my kid has to submit an entry to the science fair...

[Landshark44]

7th grader, he has to submit something.......

the boy will probably not be a scientist, so i am looking for something easy that he could pull off. any ideas would be greatly appreciated.....

thanks in advance

[lighthousekeeper]

this is due monday isn't it

[Senator]

I remember in 7th grade I had the exact same dilemma. No desire to really put any effort into it, but wanted a decent grade. I picked out of thin air, "Can a plant be overfed?" I threw up some graph charts to show the tracking of the three plants, and was floored when I received 2nd place, which threw me into the regional science fair. My friends and I knew I had not really put much effort into this, and I was pretty sure I was just a genius. Got 6th in regionals and shrugged.

[Landshark44]

next monday......

but i know that they(my wife, boy) will spring it on me next week. i'm trying to get a jump on it before then.....

[cartman]

Old standbys:

Vinegar/baking soda volcanoes
String can phones
Static electricity with balloons
Light behavior with prisms
Paper airplane experiments

[Flasch186]

The psychology of the Fake Balloon kid parents...

wrong science, I think.

[Landshark44]

senator, i like your idea a lot.....

but when you say "overfeed", what are you referring to? watering it? or something else?

[Flasch186]

I did something similar to that in grade school and fed a plant water that was infused with Egg shells. Those plants went frickin' crazy on growth like they were on HGH or something.

[Landshark44]

do you break egg shells in water? and then feed it to the plants ?

or is there more to it, than that.,...

[Apathetic Lurker]

Volcano..thats always been an quick and easy standby of mine..But with all the nancypants crap going around in the school systems these days, you and your son might be arrested for building a "bomb"....

[Karlifornia]

This one girl in 7th grade did this project where she took kitchen sponges and did different things with them: Left one soaked most of the time, one always wrung out, and other variables. Then she looked for bacteria in each of the sponges. I don't know if your kid's got a microscope and petri dishes handy, though. Now that I think about it, that bitch was probably a scientist's kid.

[Landshark44]

This one girl in 7th grade did this project where she took kitchen sponges and did different things with them: Left one soaked most of the time, one always wrung out, and other variables. Then she looked for bacteria in each of the sponges. I don't know if your kid's got a microscope and petri dishes handy, though. Now that I think about it, that bitch was probably a scientist's kid.


my kid don't know the first thing about a microscope....

or a petri dish....

looking for something easier than that, but thanks.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

I bet he might be interested in studying a 7th grade girl who did different things with sponges.

[Toddzilla]

this is due monday isn't it:lol: Goddamned hilarious

[Flasch186]

do you break egg shells in water? and then feed it to the plants ?

or is there more to it, than that.,...

thats it, we just broke up eggshells in water in gallon jugs and then watered the plants with it. Beat miracle Grow hands down. still dont know why....

[mckerney]

How big of a rat could this plant eat. (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/18/meat.eating.plant/)

[sterlingice]

this is due monday isn't it

Gold :D

SI

[Senator]

senator, i like your idea a lot.....

but when you say "overfeed", what are you referring to? watering it? or something else?

I "think" because this was in 1910 or something, but I think I had one where I did not feed anything, and another where I fed in a recommended dose of plant food, (not sure what the hell it was) and then the last one I just OD the sucker. Strangely, it grew the most, not sure if that was my reason for glory. The real thing that set it apart was I had about a dozen of the most vanilla graphs I could come up with and had them framed all around the backdrop. Looked professional as hell, for a half ass job.

[DanGarion]

"The effects of Dihydrogen Oxide on various household objects"

[sterlingice]

"The effects of Dihydrogen Oxide on various household objects"

Like siblings? :devil:

SI

[ageofquarrel]

some good ideas here
hxxp://lotsbetterthenyourblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-science-fair-fun.html

[terpkristin]

Does your son have any interests? I find it kind of sad/disheartening that you automatically say, "the boy will probably not be a scientist, so i am looking for something easy that he could pull off."

There are a lot of ideas, and doing something he might actually be interested in might make him INTERESTED in science. Most of these things are just about coming up with a hypothesis and then applying a scientific method, even if it's not exactly "science." He could do a study of video game performance vs. hours played vs. genre. He could do simple machines and make a Rube-Goldberg machine to do some otherwise uninteresting task. Pull apart a bicycle and figure if there are ways to make it better or if a certain type of grease works better or experiment with gearing. Make water rockets of various sizes with various nozzle sizes and see how it impacts thrust. Make a Galileo-esque telescope and see how to improve it. Do a study of average hours TV watched as compared with weight. Explore the science of cooking, why bread rises, which yeasts work better, or maybe play with making root beer and using different carbonation techniques.

You don't have to "be a scientist" or think you're going to be one to be able to do some fun stuff that might actually interest him.

Good luck,
/tk

[illinifan999]

I don't know how readily available petri dishes are, but when I was in 7th grade, I went around the school wiping surfaces onto different petri dishes to see which area grew the most amount of bacteria.

[Flasch186]

Just ask For TerpKristen's medical records, turn those in...done.

[tarcone]

Fineas and Ferb helped Baljeep make a time machine. Maybe you could do that.