Middle School students often look for science projects involving a chemical change. Kids love the excitement and drama of seeing different substances change color, burn, give off gas, and even make explode. When searching for a project, it can be difficult to find an experiment with chemicals that are easy to find, easy to work with, and safe to handle.
One popular project involving chemicals is an experiment that watches how the amount of Vitamin C in a juice will change over time. It’s an easy project. A simple indicator is made with cornstarch and iodine. Students (and parents) enjoy watching the chemical reaction that occurs along with titration, which is a fancy way of saying “putting in drops”. This project can be modified in several different ways, allowing your student’s creativity to shine. We get letters from many middle school students telling us that this easy science project was submitted to the fair, and was chosen as a winner. You can get step by step instructions for this project here.
Another great science project involving a chemical change is watching what happens as yeast ‘eats’ sugar. In this project, warm water and yeast are placed in a bottle with a bit of sugar. A balloon is placed over the mouth of the bottle. As the yeast consumes the sugar, carbon dioxide is released, causing the balloon to blow up. This project is so much fun to watch that our kids did it over and over until we ran out of yeast.
Both of these projects can be done as demonstrations; they offer dramatic reactions that students will be able to observe immediately. Both science projects can also be experiments. They naturally lend themselves to a question, the formation of an hypothesis, and testing. The results can easily be graphed to form a conclusion.
Get step by step instructions for both of these projects here. Along with a FREE Parent’s Guide to Science Fair Projects, we have all sorts of ideas for your middle school scientist, including the more advanced chemical change science projects.
Behavioral science projects are often chosen by students preparing for the science fair. These projects explore the behavior of a quirky and strange creature – the human being! Behavioral projects are a lot of fun, allowing kids to learn a lot about science and psychology while meeting people and developing their social skills. Before you or your child chooses to do a project on human behavior, check with your teacher. Some will not allow behavioral science projects because of the difficulty of getting a large enough sample size.
Once a project is approved, however, the next step is to actually recruit subjects (humans!) for the study. Here are some ideas on places to recruit people to help:
~Get permission from a local mall to set up a table/area. The smaller the mall, the better your chances of them allowing this.
~Put a free ad in the ’services>lessons’ section of Craig’s List asking for volunteers for a behavioral science project.
~Enlist test subjects from your school. Your teacher can help.
~Throw a ‘Behavioral Science Project‘ party, and invite your friends and their parents. Make it a pot luck affair to cut down on costs.
~Reserve a room at your library, and put a sign on the door announcing your experiment.
~Get a local restaurant to loan you their ‘party room’ during lunchtime. They might even offer a coupon to participants to help you advertise your study – and their restaurant.
~Ask the human resources department at a parent’s place of business if you can set up a test in the employee break room.
~Go to church. One of our boys did an experiment called Hear, Hear! It explored whether two ears hear better than one. We were required to get a group of twenty-four adults. We went to a local church before a service, and asked individuals if they would help us out. Our test was set up in a classroom.
Of course the list goes on, and you probably can think of a lot more places for your science project tests. If you’ve got some good ideas, leave a comment below! We’d love to hear where you set up for your Behavioral scienc
PS Hear, Hear is a great human behavior science project that experiments to see if two ears hear better than one. Get step by step instructions for this project in the Bonus Package of Middle School Science Projects.
We updated our blog header a while back, but now the front page of Middle School Science Projects has a new look!
It’s almost like getting a whole new hairdo. (That’s appropriate – don’t you think – since we have that science project about hair). Take a look at our new sales page: Middle School Science Projects!
It’s a great new, look don’t you think? I love the comments made by the kids who have done our projects in the past. These kids were kind enough to send us emails or post comments about how their project went.
So – what do you think? Do you like it as much as I do?
PS If you’re a middle schooler who has done a project, leave a note below and share how it went! And if you’re a middle schooler who needs a project, get one of our guides by visiting Middle School Science Projects!
We’re happy to report that we have just created a brand new – and free – science project guide for parents of middle schoolers! You can download your project guide at www.middle-school-science-projects.com/parent-science-guide.pdf.
In the guide, you’ll find information on the five types of science projects. There is also a section on the scientific method. One of the most popular (and needed!) parts of the guide is the definitions section. The final part of the guide give you hints on the presentation, and how to make a great science board.
If you need a science project guide for an elementary student, there is another free one available at 24 Hour Science Projects!
Whatever you need for your science project, we’ll help you find it! We have project guides, links to science kits, and all sorts of free science project guide resources so you can have the best science project ever!
