Palo Verde Science Fair

The Palo Verde Science Fair will take place on Wednesday, March 4, 2009.  We will hold a Parent Information night on Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 7:00 pm in the MP room at school.  

This page contains links to a variety of web resources that you can use to help your child do a fun project.

• Science Buddies has some great resources for science fair projects.  Browse their project ideas directory.  We've included some sample links from their directory below.  They also have a project guide that offers step by step information on how to do a science fair project.
  
• Photography and Video projects
  Great ideas, many appropriate for grades 3-5.  Photography and optics projects are great for kids who look at science and technology from an artistic perspective.
• Mathematics projects
  Many of these projects are accessible to K-5.  Math projects require a minimum of materials.
• Computer Science projects
  Many of these projects are appropriate for grade 5 and relevant to kids who like computers.
  
• Electricity and Electronics projects
  Lots of projects appropriate for K-5.  Many of them are follow-ons to the Lawrence Berkeley Hall of Science Night.
• Other science fair resources
• The Ultimate Science Fair Project Resource
• Lawrence Hall of Science 
• MadSciNet ("The 24-hour exploding laboratory")
• Exploratorium
• MAKE: Blog  This is Make Magazine's blog.  The magazine is devoted to "Do It Yourself" technology projects.  The blog is an on-line extension of the magazine, and is a rich source of ideas for science fair and year-round projects.  Here is a sample blog post (many interesting posts pointed to projects on the Instructables site listed below):
• Make a Joule thief.  This is a clever little circuit to squeeze life out of what most people would think is a "dead" battery.
• Instructables.  This site bills itself as the "world's biggest show & tell".  There's all kinds of great projects on this site (though you may have to browse a bit to find projects accessible to elementary school kids).  Here are some sample projects (linked from the Make blog):
•  Psycho-Delic Milk.  The old color changing milk trick amped up with Florescent Inks from highlighters!
• Dollar store Parabolic Microphone.  Build a very functional parabolic microphone using items purchased at dollar stores.
• Magic crystal tree.  A pretty variant of the "crystal growing" project.
• Make your own Playdough.  Make your own non-toxic playdough with custom colors and fragrances.
• Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.  Lots of great projects.  Check out their "Popular Articles" links on the left side of their page.  Here are some great ones:
  
• How to make the simplest electric motor.  The name says it all.
• Bristlebot.  A simple and tiny robot made with a toothbrush, a battery, and a pager motor.
• Demonstrate magnetohydrodynamic propulsion in a minute.  Magnetohydrodynamic propulsion is a futuristic drive system that uses electrical current to push a ship through the water.
  
• Spark, Bang, Buzz and Other Good Stuff.   This site has all kinds of fun scientific and technical projects.  However, as the name suggests, not everything here is doable or safe for elementary school kids, but many are.  And there are scaled down versions of others.  Here's one example:
  
• Simple home made photo cell.
• Other sample projects
• Hearing the light.  Leigh demonstrated a version of this to the 4th and 5th graders.
  
• Resonance demonstration.  Some ideas here for 3rd graders who have studied sound.
• Internet weather forecast accuracy.  Very relevant and fairly easy to do.  Uses the Internet and direct observation, with some statistics thrown in.
  
• Build a Morse Code practice set (scroll to the bottom of the page).
• Magnetic field of a toroid.  Good for both early grades and grades 4-5.  It's a variation on the old "electromagnetic nail" and uses a Slinky to boot!
  
• Nuts and Volts Magazine
  The paper copy of this magazine is available at Borders.  Ads in the paper copy are a good source for parts and ideas.  Adventurous 5th graders might find something of interest in the articles too.
• Kelvin
  A resource for parts and kits.
• Resources to explore the natural world
  
• National Wildlife Federation
• SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Animal resource
• National Geographic
• Biomes, from Missouri Botanical Gardens.
• Rain forest information
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute site for kids
• A resource on rocks