Need idea for cool/fun/interesting Science Fair Project.

**Dazz** · 02-21-2012, 07:07 PM

So, last year my son won 3rd place in his 3rd grade Science Fair. We built a pulley system and figured out how much pull force it took to lift with various pulley configurations. It was very interactive and the kids loved it.

This year is his last year at this school before he goes off to Intermediate school. I need to come up with something for this year. I have no freaking clue what to do for this year.

My only idea right now is to send my phone into the upper atmosphere and then retrieve it. While that sounds fun and cool... I really don't want to risk ruining or loosing my phone, don't want to spend $$$ for GPS or something similar... That and it's really not scientific as we aren't really testing anything.

Any suggestions?

**jeepguy81** · 02-21-2012, 07:29 PM

many moons ago i won a science fair doing a project on water conductivity. I had one of those multi-project circuit board kits, in it was a layout for a current metering circuit. Had a 3 or 4 way rotary switch so you could choose between tap, distilled, salt, and i think i did soapy water too. Couple 'C' cells and you could measure the current across each type of water. Was a good question and answer project at the time. With all the parts we have today u could probably spice up the circuit a good bit.

**adam763** · 02-22-2012, 04:31 AM

Socks..!

Why not send socks into the upper atmosphere and then retrieve them..?

Much cheaper than a phone.

But, talking from experience, leave them at least 30 minutes before putting them on!

**trublu289** · 02-22-2012, 05:36 AM

Better yet if you can keep the phone in recording mode while going into the atmosphere would make for a nice video.

**SophT** · 02-26-2012, 04:34 AM

My buddy's been trying to convince his students to do "ambient music" for a couple of years now. At the very basic you take a Kinekt and map it to X and Y and then play a midi sound or MP3 when it detects something in that area of the matrix

At the very most you add in the "Z" and have the following:

X = volume
Y = note
Z = instrument

and then just point the kinect at the crowd as they walk by...
Shouldn't be insanely hard to program the basic one - and with a Windows SDK even the xyz shouldn't be too hard - though I don't know about for a 9 or 10 year old....

**ironface** · 02-26-2012, 04:13 PM

Many many years ago I did a science fair project on finger prints. The irony is I teach it now.... However you can lift fingerprints with baby powder (Best), crushed carbon from burned wood, or paper ash. The best brushes are Swiffer dusters. (I learned with makeup brushes, but those are really coarse compared to the Swiffer.) You can just dump a bunch of Baby powder on a car and lightly run the Swiffer across and get amazing prints.

You can also build a "Fuming Chamber" if you like. Its pretty easy, just get a candle warmer, wrap it in foil, and place a few drops of superglue one it. Toss in (Not on the warmer) a plastic cup with finger prints, turn it on,close the lid, let it fume up and wait until all the mist clears. Dust it. Big smileys'
YOU NEED TO DO THIS OUTSIDE OR IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA. Breathing in those fumes are poisonous. Especially for small kids. I'd suggest you do it for them. And just use the fumer as a prop at the fair. You should be able to find a ton of youtube vids on this.

We use low tac tape to lift the prints, but if you don't have access to any, a good camera works perfectly as well.