Needing suggestions. . .

[stellanoir]

My delightful kid is supposed to complete a project for a science fair and he had a great plan that was derailed by weather conditions. Now almost half of the summer is over and he's desparate for a secondary idea.

What are the coolest science projects of which you've ever heard. . .?

Thanks in advance as we could really use some help.

[sgxnk]

1. design one them there biodomes

design a biodome

put pauly shore in it

and NEVER LET HIM OUT

tia

[stellanoir]

4. that's both practical AND realistic

LOL

[Sammy Pepys]

2. melt off an eggshell with vinegar

All that's left is the membrane.
weird.

[stellanoir]

5. wows I never knew that

thanks

[skids]

3. diamagnetic levitation is pretty neat...

...here's my hacky on-the cheap levitating pencil lead:


http://abrij.org/~bri/hw/diamag.html

Here's some other stuff:

http://www.fieldlines.com/other/diamag1.html
http://davidfiedler.com/levitation.htm

As far as making it into a science-fair level project, he'd probably be best off preparing some supporting materials explaining how it works.

[stellanoir]

6. yikes now you've really put him to work

:)

[skids]

7. Be careful if you buy him one of those magnets...

...I could warn you about the danger of pinched fingers or flying fragments of shattered magnets, but the real danger is:

Give one of those to a kid and every piece of hard steel alloy in your house will be magnetized by the end of the month. Forks, spoons, handtools, every screw in your screw jar, and if you are especially unlucky, you'll have to spend a good deal of time degaussing all your television and computer screens.

[stellanoir]

8. Oh joy

sounds like a boatload of fun.

Kicking then for further suggestions.

[frogmarch]

9. DNA Extraction

This is interesting. I did it. (Couldn't resist.)

How to Extract DNA

Be sure to read "Frequently Asked Questions" for more info.

[Tesha]

10. Tesla coils are always fun. But *DON'T* do this...

Tesla coils are always fun, and popular at science fairs.

But *DON'T* do this:

http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

Tesha

[Meldread]

11. Something on Evolution...

....he'll likely learn something, in addition to perhaps teaching other kids stuff that they might not otherwise learn in school. (Depending on the state you live in.)