Easy Science Fair Project Ideas for Middle School

The science fair is a time-honored tradition for students.

The science fair is one of the most time-honored traditions of childhood education. In a science fair, students are tasked with performing a scientific experiment and then displaying it in an open setting. The projects that the students make are sometimes judged, so it behooves the student to come up with a good concept and make a nice presentation. If your junior high student is having trouble coming up with a topic for the science fair, consider trying one of these projects.

Fog in a Bottle

There are two types of fog that we experience, advection and radiation. Advection is the type of fog that occurs when warm air from the ocean is blown toward the coast where it cools and becomes fog. Radiation fog, the type of fog we are experimenting with, is ground fog, which is created when warm air close to the ground is cooled by cold air on top of it. To start, get two glass bottles with mouths small enough that an ice cube can fit in them without falling through, an electric water kettle, and an ice cube. Heat up water until it is steaming and fill one of the bottles about halfway. After you do this, pour an inch of cold water into the other bottle. Wait a few minutes and pour all but an inch of the warm water out of the bottle. Place an ice cube on top of each of the bottle and watch to see what happens. Fog will form in the bottle with the warm water because the air in the bottle was rapidly warmed up and then immediately cooled by the ice cube.

Why is the Sky Blue?

A simple project to describe why we see a blue sky can be done with a mini flashlight, hot glue gun sticks and a white background. Place a glue stick in front of the flashlight, turn it on and shine the light at a white background. The glue stick will glow blue at the side nearer to the light and will emit a yellow light onto the background. By adding more glue sticks, the light on the background becomes red. The reason we see this is the same reason the sky is blue. The flashlight emits white light like the sun. The light is then scattered by the "atmosphere" (glue stick). Like the sky, it reflects the blue portion of white light so we see it closer to the flashlight. As you add more glue sticks, the light has longer to travel and we start to see red light, just like a sunset.

Tornado in a Bottle

Tornadoes are high-powered weather phenomena in which a vortex of wind is created that travels along the land, destroying anything in its path. The reason there is so much destruction is because of the high-speed winds that come with a tornado. Now you can create a miniature vortex to demonstrate what is going on in a tornado vortex. For this you will need two empty soda bottles, a drill, colored water, and duct tape. Take the tops off of the bottles and drill a small hole through the center of each. Glue the tops of the caps together so the holes are lined up. Fill one of the bottles with colored water and place the cap on the bottle. Screw the empty bottle to the top of the full bottle and cover the caps with duct tape to keep them together. Turn the bottles upside down so the water begins to drain into the empty bottle. If you begin to spin the bottles, a vortex will form, much like what happens in a tornado.

References

• Starry Skies: Fog in a Bottle
• Exploratorium: Glue Stick Sunset
• YesMag: Soda Bottle Tornado