Science research » High School Science

High School Science Project Measuring Heat

admin — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:43:30 +0000

Did you know that all foods we eat have some type of energy in them. That is why we eat them because our bodies need food to convert to energy and allow our muscles to move. Energy is heat for our bodies.

How can we see what type of energy a piece of food contains even though we are not eating it and digesting it? We will light a piece of food to show it has energy, otherwise it would not burn and then use the energy from it burning to show it can heat water.

Get these materials for the science experiment:

A large coffee can A smaller can like a soup can A wooden skewer like used for barbeque careful as the edges will be very sharp so ask a parent for help. You will now want to punch holes around the side edges of the large coffee can. You can use an ice pick with a hammer on a wooden cutting board. Definitely have your parents do this part. The reason for doing this is so that you can release a small bit of oxygen. The small can probably already has the top removed but if not go ahead and take the top off. Punch two holes in the top of the small can on opposite sides. Again have your parents do this hole punching. Put the wooden skewer through the holes so it evenly hangs from both sides. Pour a small amount of water into the small can. (About 2/3 to ½ cup works well.) Only use room temperature water. Use the thermometer to record the temperature. Now have your parents use a lighter and light the marshmallow on fire. Right away put the coffee can over the marshmallow and put the water filed soup can with wooden skewer on top of that. It should hang from the top of the coffee can over the marshmallow. It looks kind of like a camp fire as you are trying to heat the water in the soup can with the marshmallow. Let the marshmallow burn until it goes out. As soon as the flame goes out put the thermometer into the water and record the temperature.

Now you will do this with the peanut and piece of bread. (Note: the peanut may take a little while to light but do not give up. It will light because it has energy inside it.)

Make sure to record your temperature each time and use new room temperature water each time you do this.

What you have discovered is that each type of food we eat will burn because it has energy stored within it and that is what our body uses as fuel. Some foods have more energy inside them than others and that energy can be used to heat water just like it used the energy to keep our bodies warm.

What you are learning is that everything has energy which is measured in BTUs and for every BTU it should be able to raise four ounces of water 1 degree so when you see how many degrees the water temperature went up should show you how many BTUs of energy that piece of food contained.

By: Lesa Bolt

Top Science Fair Tips

admin — Sat, 22 May 2010 10:59:50 +0000

If you’re reading this it is most likely that it is science fair project time and you are looking for the very best, Top Science Tips on the planet!

First tip: Do not wait until the very last second to decide what project you would like to do.

2nd Tip: If you are racking your brain about a science fair project subject matter or just do not really love doing science projects, that’s O.K, because there are presently science kits that are designed just for science fairs.

There are quite a few types of kits to pick from. Quite a few are specified towards students that wish to do a project but don’t think they can create it on their own, and others provide you with the flexibility to design your very own experiments by using the kit. It’s one of the greatest ways to have a good fair project and fulfill your teacher’s specifications.

What are you interested in? Do you want to know about Robotics? One idea could be the robotic arm trainer which is the absolute for creating a science fair projects. This kit teaches primary robotic sensing principles, testing your motor skills, while you form and control the Arm. Wonderful for high school science fair projects. Yet another option is the brand new Kranius Brain. It is so much fun!

It doesn’t matter if a person is 9 or a college student, renewable energy is a big topic of our planet. The PicoTurbine Windmill experiments Kit offers students twenty completely free energy science projects and for professors, schools and organizations, there are renewable energy educational science fair projects for the classroom.

An additional consideration for the earth ecology is energy and how to build new resources. Would you want to produce and dabble with a model alternative energy Power House? Apply the power of the wind and sun with seventy experiments in potential energy, ecology, conductivity, and biology. Render, warm, and desalinate a water supply and preserve your own food.

Or how about fuel? With the price of gasoline climbing, engineers are seriously trying to develop fuel cell cars. This is one of the most meaningful technologies of the modern day. Maybe you’re the individual to create automobiles that actually runs on water!

For most any science fair project, science kits will be the ideal choice. From rockets to chemistry science projects you’ll likely discover an amazing choice for most any science fair.

