Makezine has you covered for the upcoming science fairs, with 8 cool projects. Here are a few of them:
Build a physical display that demonstrates the property of retroreflection at work.
Create a micro ecosystem in a jar.
Power an LED with nothing more than a fancy bucket of mud.
This slimy goop isn’t just fascinating fun, it’s also a perfect example of a non-newtonian fluid.
Micro ecosystems are so fun to make! Except I usually wind up with mold. It shows that mold can live in a pretty wide range of ecosystems.
I’ve never made one, but I’d like to! I haz a jar and everything. :D
If I don’t empty it for a while, my under-sink compost bucket becomes a micro ecosystem.
A year ago I made one with a jar just like that! Then I went into the hospital for a week and came out and it was still alive.
.
Mine wasn’t aquatic, but a patch of moss on some rocks. The bottle itself was submerged under water in a larger jar though, just to make sure it was truly isolated.
.
My mad fantasy is to see a cubesat with a mini ecosystem and a webcam in low Earth orbit, so the world can watch how generations of tardigrades and other microbes adapt to their new environment, a la Silent Running. Even if it goes to mold that’s something living, right?