Science Fair Project Ideas

I got my start in science doing science fairs in high school. My sophomore project won me a trip to the International Science and Engineering Fair and initiated my interest in astronomy. My first project was a simulation of planetary orbits - very simplistic, but a lot of fun and it involved cool visuals. Dr. Robert Stencel helped advise me for this project and is a wonderful example of a researcher reaching out the public.

Because of my success with the science fair, I've decided to do my bit to help out. I volunteered as a judge last year and tried to help a student at my former high school with her project, but I believe I can do more.

So, some ideas for science projects that require different skill and commitment levels from students:
  1. Observing at the Sommers-Bausch observatory. It doesn't matter what the project is, any experience on telescopes would be fun.
  2. Make pretty pictures using GIMP or Photoshop. The science comes from analyzing what the different colors show, and maybe even measuring densities/temperatures etc. Star forming regions are the best choice for this sort of project.
  3. Look for funny fuzzy things in images. There's a lot of wide-field camera archival data that hasn't been viewed by human eyes (except maybe the blurred eyes of a tired astronomer late at night), and some objects (like Herbig-Haro flows) are very difficult to identify with automated routines. The CFHT's MEGACAM and Kitt Peak's NEWFIRM and MOSAIC are examples of cameras that could use this sort of analysis.
  4. Program a simulation of planetary orbits. Not a new idea, one I did myself, but it's a lot of fun and can be a good demonstration of how gravity works on solar system scales. Maybe even start a small N-body code...
  5. Photometric/photographic monitoring. Simple digital cameras these days are very capable of taking images of the night sky. The new tool coming online from astrometry.net makes it easy to get the coordinates from CCD photos. This sort of project could also be a 'site testing' type of project: see how much light pollution affects photos by taking pictures at different sites, e.g. on top of mountains and in cities.
  6. Testing your camera! See how much noise affects your images, things like that.
  7. Laser fluorescence. Try to figure out which particles in some dyed plastics will fluoresce when exposed to laser light. Does it matter whether the laser is green or red? Some things we've observed to fluoresce: dyed coffee mug plastic, sports cones