3rd Tip: Instantaneously downloadable science fair ebooks are outstanding because they walk you through a science fair project. Some even give you the actual science fair projects. Right away you have the ability to download your

4th Tip: It won’t matter if you use a kit or want to create your own project, here’s one of the most critical science fair tips that I can offer you… You’ll still need to do all the six steps of the scientific method.

By: Madeline Binder

Easy Science Project Idea for High School Science Project

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:57:42 +0000

Here you can create a simple electric motor. You will not be hooking this up to anything except itself. It is a good demonstration for your science fair project. Here is all you will need for this experiment. This is a great High School or middle school project.

A battery – a AA type works well A small magnet that is about the size of a quarter or nickel A piece of wire approximately 6 to 10 inches long
Steps to complete the experiment:
Take the wire and make a small hook in the one end and hold it so that it touches the top of the battery where the end protrudes. This is the positive or + end. Now wrap the wire in a spiral fashion around and down the battery. When you get to the end of the battery you will have wire left over. Let a little wire extend out to the side that will touch the magnet edge. Place the magnet at the bottom of the battery and make sure the wire touches the edge of the magnet. Using a nail make a little dent in the top of the positive end so that the wire sits in one spot and stays there while it spins. As the magnet sits on the table with the battery on top you should be able to take the coiled wire on and off the group. This is good for the demonstration because once you have the wire touching the top of the battery and the end of the wire touching the bottom side of the magnet the wire will spin around continually. Now for your science project research portion. You need to learn why the wire will spin around the battery and magnet. What fields are created by the magnet? What does the battery have that will help create the wire movement.

By: Lesa Bolt

High School Science Fair Ideas

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:04:19 +0000

Presenting the best high school science fair idea will always be a challenge to the school children as well their educators or mentors. The reason being such a scientific endeavor is a source of enlightenment and entertainment for the public, who visit the high school science fairs and witness one as a strong motivational tool to other enthusiastic children.

The high school science fair infuses the spirit of scientific inquiry into the students, who present the idea and initiate it into the art of pedagogy, as they explain the working of their models to the visitors. There are many institutions that offer great awards for the best presented high school science fair idea. Occasionally, the winners of the science fair are offered a scholarship from college, and this honor certainly increases the likelihood that one will be accepted at the college of their choice.

Furthermore, the best presented high school science fair idea will also receive immense publicity. The best presented high school science fair idea also boasts about the facilities and infrastructure that the institution has to the visiting public.

People, who browse through the best high school science fair ideas, appreciate the wonderful capabilities of the child, presenting it.

A successful and meaningful high school science fair idea is the one that highlights at least one of the pressing national and global problems along with the proposal of possible solutions to it. This will be achieved if the idea could be a presentation of any of the following, though not limited to these:

Idea of presenting models of blood circulation and blood supply through the heart muscle
A model demonstrating how the coronary arteries harden and how important it is to modify the lifestyle to avoid dreadful heart conditions

HIV has been rampantly spreading and if an idea is conceived with a 3-D model of HIV, and of the various ways, it is transmitted from patients to healthy persons including fetuses, it would be useful. Moreover, the action of virus on the T lymphocytes and the opportunistic infections that HIV predisposes to along with a chart showing the safe sex practices to prevent AIDS can also be supportive to the project.

Ideas incorporating models displaying the mechanisms that underlie the natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tsunami, etc., the guidelines to predict and forecast them, along with the flowchart of steps to be taken when disasters really strike can also be attractive as well as address some issues.

High school science fair ideas incorporating the working models of ozone depletion, temperature inversion, smog development, and formation of greenhouse gases and acid rain, tests for detecting common pollutants in water, air and soil will be apt for the current scenario. An idea of measurement kits for determining the decibel levels of noise on a busy street, an idea of model of a rain water purification plant and idea of recycling non-degradable materials can always be creative and informative.

The high school science fair idea, best conceived and presented generally, leaves behind happy memories in the students, who had participated in it, along with the visitors.

By: Jordan Matthews

Current Events in Science – Why Bother?

