple and you are probably thinking that this is so obvious, but most of us (yours truly at times too) fall prey to procrastination and push off non scheduled activity.  Think of a task with a firm due date and one with a more flexible due date.  Taxes, holiday gifts, music recitals; these are all have set deadlines beyond your control.  Dental checkups, vacuuming, changing the water filter; these are items that you SHOULD do regularly, but don’t have firm deadlines.  Which tasks do you consistently complete at or before deadline?  Which tasks never seem to get done? My taxes are always filed on time, but we never seem to get around to vacuuming until company is due to arrive any minutes.  It comes down to firm due dates and consequences.

Having an eventual due date is not quite enough.  Your science fair project does have a due date; one day before you know it you will be standing in front of a (hopefully) not blank poster board talking to judges.  When a due date is more than six months away, it becomes less firm in our mind and we fall back into pushing it off just one more day.  It can also seem daunting when you look at the project as a whole; you aren’t sure where to start so you procrastinate out of fear. To overcome this fear, break the project down into manageable tasks, usually taking one to two weeks each, and set firm deadlines for each.  Different people can manage to plan out at different lengths of time. I can usually manage with weekly task lists; I’ve worked with people who need daily to-do lists.  You need to determine what works for you.  As you cross each task off the list, you will feel like you made a great accomplishment and get more excited about your project.

Use some sort of chart or calendar to mark your goals and important due dates.  Shown here is an example of an interactive task list I made using Excel (become a fan on the Facebook page and you can download the file).  Simply plug in the science fair date at the top, and the spreadsheet will automatically calculate the due date for each task.  Keep the chart visible; hang it on the refrigerator or above your desk to constantly remind you.

The unpleasant part will be to set consequences.  It may be better to introduce a new reward for completing tasks on time: a new book if all tasks that month are on time, extra video game time, a fun family activity; then if a deadline is not met losing that reward for that week or month.  Each parent needs to determine what will work with his or her personal parenting style and their child’s learning style.  If my parents had used this technique, my consequence would have probably been lima beans with dinner for every night a task was late – my project would have been done three months early in that case!

Time management is not easy for most of us, but with the right mindset and some carefully structured due dates and consequences, you can complete your project on schedule, with fewer fights!

Top 10 Reasons a Project Didn't Succeed

This is the first blog entry for Science Fair Girl.  I’ll still be including tidbits, project ideas, and interesting articles through the Facebook page and Twitter, but sometimes a topic needs more detail than 140 characters!  I’m going to start with weekly blogs on different topics, and we’ll see where we go from there.  If you have any ideas or requests for future blog topics, share them on the Facebook page, or email them to me.

 

For the maiden entry, I’ve chosen to discuss my top 10 for why some science fair projects don’t succeed.

 

10. Spelling Errors

 

You would think in a world of Spell Check we wouldn’t have this issue.  Many of us have become dependent on Spell Check and don’t take the time to actually proof what they are writing!  Even if you proof your own writing, often since you know what you MEANT to say, you don’t read what you actually said.  Spelling errors make you look like you don’t care about this project, and if you don’t care, why am I going to give you a prize?  Spelling errors are also very distracting for a judge; I’m going to remember the error and not what you were actually trying to say.  Always have someone else proof any writing you produce for your project – reports, posters, etc.

 

9. Lack of Pizzazz

 

How many projects do you think each judge looks at besides yours?  A lot.  You need to set yours apart in a good way.  Have a hook; put some personality into your poster and presentation.  You don’t want to be another consumer product testing project with a white poster board with black font.  Think of your project as a product; you need to sell your product to the judges and show them that you deserve the prize.  Come up with a catchy title, use attractive colors, and add some of your own personality.  For one of my projects I had flags sticking out of the top of my project header; you could find my project from any corner of the hall.  I’ve seen holiday lights on posters, extra large headers, running slide shows, and videos of the testing.  Just make sure you don’t cross the tacky line, so this is another place where a second opinion can be very useful.  This is a COMPETITION, so compete for the judge’s memory.

 

8. Lack of Interest

 

This topic is two-fold.  First lack of interest in the fair itself – students who are only participating because they have to.  If you are reading this blog, this most likely doesn’t apply to you (or you are a parent and are trying to help your child succeed, in which case pay attention to the second half of this note and number 6!).  The other place for lack of interest is in the topic you choose.  It is so important to be interested in your topic so you will actually want to work on your project and will enjoy talking about it to the judges.  There is a whole chapter in my workbook on topic selection – it is THAT important. This goes back to “pizzazz”; if you are interested, it will show and it will be memorable.  This project is going to be part of your life for at least 6 months, do yourself a favor and make the topic interesting!

 

7. Too Big a Bite

 

A lot of participants, especially first time participants, bite off more project than they can chew.  This could be a larger than life experiment and testing apparatus, a too advanced scientific concept, or a very open ended topic.  Don’t try to cure cancer!  I know that a few international winners who have made headlines recently have made advances in cancer research as their project but, although they are very gifted students who should be commended, they are not your average student.  Do not think that because these students are doing this you need to set the bar equally high.  There is nothing wrong about a small, well-defined project.  Look at my entries: all of them were amusement park ride related projects that tested one thing.  Also don’t go too far outside your grade level.  These projects are a great opportunity to explore a topic you haven’t studied in school yet, but that doesn’t mean you should be trying to teach yourself astrophysics in 6^th grade or even 9^th grade!  You must also make sure it is a topic that you can adequately test in the time allotted.  You have from August to December or February to plan, build, test, analyze, and report on your project.  You can’t study the lifecycle of a pot bellied pig in a few months; you can study the lifecycle of a fruit fly.  This is a great topic to bring up with your teacher to make sure the scope of your project (what you plan to accomplish) is the proper size.  You can have the best project idea in the world, but if it’s impossible to study in the length of your project, you can’t win.

