A good science project is an experiment that provides an answer to a question. There are certain steps that should be followed with care when doing a project. Judges are always attracted to the fresh and original ideas. Original ideas are those that move the concepts from the textbook one step ahead with innovative methods. A well-defined objective or goal is very important to impress the judges. An innovative idea with a well-designed goal attracts the judge towards the project.
A student must know the scientific methodologies, theories, terms and techniques used in his/her project. Judges look for a student who can interpret the project well and also they check whether the student has an in-depth knowledge of his/her project. A good project should reflect the level of learning and understanding of the student. A completed project should address the original question and also answer all the other questions that can come up during the experimentation process.
A project is considered complete, only if it provides all evidence and data to support the claim. A student should enjoy their project work and should have creative thinking. Time and effort are the two important factors that make a project successful. High marks are awarded to the project that contains good experimental apparatus, correct data, thorough research, analytical techniques, real world methods, repeating steps to verify results, clear explanation of the project, and actual scientific discovery.
Teachers and judges will ask many questions such as origin of the idea for the project, level of learning from the background analysis, time taken for making the apparatus, method used to build the apparatus, working behavior of the apparatus, time taken to complete the project, related scientific methods or principles with respect to the project, books used in the analysis, and other experiments related to the current project.
The following are energy and science projects that you may want to explore further:
Chemical/ Stored Energy Projects
- Peanut Power: An experiment that determines the stored chemical energy in a peanut and explains how the energy is converted to do some work.
Electricity Projects
- Make Batteries from Fruits and Vegetables: This experiment clearly illustrates simple methods to make batteries from fruits and vegetables with the help of metal electrodes.
- Home Made Generator: This experiment explains the easy method of making a simple electric generator using magnets.
- Aluminum Air Battery: An experiment to make a simple battery using aluminum foil, activated charcoal, and saltwater.
- Bend Water: An experiment to find out how static electricity can be used to bend water.
Hydro Power/ Water Energy Projects
- Steam Powered Rocket Boat: An experiment to create a steam powered rocket boat with easily available materials.
- Water Turbine: An experiment to create a working model of water turbine and figure out the amount of electricity produced from the water turbine.
- Splitting Water: An experiment to split water (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen using pencils.
Solar Projects
- Pizza Box Solar Oven: An experiment to build up simple solar oven to warm up cookies and other food items.
- Solar Collector: An experiment to make a solar collector to understand the principle behind the solar thermal heating.
- Water from Plants: An experiment to collect water from plants using solar power.
- Infrared: An experiment to understand infrared using Herschel’s experiment and learn the relationship between wavelength and frequency.
Wind Energy Projects
- Anemometer: A simple experiment to create an anemometer to study the speed of the wind.
- Wind Streamer: An experiment to make a wind streamer to find out the direction of the wind.
Other Projects
- Light Bulb: An experiment to make a light bulb using a cork stopper, nail, battery, and some wires.
- Hot Air Balloon: An experiment to understand why and how hot air balloons fly.
- Thermometer: An experiment to make a thermometer to find out the change in temperature.
Additional Resources
Here are a few additional resources to science projects:
- Bill Nye the Science Guy: Select home demos for many science projects.
- Zoom Science: This page lists number of projects developed by kids for kids.
- Science Home: This site lists more than 400 projects for students and teachers.
