Become a Physicist Science Project

A small-group or independent science project designed to allow learners the chance to experience physical science according to their own interests and the household objects they have available to them. Learners will spend time researching a strange phenomenon explainable using physics and preparing a demonstration of the experiment for the class. On presentation day, the class will circulate to watch groups of learners give their demonstrations, make hypotheses about the outcomes, and write the explanation given for the experiments they view.

WHAT’S INCLUDED
This resource contains:
–> Project Description
–> Physics Demo Project Brainstorm
–> Observer Notes Sheet
–> Project Rubric

STORY
Science Fair Projects can often be very time consuming - thinking of a project, designing an experiment, collecting results, gluing things to a board, and bringing it all back to school. I decided this year to simplify the process and let learners work as partners to give a physical science demonstration about how the world works. I had given many demonstrations in class like the classic “egg sucked into a bottle” trick, “pulling the table cloth out from under the dishes” trick and the ever popular “cola sinks, diet cola floats” trick. Learners were fascinated by these demonstrations, and I got the idea to let them come up with their own experiments so we could run our own mini science fair.

IMPLEMENTATION
This resource consists of a project description page which, through the teacher’s guidance, can facilitate great conversation and exploration into many real-world phenomena which seem like “tricks” but can be explained through an understanding of physical science. You have several options for setting up a presentation day which gives opportunity for the whole class to benefit from the science explorations. Overall, this project should take students about one week to research, develop, rehearse, and present their experiments.

POSSIBLE EXTENSIONS
Download this project and let the students teach the science concepts for the day. Invite other classrooms over and have yourself a proper mini-science fair!