It is time for the much dreaded 2nd grade science fair project. I'm clueless. Does anyone have any cool ideas and diagrams? My son is relying on me!

 

Here's a few links that will help you get some ideas as well as additional information:

http://www.cdli.ca/sciencefairs/primary.html

http://www.cdli.ca/sciencefairs/links.html

http://school.discovery.com/sciencefaircentral/

http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/projectguide/

Good luck to ya

 

when I was in the 2nd grade my parents and I made A poster with all kinds of different bugs from the yard on it and there names. Looked great and I got 1st place.

 

Hmmm, first grade I did which plant absorbs color best (out 3 flowers in colored water, see which one turns the most). Dont remember nething till 4th grade and it was pretty hard. Good luck, I know it'll be tons of fun

 

You could make a little display that featured different materials and demonstrate their ability to conduct electricity. Just get a battery, a DC light bulb, and some wire and arrange the different materials in your display so you can touch the wire to each sample. If the bulb lights, you have conductivity, if not, you don't. Samples could include, plastic, steel, glass, copper, nickel, aluminum, water, etc. Just build a little display that has the bulb wired to the battery with one wire already and the "open" wire could have a couple of probes attached to it in the middle to facilitate touching the materials while the ends of that wire are attached to the battery and bulb respectively.

 

Now this is a good thread...

 

Volcano!! Baking soda + Vinegar = Fun!! Not very educational, but fun.

Longneck

 

Did that in my bathroom as a kid, thought I would be smart and keep it neat and tidy....
Boy mom and dad were sure mad, I had a problem in getting the ratio correct...room was not very big either....mess was

 

lol, that's funny Tim...

Would 2nd grade be too early to do a hydrolic experiment?? Not sure if you'll understand what I'm saying, but with a little pipe (prefer. clear) and some dot5 fluid and a few adapters, you could demonstrate how say... a book weighing 2 lbs. can lift a book weighing 10 lbs. with the use of fluid and different crossectional areas... this would be easy to do. Let me know if you want to do it, and I might could work up some equations for you and tell you how large your pipes will need to be... etc. Maybe I could draw you a picture of what I mean and send it you?? If you like that is.

STan

 

I've done a couple in my time:
Did the electical conduction thing (different materials, light bulb, battery)

What happens to water when it freezes? Used different materials pipes, jars, cans, filled them with water and froze them. Blew the end right off the pipe I used.

My dad works at a radar tower, so we got a bunch of different sizes and shapes of containers, made them all the same weight, and dropped them off the tower (75ft) and timed them to determine aerodynamic effects.

Weights of different liquids. i.e. water, soda, milk, etc. Best to use all non toxic items.

What ever you decide to do I'm sure we can help get it going.
Mike

 

Had a 4th grader and his dad come into my store needing an old vac motor for a hurricane project. This may be a little much for 2nd grade but when I saw the finished project it sure was cool.

John

 

What a great way for a young mind to see....it can be done...just dream of it...then build it!

 

Hmmm, here's something I know a little about. My 2nd grade project was on the geology of certain rocks. The *best* approach is to try to find something you and/or your child are interested in and then formulate a hypothesis, conduct some experiments, and present your results. Let me know what your interest are and I might be able to think up something you'll both find pleasure in.

 

Alright...this was fourth grade, but pretty hardcore for a 4th grader, and it got me first place. A perpetual motion elevator. There was a small 8"x3"x1/2" plank (round about that size), with a 1/2-1" woode dowel through the middle, and two smaller (same height, smaller width) dowels on either side of the plank. There was a smaller dowel put through the top of the large middle one, on a 90* angle, and protruding out from one side of the dowel. Looked like a tower crane.

How it worked was this. On the end of the 90* piece was a string with a nut on it. When the big middle dowel spun, it would wrap the string around one of the smaller end dowels, then unwrap itself, and spin to the other side and do the same thing. Meanwhile, underneathe of the plank, while the middle down was spinning, it was winding and unwinding a small film canister weighted with nuts and bolts (weights need to be played with to get it right).

It was completely self powered, and never needed to be touched again once it started moving. The film canister would go down about 3' and then it would wind the other way and come back up, then start all over again.

Now to justify this for 4th grade. I used to wonder about those desktop things that are perpetual motion....like the swinging *****. Once you start them swinging, they're never supposed to stop, and I was genuinely curious about it. Did some research, and came up with this with my Uncle....a perpetual motion machine.

 

I've noticed that a lot of "environmental" style projects get 1st prize. Saw one that was a terrarium where ground water flow was modeled. It looked like an ant farm with colored water running through sand. They used green water color for the 'pollution', and how the sand filtered it out.