A science log – or a research log – is basically a detailed record (like a journal) of what happened during your research and in your experiment. The log is usually written in paragraph form, although there may be charts to record data, and photographs to further document what happened. Here are five things that a science log will do:
It keeps your research together. Most people use a spiral bound notebook and hand write their science experiment log, but you can also type your log or even use a voice recorder and then transcribe your entry. It’s important that the log demonstrate that it was created as you were doing your experiment. Your log won’t be as neat as a science report. One of our “Vitamin Citrus” science logs had orange juice spilled on it – and we used it anyway!
It provides a detailed account of your experiment. Depending on the length of your experiment, this could be a daily record, or literally a minute to minute account of what you have done. Suppose your experiment is “Which type of fertilizer is best for growing parsley?” An entry might read, “On day five, we noticed that the plants with organic fertilizer had really started getting taller than the control that was only getting water.” Or…”On day seven, we noticed that the plants fertilized with manure had started to wilt a bit and had yellow tints to the leaves.” You might include measurements on each entry.
If you are doing one of our 24 Hour Science Projects, your log will record changes at much more frequent intervals. Our experiment “Undercover Sneeze” tests how far ‘germs’ spread when the mouth is covered and when it is not. An entry may say, “When we popped the balloon, some of the paper punches hit the cardboard hands and bounced back toward the middle. The other ones spread out toward the edge of the grid.” Your entries should also include any data:
Inside circle – 29 Middle circle – 42 Outside circle – 15
It explains any difficulties you had with your experiment. In the experiment, Egg-sperimenting with Eggs, sometimes the eggs break. (We warn you of this, and recommend that you start with more eggs than you will ultimately use.) If this happens, you record it in your log. “One of the eggs burst while in the vinegar and water solution, and was discarded. Another one broke while we were rubbing the shell. We also discarded this.”
It gives you a place to express your thoughts about your research. You can share ideas on how your research could be improved or expanded. For example, “I wondered how treating hair with home remedies – like mayonaise or raw egg – would change its strength. I may use this for another experiment.” You might also say, “I wasn’t sure how the formula for calculating surface are worked, so I did some research on a math site until I understood what I was doing.” Or you can share improvements you made on the procedure. “Although the experiment directions called for using Scotch tape, we found that duct tape was more effective in holding the track in place.”
When you finish your research, your lab notebook will be the most important place you’ll get information for your science project display. It will have all the details of your studies and your experiments, including data, procedure, and results. Your science log will hold all of your research and discoveries, and will remind you – and your teachers and judges – of what you learned and the hard work you did while working on your science experiment.
PS The first step to a science log is having something to ‘log’ about! We have twenty great science projects, ready for you to research, explore and learn! Get your step by step science project guide from Middle School Science Projects
Depending on which science book you’re reading, there are either four, or five, or six steps to the scientific method. That doesn’t sound very scientific, does it?! Don’t worry, though. It’s all pretty much the same general idea, so we’ve taken the average, and are giving you five steps:
1. Observation – Looking at something in the world. Watching things closely makes you curious about why or when or how something happens. That leads to the next step…
2. Question – Wondering about what you see in the world. The questions that come up during your observations are the second step of the scientific method.
3. Hypothesis – A guess at the answer to the question. An hypothesis is an “educated guess”. You take what you already know about the subject and use it to guess the answer to your question. You could be right. You could be wrong. It doesn’t matter, because you’re going to find out in the next step…
4. Experimentation – Testing your hypothesis. You come up with an experiment to find out the answer to your question. This is the trickiest part of the scientific method, because an experiment has to be designed with controls and variables in place. (Here’s an explanation of the strange vocabulary!)
5. Results – The answer to the question. When the experiment is complete, your question will be answered, and you’ll have your results!
It looks complicated, but it is really a simple process that we use every day to understand and solve problems in the world around us. Like this: Suppose you observe that your DS isn’t working. You’ll ask yourself the question “What’s wrong with my DS?!” Then you’ll come up with a couple of ideas, or hypotheses: “The battery could be dead, the game could be dirty, or maybe the baby dropped it into the toilet.” So you’ll check the battery, take out the game and blow out the dust, then check for signs of dried Cheerios and wet spots. These experiments will hopefully lead you to the result, and you’ll know why your DS wasn’t working.
PS All of our Middle School Science Projects follow the scientific method! Grab your copy today HERE and you can be finished with your project by this time tomorrow!
If you’ve ever been involved in the organization of a science fair, you know what a hassle it can be. Getting paperwork home to parents is the first hurdle. Getting it back is never easy. But entering registration information into a database is an overwhelming task for someone.