 

6. Too Much Parental Control

 

First off, parental input is a wonderful thing.  I’m definitely not advocating for parents to dump their children in the science fair ocean to see if they can swim.  This point is about the science fair equivalent to PAGENT MOMS.  If you’ve ever been to a school fair you know who I mean – that project that’s bigger than life, with the $1000 Tesla coil shooting off pretty sparks and the fully laminated, professionally printed poster, but when you talk to the student he can’t tell you what a Tesla coil is.  As a past judge I can tell you that these projects are my biggest pet peeve; I almost feel like these parents are questioning my intelligence!  My friends and family who judge at local fairs feel the same way.  Support your children, but don’t do the project for them.  This is a great learning opportunity – as trite as that sounds – let them take advantage of it.  I could write hundreds of pages on this topic; I’m actually in the process of writing a book with my parents to show the project from a parent’s perspective with the child’s response.  Most parents are able to find that line between helpful and controlling, but many still don’t know when to pull back and allow their child to fail or succeed on his/her own.  Remember, this is a STUDENT science fair, not a parent fair.

 

5. Poorly Designed Experiment

 

At the end of the day, this is a SCIENCE fair; you need to have the science to back up all your pizzazz.  If your experiment isn’t properly designed, then you might not be testing what you think you are.  If you have too many variables in your experiment or your analysis is subjective, it could cost you the prize.  Also, if you have an invention project but don’t test your invention or compare it to similar products, you can’t defend your project.  Again, this is a competition; you need to prove to the judge your project is the best by presenting the best possible information possible.  Ask your teacher or subject expert for help on this.  Show them your design and ask if they can make any suggestions.  A middle school or high school student isn’t expected to be able to create the absolutely perfect design, but you want to put time and research into your project to stand apart.  You will be asked to defend your experiment design, so make sure it’s solid!

 

4. Not Enough Substance

 

Your project needs to have some meat to it.  Either it needs to touch on a real life issue or event or it needs to incorporate a scientific principal.  Baking soda volcanoes do not fit in this category, sorry!  Consumer report project comparing different brands of something are pretty difficult to defend as well.  You see them everywhere at middle school fairs.  They are simple, introduce the scientific method to a young student, encourage data recording and data analysis, but always leave me feeling “so what?”  There is a way to make consumer report projects competitive (see reason number 1), but they easily fall under the not enough substance category. You need to show the judges why your project has meaning.   

 

3. Disastrous Poster

 

A lot of times you are judged on just your poster board.  If there is a tie to be broken, a sponsor special prize to be given, or a judge makes a preliminary lap before listening to speeches, someone will make a split second decision about your project from your poster.  Is your poster sending the right message?  I was talking to a friend who had just judged our old high school’s science fair, and the first thing he mentioned was how disappointing the posters were.  He specifically mentioned lack of matting, lack of color, crooked pasting, and missing information.  This was a fair for a high school which only accepts the top fifty students of the state, and the most memorable thing to this judge was the poster.  After complaining about the poster, he did enthuse about some of the truly innovative ideas he’d seen, but don’t you want your innovative idea to be the first thing someone remembers?  Take the time to set the right tone with your poster, and you will be thankful for that extra hour of work.

 

2. Poor Communication

 

You will need to explain your project to the judges.  This means public speaking, which is not everyone’s favorite task.  I had it easy; I was a huge theater geek and I saw science fairs as another opportunity to be “on stage,” but I know quite a few students who find it intimidating to speak publicly or to unknown adults.  Practice makes perfect.  Write out your speech or at the very least bullets to ensure that you don’t miss anything you want to talk about.  First practice in front of your mirror, then to your parents who already know what your project is about, and then to siblings/neighbors/extended family who aren’t as familiar with your project.  This way you know that you are explaining your topic clearly, and when the day of the fair comes you are so used to talking about your project you won’t be nervous.  Visual aids are a great way to get your point across and improve communication.  Remember, if you don’t tell the judge why your project is amazing, he’s not going to know.

 

1. Ignoring the WHY

 

My number one reason for why a project will fail is forgetting the WHY factor.  It’s great to perform a test and be able to say that brand X works the best or a square beam makes the best beam, but if you can’t explain to the judges WHY this is the case, then you’ve only done half your job.  I can’t press enough, this is a SCIENCE FAIR, you need to investigate the science behind your project and make sure your results reasonable.  Too often the VERIFY and VALIDATE portions of the experiment process are overlooked.  You need to verify that you tested what you meant to test, and you need to validate that your experimental results are expected.  This could mean finding a theoretical equation and comparing the theoretical value to your experimental value.  Often, you will need to perform a mini exploration after your main experiment to understand the why.  I can tell you that this is so overlooked that the judges will be incredibly impressed and this extra step will help you set the bar high for your competitors.