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:13:29 +0000

Once upon a time I used to teach high school science and so keeping up with current events in science was vital. The thing that upset me most when teaching those lessons were the students that refused to see the relevance of science, old and current, in their lives. I often stopped teaching the lesson to try and persuade them how relevant science, especially current events in science, actually was in everyday life. Think about it, let’s just start with the human body… understand how it works and you will have a better understanding of how to look after numero uno.

Here are two of examples from my every day existence where science knowledge helped me out:

I enjoy fishing. A friend and myself were fishing on a farm dam using a two man inflatable boat and things were going well. We had a couple of nice size bass in the bag when my friend hooked into and landed a two kilogram Tilapia. He thing about the Tilapia species of fish that have very sharp spikes on their dorsal fins.

Now any reasonably intelligent person (especially one who is up to date with current events in science, as I was) would quickly figure out that a two kilogram fish with sharp spikes sticking out of it’s back which is flapping around in the bottom of an inflatable boat is a recipe for disaster. We were too busy fishing to think logically…

So when the air in the floor panel of the boat started hissing out (because it was trying to establish an equilibrium – a whole new science topic), we snapped back to reality. With the boat folding in around us and the water coming very close to lapping over the rim the scientist in me yelled to my friend,

“Spread yourself wide…”

Yup, pushing the sides of the boat wide and increasing the surface area kept us afloat long enough for me to paddle to the shore.

So you are not into fishing from inflatable two man boats and therefore I have not convinced you yet of the relevance of keeping up with current events in science? OK, how about this one…

Picture yourself on a summer day doing an outdoor activity (apart from swimming), but oh my word, you are sweating buckets. This does not impress the blond daughter of your new neighbors! How are you going to ensure you look as fresh and “un-tired” as possible while still showing your physical abilities to this “o-so-nice” young lady?

Long, long ago, when I was still at school, I took part in what was fondly termed “cadets”. This is where you are shown the ropes as to how to march in the army. It built discipline and taught you to listen to instructions and also made you very hot.

The heat I experienced during those sessions was not due to over exercise, I mean sometimes we just stood still for long periods of time, it was because of the dark brown uniform that we wore. I remember the master in charge jumping up and down in front of us for being so lethargic and sloppy in our marching when at his age he was still so full of energy. What I wanted to inform him about was that he always made sure he wore a white cotton shirt during those hours in the sun.

You see, I kept up with current events in science and therefore knew science – and he did not! White reflects the white light that carries with it energy that is converted into heat, brown absorbs a whole lot of white light. A lot of white light being absorbed means lots of energy being converted into heat, which means that by diffusion, heat energy reaches the body that is wearing the brown shirt – my body!

So, a white shirt during those physical exertions will keep you looking fresh. The rest is up to your charming personality – with this combination – the girl is yours!

So is science relevant? I think so…

By: Neil Madgwick

High School Science Fair Topics For a Winning Science Project

admin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:50:09 +0000

High school science fair topics are known to be difficult; the competition is fierce, the judges expect more, and the project often counts for a percentage of your grade. For these reasons, you want to do high school science experiments that will cause the judges to take notice.

One way to decide on a topic is to look at problems in the world around you and try to explain them or even solve the problems. Demonstrations and models are generally not accepted in high school, as you are expected to use the scientific method within your experiment and explain your results in report form. It can be a challenge to come up with a science experiment topic suitable for your education level, but with a little work you should be able to come up with an appropriate experiment that interests you.

One science fair project suitable for high school would be to test and see if a black light is able to pick up invisible stains around your house. Another is to find out if insects are attracted to lamps at night because of the light or the heat. Another idea would be to see which brand of anti-freeze is the safest for the environment. You could also find out if different brands of orange juice contain different levels of Vitamin C, and does the level of vitamin C in orange juice change over time?

If you are a girl and you like to dye your hair, maybe you could experiment and see which brand of hair color holds its color the longest. You could go a step farther and see if previous treatments such as a perm or straightening will affect how long the color will stay in your hair. If you know someone with gray hair, you could test the brands that claim to cover grays and see how well they really do their job.

By: Dee Schrock