Best STEM Science Fair Ideas EVER Part I
Materials Engineering:
How does the shape of a paper affect how much weight it can hold up?
Basically you fold paper into a standing triangle, square and circle and stack books on them until they collapse. Loads of fun, easy materials, great understanding of weight and force distribution. Extend this one by looking into the shape of an “I” beam used in construction.
How does the gauge of a wire affect the amount of resistance it creates in a circuit?
Ooh this one is a drop complicated! Buy three different gauges of wire, cut equal size pieces and attach them with alligator clips, one at a time to a test circuit. Your test circuit should have a battery, a lightbulb, and a voltmeter. All pieces can be ordered pretty cheaply, and you can tell from the voltmeter and from the brightness of the bulb what is happening to the resistance! As an extension, explain how water going through tubes is similar.
How does the length of a boat affect how much mass it can carry before it sinks?
Easy as pie. Grab some foil, shape a few boats that have the same height and the same width but different heights. Add weights (or pennies, or metal washers, or any other object you have a lot of that are all exactly the same) until the boat sinks! Now, can anyone explain what this has to do with density ?
How does the thickness of a spaghetti noodle (think Capellini, linguini) affect how much it can bend before it breaks (also called its region of elastic deformation)?
This one is really cool. Clamp the noodle at both ends or hold it flat, and then press down very slowly until it breaks. Do this sideways over a piece of graph paper, so you can kind of mark down the arc that the noodle makes before it breaks. It might take you a few tries, but you will certainly be able to get a nice average curve for each kind off noodle. That’s some great quantitative data! Now it is up to you to explain how the thickness of the noodle is affecting the curvature of the arc! To wow the judges- learn how to make stress vs strain graphs.
How does the weight at the end of the pendulum affect the timing of its period?
No, seriously this is a great one. A period is a back and forth swing that a pendulum (a rope that swings according to gravity) can make. Switch the weight and record the amount of complete periods made every 30 or 60 seconds and average your results. To take the prize, discuss kinetic and potential energy changes, and compare it to a snowboarder on a half-pipe. The visuals are great and kids will enjoy if you bring some pendulums with you to the science fair.
