How to Come Up with a Great Science Fair Idea

A successful science fair project can do wonders for your grade point averages and can even catapult you to stardom in the way that it has for some of our young entrepreneurs. The biggest hurdle for science fair projects is coming up with an original idea. Once you have your idea, you will follow the scientific method for determining the outcome.

What is the scientific method?

A good place to start is to examine the scientific method itself so you can understand where you’re headed.

• Step 1: Based on something you have observed, formulate your question.
• Step 2: Predict the answer you think most likely and formulate this as a hypothesis.
• Step 3: Create an experiment that will show whether your answer (hypothesis) is true or false.
• Step 4: Analyse the results of your experiment and decide if your hypothesis is valid or invalid.

Let’s look at an example: If I observe that the plants in my room grow better than plants in the rest of the house, I can ask the question: “Why do the plants in my room grow better than the plants in other rooms of my house?”

I then formulate an answer or hypothesis: “The plants in my room grow better because I play music in my room.”

Now you design an experiment to test your hypothesis. This will involve two plants who have exactly the same growing conditions where one is exposed to music while the other one is not. You will record their growth rates over the stipulated period.

Analysis of the data should lead you to confirm or reject your hypothesis.

If you have time, you can do further experimentation. For example, you can test whether different kinds of music have different effects on plants.

Formulating a hypothesis

Once you understand the scientific method, you can see how easy it is to ask questions about anything in the world around you. Start by thinking about your favorite hobbies and interests; is there a question you can ask about these? You will be spending a lot of time with your science fair project, so it may as well be about something you like.

Look online: Sure, we know that you want an original idea, but looking at other science fair projects can really inspire you. Perhaps you will look at the experiment above and decide to test whether tap water or boiled water will help plants to grow better, or maybe you will want to test whether yelling at plants or complimenting them has an effect on their growth. You can take an existing experiment and put your own spin on it.

Start thinking about your science fair project now so that you have tons of time to come up with a great idea. Remember that science fair projects are only as great as the original question. Here are some resources that offer ideas for science fair projects. Use these to get inspiration for your original science fair project idea.

Science Buddies

Education.com

Science Bob

Science Kids

Buzzfeed

Scholastic

All Science Fair Projects

Student Inventors: Girl Power

Students can be creative innovators and inventors to whom we owe some of our most impressive technological breakthroughs. Today we honor three teen inventors who have achieved great success by thinking outside of the box.

Ann Makosinski

Ann has invented a hollow flashlight that is powered by the heat of your hand. Ann is a grade 10 student from St. Michael’s University School in Victoria, Canada who beat out hundreds of other entrants to get her flashlight into the finals of the Google Science Fair. “I’m really interested in harvesting surplus energy, energy that surrounds but we never really use,” said Ann.

Ann is interested in utilizing alternate energy sources for everyday tasks. While researching alternative energy sources, Ann stumbled upon Peltier tiles which create energy when they are heated on one side and cooled on the other.

She ordered some tiles off the internet and found that body heat produced more than enough energy to light an LED, but not enough voltage. Ann tried several transformers to up the voltage; she even built her own. Finally after months of research and experimentation (along with her regular schooling and extra mural activities) she finally found a circuit that worked.

You can see more on Ann’s invention here

Elif Bilgin

Elif comes from Istanbul, Turkey and is the country’s first winner of the 2013 Science in Action award at the Google Science Fair for her bioplastic which she developed from banana peels. It was a long process for Elif who tried 10 different iterations of plastics before she found one that didn’t biodegrade too quickly and was strong enough for commercial use. “Even Thomas Edison said, ‘I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work,’” Elif said about the long road of trial and error that eventually led to a successful prototype.

Elif hopes that her plant-based plastics will replace some of the petroleum-based plastics on the market and improve the environmental impact that plastics have.

Eesha Khare

Eesha is an American student who has invented a supercapacitor. This incredible device will replace conventional batteries in everyday electronics. Eesha’s electrochemical supercapacitor can be charged in 20 seconds, hold a charge for longer and lasts for more recharges than conventional batteries. Eesha’s invention can be recharged 10,000 times as opposed to the 1,000 charges a conventional battery is able to endure. Eesha hopes that her invention will help to reduce waste and improve the environment.

Student inventors remind us that a good idea and a lot of hard work mean that anyone can be successful at any age. Inspire your students to greatness for their next science fair projects.

See Eesha’s interview with Conan O’Brian here:

http://teamcoco.com/video/young-scientist-award-winner-eesha-khare-pt-1-06-13-13