Rajeev Goel learned all of this last year when he volunteered to help put together his daughter’s science fair. A programmer for IBM, he knew that there was a better way. He came up with a web based registration system that eliminated most of the science fair paperwork. After his school used the system successfully, he made it available to any school – including yours at a terrific site called Our Science Fair. And unbelievably, it is FREE.
When you check out Our Science Fair, you’ll also notice some other great advantages. You can customize it to your school site. Parents can upload their science fair pictures. Organizers can send emails to registered students. And you can buy science fair supplies with proceeds going to your school.
Check out all of this and more at Our Science Fair.
PS Whether you’re an organizer or a participant in your science fair, you can get a free science project guide for your students – or yourself – at Science Projects!
We’re happy to report that Middle School Science Projects are now live! As you know, we’ve been working like – well – mad scientists at our house, and we can’t wait for you to choose your favorite project and start experimenting!
Here are the five projects in the Middle School Science Project package:
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow – Experiment to find the effect different hair products has on hair. You can test different conditioners or different ways to color hair. Most of the supplies for this project are as close your bathroom – and the head on your head!
• “C” You Later – This project teaches you how to make an indicator, and then use it to see if the amount of Vitamin C in juice diminishes over time. There are a ton of variations for this science project, and we tell you about them in the guide. This project has already won awards at science fairs.
• Yeast – Rising to the Occasion – Find out what makes yeast grow the best. Sugar, wheat, or maybe dog food!? This easy experiment always is amazing to do – and sharing it makes it even more fun. Hint: It would make a wonderful video to go along with your science board.
• Cheap Heats – You’ll get plans on how to make a solar heater from inexpensive or free products. We actually made one version of this project for zero dollars – scavenging in our attic and recycling bin for supplies! It was loads of fun to do, and we were warmed by the results.
• The Dirt on Dirt – Dig up some soil from your yard, analyze it, then test its water carrying capacity. We loved doing this earth science project! To do it, you only need dirt, water, nylon stockings, one tin can and some jars. We learned a ton doing the research for this project – and you will too!
But you shouldn’t take our word for it. Grab your copy of Middle School Science Projects today and get started on your next science experiment.
PS You can also find out how to get five MORE science project guides – a bargain if there ever was one.
I was sitting in church last night, glanced down at my hands, and discovered I had DIRT under my fingernails. I looked like I was an earth science project. But in reality, I’m only doing a science project about earth science.
In my last post I told about my science project fail, and hinted that I had found a replacement. And – you guessed it – it involves dirt. Or, to be more scientifically accurate, it involves soil. Whichever, it is about the earth, any way you slice it.
This project idea was given to me over a plate of good old fashioned North Carolina bar-b-que. We were having dinner with two scientist friends of ours, and the subject naturally gravitated to the new middle school science projects we’re doing. They had the wonderful idea of doing, and a quote, “an ag project”. Ag of course, means ‘agricultural’; both friends work in agricultural chemistry.
I then had to admit about how my science project about plants had not gone well. So they came up with the idea to do a project about the soil texture analysis. What a cool subject – one that is literally an earth science project! I had never heard of soil texture analysis, but am now immersed into it.
In fact, I’m so immersed that it’s under my fingernails…
PS Stay tuned. The Middle School Science Project guides are two days from being completed! If you absolutely cannot wait for an earth science project, grab one of these Science Projects!
We’ve had lots of science projects fail at our house – some of them the night before the project was due. That’s how I knew that there was a need for science project guides like the ones we have at Middle School Science Projects and our 24 Hour Science Project guides.
Since we’ve started this latest batch of projects, we’ve had two go awry. As in major science project FAIL. One was testing to see which pH liquid makes seeds germinate the best. Knowing that you can’t always get seeds – it depends on the season – I tested various dry beans from the grocery store. You put them on a damp paper towel in a zip lock bag, stick them in the window, and they sprout. And they did when I tested them.
Unfortunately, they did not fare so well when I started the science experiment. In fact, not one seed germinated. So I threw out the project. After all, we want our projects to be fail proof!
But we found another one; in fact, it’s an even cooler science project – and I’m even more excited about it! Rest assured, the Middle School Science Projects that make it to the package will work!
PS The projects in our 24 Hour Science Project guide are perfect for Middle School, too. If you don’t have time to wait for our Middle School package to be completed, grab one of these, and be finished by this time tomorrow! Get Your 24 Hour Science Project Guides HERE!
