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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Unleash the Power of a Pinwheel!

For Students 9th - 10th
In this science fair project, you will learn more about wind-powered devices, like pinwheels. Much like pinwheels, we react in different ways to the direction of the wind when we ride bikes, or even try to walk.
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Do Distractions Affect Driving Video Game Scores?

For Students 3rd - 8th
In this science fair project, you will investigate how distractions affect your focus on a task, such as driving, by looking at how gaming scores are affected as you're talking on a cell phone or having a conversation with a friend. For...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Use Dna Sequencing to Trace the Blue Whale's Evolutionary Tree

For Students 9th - 10th
Around 50 million years ago, the mammalian ancestor of today's whales returned to the ocean. In this genomics science fair project, you will use mitochondrial protein sequencing to trace the evolution of whales and identify their closest...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: I See a Full Moon Rising, and Shrinking, or Do I?

For Students 9th - 10th
The moon appears bigger at the horizon just as it is rising over the treetops, than it does later in the evening when it is overhead. This is because our perception of its size changes based on where it is in the sky. In this human...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Race Your Marbles to Discover a Liquid's Viscosity

For Students 9th - 10th
How do you like your mashed potatoes? Thin and whipped smooth? Or thick and mashed into chunks? Your mouth checks out not just the taste of your food, but its viscosity, or how it flows on your tongue, every time you take a bite. In this...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: How Sweet It Is: Hummingbird Food Preferences

For Students 6th - 8th
Do you like to watch hummingbirds? Have you ever wondered why there is specialty hummingbird food? What is it about the food that makes it so appealing? In this zoology science fair project, you will observe these remarkable creatures...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Ask a Cricket, 'What Is the Temperature?'

For Students 3rd - 8th
A cricket as a thermometer? Yes, that's right. In this science fair project, you'll investigate how the chirps of these tiny creatures can do more than lull you to sleep-they can tell you the temperature.
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Neanderthals, Orangutans, Lemurs & You; A Primate Reunion

For Students 9th - 10th
You have probably seen figures showing how human beings are related to chimpanzees, gorillas, and other primates. In this genomics science fair project, you will use bioinformatics tools to generate your own primate family tree.
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Bring on the Heat! Investigating Exothermic Reaction Rates

For Students 9th - 10th
Have you ever pulled a muscle or just been sore after a long day of work or exercise? Hot showers are great, but maybe you've used the more convenient heat packs. Heat packs, which you can buy at grocery or drug stores to soothe aching...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Movie Music

For Students 6th - 8th
Have you ever seen a great movie and then rushed out and bought its soundtrack? Did the soundtrack bring back the thrill of an action chase? Or the sadness one of the movie's characters felt? Music is a big part of the movie experience....
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Just Keep Cool How Evaporation Affects Heating and Cooling

For Students 9th - 10th
When we get hot, we sweat. The physiological role of sweat is to cool us down. When the water evaporates, it removes energy from our bodies. This sort of evaporative cooling can also be used to cool homes, using what are referred to as...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Hydrogen Peroxide on Plant Root Cuttings & Seed Germination

For Students 9th - 10th
Hydrogen peroxide (often used as a disinfectant) has also been approved for use in pesticides. This science fair project investigates whether hydrogen peroxide has any effects on seed germination or on roots of plant cuttings.
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Study Chirality With a Homemade Polarimeter

For Students 9th - 10th
Some molecules can be either left- or right-"handed." The left- and right-handed molecules have the same number and type of atoms, and their chemical structures look identical, but they are actually mirror images of each other. Many...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: How Tweet It Is: Bird Songs in Classical Music

For Students 9th - 10th
Do you enjoy singing contests like American Idol? Well, male songbirds have their own version of a singing competition that has been going on for thousands of years, and classical musical composers have been taking notes. In this music...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Fast Food: Can Peppermint Improve Reaction Times?

For Students 9th - 10th
Did you know that some teachers give their students a peppermint candy on state testing days? Is it to give the kids sweet-smelling breath? Or are the teachers hoping for something more on the important testing day? In this human biology...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Go, Gadget, Go! Building Robots With Lego Mindstorms

For Students 9th - 10th
In the mid-20th century, people thought of robots as futuristic tools. But in the 21st century, robots are not a figment of our imaginations, but are a part of our reality. Robots even perform tasks that humans can't do. In this...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: The Height Limits and Linearity of Bouncy Balls

For Students 9th - 10th
You might think that plants and animals have little in common with batteries, springs, or slingshots, but they actually do have something in common. Both living and non-living things store and transfer energy from one form to another. In...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Vines & Spines: Thigmotropism in Morning Glory Tendrils

For Students 9th - 10th
We tend to think of plants as immobile, but the tendrils of a vine, such as the morning glory, actually move in response to touch. Tendrils wrap around structures, which give the plant something to grow on. In this science fair project,...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Balloon Morphing: How Gases Contract and Expand

For Students 6th - 8th
Expanding gases are everywhere, from the kitchen to the cosmos. You've tasted their pleasures every time you've eaten a slice of bread, bitten into a cookie, or sipped a glass of soda. In this chemistry science fair project, you'll...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Tireless Tides: Extracting Energy From Ocean Tides

For Students 6th - 8th
Renewable energy is the energy that is extracted from natural sources, such the Sun (solar), earth (geothermal), wind, and water (hydropower). These sources are renewable because they can be replenished by the same natural sources within...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Leaky Clues to Dam Design: How Reservoir Height Affects Hydroel

For Students 6th - 8th
It's hard to believe that the same water that you use every day to quench your thirst, cook with, bathe in, swim in, and wash your clothes and dishes, is capable of another trick-it can make electricity. Electricity can be generated...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Smarter Than Your Average Slime: Maze Solving by an Amoeboid

For Students 9th - 10th
In this science fair project, grow the acellular slime mold Physarum polycephalum and test its ability to find the shortest path through a maze.
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: The Strength of an Electromagnet

For Students 3rd - 5th
Has anyone ever told you that you have a magnetic personality? Have you ever heard that opposites attract? These common phrases are both based on the properties of magnets and magnetic electricity. In this science fair project, learn how...
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Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Using Pennies to Test How P H Affects Copper Corrosion

For Students 3rd - 5th
In this science fair project, use a color-based reaction to test how pH affects copper corrosion in pennies.