When I was growing up the science fair, where you do an experiment and make a display about it, was a non-optional part of our science curriculum. You had to do a science fair project, and I often felt like I had no good ideas. I assumed that my own kids’ educations would include a lot of science fair projects, so whenever we’d come across a testable unknown I’d add it to a growing list. Turns out the science fair was optional for them, or maybe it didn’t exist at all? At any rate I’ve now got a list of kid-testable hypothesis-ready project ideas and nothing to do with them, so here they are:

Does shaking or tapping an hourglass make it go faster? When playing games with one minute hourglass style timers folks sometimes tap the glass to try to speed it up. I suspect it doesn’t work and maybe even makes it slower.

How much less effective is expired sun screen? Every year we throw away last summer’s sunscreen and buy new stuff as is recommended. It would be interesting to see how necessary that is. Maybe put the sunscreen on photo paper or two different arms?

How should you walk to get your white socks less dirty in the garage? When the kids don’t want to get called out for getting their white socks filthy they’d sprint across the garage rather than tip-toe or walk. What matters more fewer footfalls or lighter impact?

Would a coin on the surface of a frozen cup of water fall to the bottom before all the ice is melted? Would it slip around an iceberg or slowly lower itself only reaching the bottom when everything is melted?

Does putting food in an unsealed ziploc bag slow its drying out in the fridge? This one’s pure marital discord because one of us never reseals ziploc bags in the fridge saying that “it’s mostly covered”. Is it preserving most of the food moisture or doing nothing at all?

Are taller cans more or less load bearing than short cans when we stand on empty aluminum cans? Can a 16oz can hold more weight than a 12oz or 8oz can? What about relative to its overall materials weight?

Does drawing a carbonated beverage up a straw make it feel bubblier than sipping? The straw requires a vacuum proportional to the liquid column height, so maybe you’re causing more dissolved gas to bubble out?

And while not an experiment, a good project idea I gave to a friend to use in high school: What would happen to our city if this project was a 100 kilo-ton nuclear bomb? where the display is a huge map of the city with concentric circles of destruction by various means and to different extents. Add in wind and radiation dispersal and it was really eye-catching – everyone locates their home to see which way they die. The odd shaped suitcase with some wires sitting under the display table helped too. :)