Where do you get an idea for a science fair project? This is difficult. My friend, Mel, has five kids. Routinely, she called at ten o’clock at night hunting for ideas for science fair projects. I judged science fair projects and sponsored projects for literally hundreds of kids. Let’s focus on teen projects. First you need to read the ISEF Rules. Some projects are prohibited. (No, you may not blow things up. No, you may not do an LD-50 on 100 goldfish.) Judges loathe models. Don’t make a model of the solar system or a volcano. (One exception is a good computer model.) SimilarlyCitizen Science Projects., the judges despise paper towel tests or stain removal experiments. What do you need instead?
The goal is to find an idea to test. The best ideas are based on a topic of interest, a problem, or a question. In another life, our high school spent one day in a seminar room going over the ISEF rules and helping kids hone ideas. All day. Let me give you an example. The student wants to know which type of bird feed attracts the greatest number of different types of birds. This idea can be tested, repeated, observed, recorded, and summarized. Here is another example. Our raised bed barely produced cucumbers. The soil test revealed that the nitrate levels was extremely low. A kid can test the soil with different ratios of fertilizer, ideally with one type of vegetable seed and one factor, such as the number of seeds which sprout.
Where do you get ideas? It isn’t cheating to look at winning projects. ISEF keeps a data base. (This can be depressing. Many of the winners are enrolled in Governor’s schools or have impressive summer internships.) GLOBE is a great source of science ideas. Measure something: weather data, tree data, water quality, etc. While these are popular topics, they produce better projects. Browse their NASA page for ideas.
HST Science Fair Ideas and Science Buddies have a mixed bag of project ideas. Similarly, AI was a mixed bag. Along with GLOBE, NASA has Citizen Science Projects. These projects have more depth. Here are 20 more examples of Citizen Science. The hardest step is finding a good idea. I’ve spent hours and hours just helping the teen get behind an interesting project topic.
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