Fun Junior High Science Projects
Choosing the right science experiments for junior high students can make all the difference to their learning. Fun and interesting experiments that they can do themselves, with simple instructions, will get them involved and help them understand the principles you want to teach them.
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A Sucker's Bet
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Give the children jars with a small, straw-sized hole in the lid as well as a straw and a small piece of clay. Hand out jugs of water to pour into the jars, then get the children to put the lids on the jars, push the straw through the hole and seal around it with clay. Then tell them to try drinking the water. They won't be able to. Although the air pressure in their mouths is lowered by sucking, there is no air pressure on the water inside the jar to push it up the straw to compensate. Before they try drinking, you could ask who bets that they will be able to drink the water, and who doesn't.
Electric Lemons
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Each group of students will need a large lemon, 6 inches of 18-gauge copper wire, a straightened paperclip and a multimeter. Tell them to roll the lemon back and forth across the table, applying a little pressure as they do so. This will get the lemon juices flowing. Then they can push the paperclip an inch into the lemon and do the same with the copper wire, ensuring the wires don't touch. Next, they can attach the multimeter crocodile clips to the wires and the meter will show a reading, proving that an electrical current is flowing through it. Also, the paperclip and copper wire ends, when touched to the base of a small LED bulb, will usually provide enough electricity to light it.
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The Telephone
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Give pairs of children two clean tin cans without lids. Make sure the rims are not sharp and make a small hole in the base of each can. The children will also need a length of wire long enough that they cannot hear each other speak clearly without assistance when standing at each end of the taut wire. Give them some wax or shoe polish to rub over the wire. Then tell them to thread both ends through the holes in the can bases and tie large knots to hold the wire in place. When they hold the cans to their ears with the wire stretched taut, their voices will be amplified enough to hear. Now you can explain the principle of sound waves.
Making Crystals
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Give each group of students a wide-mouthed glass jar, a jug of water, a pencil, a spoon, some sturdy string and non-iodized salt. Tell them to fill the jar half-full with water and add salt a tablespoon at a time, stirring with the spoon as it dissolves. They should stop when the salt begins to collect rather than dissolve. Now they should tie the string around the middle of the pencil and lay the pencil across the top of the jar. Adjusting the string as necessary, let it hang down to just above the water. Over the following three weeks, they can study the progress of the crystal development and change in water level.
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References
- Photo Credit brightly colored science test tubes image by Steve Johnson from Fotolia.com
