Looking for 4th grade Science Fair ideas

[Mottola-Buffett]

I'm really down to the wire here, as my daughter, Jessica (9 - 4th grade) is supposed to have her Science Fair project topic decided by tomorrow. We're having a heck of a time figuring out something fun and interesting and I though who better to ask than my BN friends....
She is to select a topic that she would like to find the answer to (ie: an experiment of some sort). There must be a question and a hypothesis.

As to what she'd like to do, I couldn't say... although she's an A student, she's not into science in particular --- more into fashion, webkinz and The Jonas Brothers (could there be a Science project somewhere in there???).

Any and all ideas would be welcome. The project is going to be presented the end of Feb., but like I said, we need a final topic by tomorrow.
Thanks in advance for your input!
Lisa

[springparrot]

Let's see---Ryan did one on salt.....husband works for salt company
talked about how long it took saline to become rock salt.

[buffettbride]

Victoria is the science fair guru! She loves the science fair and always does very well. Last year (5th grade), she won 1st place!

Her experiment was based on the question, "How clean is the air we breathe?"

She and her partner took index cards and cut out a square in the center. Then, they placed one strip of packing tape, so there was a sticky-side up. They attached the index card to a block of wood and drove around town and put the experiments in various places where they were expected to pick up or not pick up "gunk" on the sticky tape. They put one in a parking garage, a smoker's house, a shed, the top of Mother Cabrini shrine, a non-smoker's house, and a few others I can't remember (I think they had 10 all together).

Then, after 48 hours, they gathered the specimines and looked at them under a microscope. They counted the particulates each piece of tape captured and plotted the results on a graph to derive their conclusion.

It was a lot of work, but TONS of fun.

This year she received an "honorable mention" for her experiment on "How does carbon dioxide and pH affect plant growth?" She had mint plants and exposed them to soils w/ different pH levels and another set of mint plants that she exposed to varied levels of carbon dioxide (baking soda + vinegar/acetic acid = carbon dioxide). It turned out very good, but botony projects are a little tough, depending on your climate. We actually had to build a grow-box for her plants to keep constant temps and sleep cycles.

Some others I have seen that would be good for 4th grade are:
Which diaper is the most absorbant?
What cleans organic/inorganic/compound stains the best?
How does dye affect silkworms? (You can do this with carnations as well and you don't have to grow or kill anything)

[just jon]

We came up with one this weekend in Rice Lake, WI (where it never got above zero, I think).. Why is it that beer (Corona in our case -- no Land Shark in Rice Lake) left outside in the cold doesn't freeze until you open it? Also, why does it not freeze if you open it and immediately chug it to below the neck? (Really, it does. No, I don't know why.)

Then again, that may not be for the 4th grade science fair, but it was interesting none-the-less.

jon

[buffettbride]

One of these days, Victoria will do a "How does gluten affect the immunize system and digestive tract of individuals with Celiac Disease?" but she wants to wait until we figure out a good way to make a visual experiment of "villous blunting."

It's a hard one to do unless she makes herself sick.

[buffettbride]

The Jonas Brothers (could there be a Science project somewhere in there???).

Does birth-order predict talent?

Nick is the youngest and most talented!

[ph4ever]

Considering the fact we live in the ring of fire and there's a vocano that may blow in Alaska what about on the environment a volcano eruption could have.

[txaggirl91]

there are tons of ides out on the web.... try to incorporate things she likes into it.

when i judge fairs, here is what i look for:

- a researchable question
- did they do multiple trials
- only one manipulated variable
- does their conclusion match their data?
- did the student do the work or did the parents do the work?

remember - it is ok if their results are different than what they predicted in their hypothesis.

some really cool ones i have judged...all of these are elementary projects done by "normal" kids.

- does the design of a boat make it go faster in water? the kid made Styrofoam boats with different designs and then tested them for speed.
- does the temperature of a basketball effect how high it bounces
- Antimicrobial soap - does it really kill more bacteria than regular soap?
- lightbulb life - compare regular light bulb to the florescence bulbs.
- how long does it take the flavor to leave a piece of gum?

i've also seen a few where the kids saw some experiment on you tube and wanted to see if it really worked. most of them found out that they don't.

i've also seen projects ripped from you tube - like they took screen shots of the video and said it was them doing the experiment.

can she do surveys? i've seen some good ones where kids have surveyed people (like at least 50) on preferences for something. since she likes webkins, she could do a survey on the use of the website. ie - does your time on the website decrease the longer you have the webkin? then she can survey her friends and their parents to find out the answer.

feel free to pm about any of these.

[surfpirate]

Magnets are always fun and easy. Does the temperature affect a magnet's strength? (Hint: It does).

Pick up some same size magnets from a craft or hardware store. Pick up some items that can be picked up (paper clips, washers, ball bearings).

1 magnet should be room temperature.
Place 1 magnet in a freezer.
Boil 1 magnet in hot water.

Pick up items with the magnets. Record and observe the results. Graph and chart.

Or a "Rust Experiment".
In which of these will an iron nail rust fastest?

1. Straight tap water.
2. Tap water with a heavy salt solution mixed in.
3. Tap water boiled to remove the oxygen (hint: shortly after boiling the water and putting in the nail in a jar, pour a thin layer of oil on the surface of the water .. this will "seal" the water and keep oxygen from seeping back into the water solution).
4. an empty jar (no water)

Observe, record and chart the results.

[surfpirate]

can she do surveys? i've seen some good ones where kids have surveyed people (like at least 50) on preferences for something.

My kids loved doing "survey experiments" where they could determine whether girls were better than boys, kids better than adults, etc.

One that they did was to have each kid (or adult) surveyed play "Rock Music" vs. "classical music" in their iPod headphones while they were timed solving about 20 basic multiplication problems. They incorporated a "girls vs. boys", "kids vs. adults" element into their testing (in addition to "Rock Music" vs. "Classical Music").

It required doing multiple surveys, same people tested again on a diferent day, with a diferent set of math problems and music.

[Mottola-Buffett]

The Jonas Brothers (could there be a Science project somewhere in there???).

Does birth-order predict talent?

Nick is the youngest and most talented!

Great ideas everybody! Keep 'em coming..........

Being a youngest child, I especially like Mal's hypothesis about The Jonas Brothers!

[Mottola-Buffett]

Well, to those that may be interested, the Science Fair project topic has been decided....

Jessica's question is as follows: "How does temperature effect the making of maple syrup products?" (Hmmmm, was that the idea of the Chicago-born wife or the Quebec-born husband????) We thought she could make maple candy and maple butter and maple sugar, etc. taking into account the different temperatures it takes to make each one. Hope the judges have a sweet tooth

Thank you again, to all that posted ideas. There were some very interesting ones and I'll hang on to those ideas for next year, when I'll have two children doing the fair!

[bravedave]

In third grade I did a kind of survey project for the science fair. I won second place and have never seen it repeated since then: Can dogs' noseprints be used like fingerprints to identify individuals?
I got a stamp-pad and a stack of index cards and nose-printed every dog I could find. I categorized them by size and breed and found that noseprints are unique to every individual dog.

[big john]

"The Advantages and Disadvantages in Bottom-fermenting Lager as Compared to
Top-fermenting Ale".

[Carolinadreamin']

Good Lord! I read the title of this thread and threw up in my mouth a little........

[OceanCityGirl]

We did a neat one with my sons to show whether artificial reefs could stop erosion and create better waves. We made an artificial reef in water and stimulated waves on shore.

[buffettbride]

These are all really cool ideas.