Harrison Hawks Science Fair Project Listing http://harrisonhawks.webs.com/ 1. aa ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: Do humming birds prefer clear food or colored food? Put up two of the same exact type feeder so the only change is color of food and determine which one they eat/prefer. Additionally- it can be determined what time of day they prefer to feed based upon this data. Six identical 100 ml feeders were filled with a 1:2 sugar to water ratio. Five common flower colors were chosen; red, yellow, green, blue, and purple; clear was used as a control. The feeders were put out on a custom-made feeder bar for four 10-14 day long trials. The nectar remaining in the feeder was measured to determine the nectar consumed over each trial. Then, the feeders were refilled, assigned new random positions, and hung back on the feeder bar for the next trial. (YOU COULD ALSO/INSTEAD TEST IF THE SWEETNESS AFFECTS RESULTS BY ADJUSTING THE RATIO OF WATER:SUGAR) PRINT NAME:__JUSTIN SIMMS_________ 2. aa ARCHEOLOGY: Some fossils are made by mere imprints. How is it that scientists recognize them and are able to identify them? Research fossils and how to make quick print experimental fossils at home. Then choose a variety of common items to make imprint fossils with. Use only a portion of each of the items (since only a part of the animal or plant would be in an imprint fossil). Choose 20 people and poll them to see how many were able to correctly identify the original items from the various fossil imprints. What does this tell us about the jobs archeologists have trying to find and then identify fossils. What trends did you find in the results, who appeared to have the best future as an archeologist? PRINT NAME:__ ___ ________________________ 3. aa BIOLOGY Compare a home-made incubator and commercial incubator in the hatchabilty of chicken eggs. Which one will be the most successful? What variables are in effect and are required for the chickens to hatch? Which would be the best to use if you were going to start farming eggs and why? THIS REQUIRES A MONTH MINIMUM FOR INCUBATION AND YOU MUST HAVE A RESPONSIBLE PLAN FOR THE CHICKS ONCE THEY ARE HATCHED! PRINT NAME:__ ___ ________________________ 4. aa BIOLOGY: Determining bird diet – do research on the bird life in your area. Select a type of bird you wish to attract. Purchase several types of food. Research what bird enthusiasts indicate that bird prefers to eat. Develop an experiment with several stations of different foods and environments to entice your target bird. Compare the success rate of each station and which types of birds each attracts. Research the types of birds in your back yard, what types of seeds/foods they eat and then do science fair project comparing different seeds/millet/fruits to see if the birds in your backyard preferred the foods you thought they would. The Audubon Society and Nature Conservatory have recipes for making homemade feeders with seeds and peanut butter and things like that to you might incorporate START EARLY TO OBTAIN ENOUGH DATA PRINT NAME:___________________________ 5. aa BOTANY: Does the color of the mulch you use in the garden make a difference to the plants? Does it change the taste? Does it change how many bugs get into the garden? Set up an experiment to compare this and see if people choose red because they like the look or because it really helps the plants. MUST BE STARTED EARLY PRINT NAME:____ __ _________________________ 6. aa BOTANY: Do all plants transpire at same rate under different sources of light? Make greenhouse-terrariums out of 2 Liter bottles and then use them to plant your subjects. Make sure you have at least three plants of each species and try to use at least two species of plant (in order to collect enough data). One sample of each plant will be put under direct sunlight, another under fluorescent lighting, and another under a regular household lamp for a period of six hours each (while you are at school). The amount of transpiration amount the plants will then be compared and recorded. At the end of the light exposure, you will measure transpiration by removing the upper portion of the terrarium carefully so none of the condensate rolls off. Then remove all of it with a spatula and measure it with a measuring cup. You can then compare this measured amount between the various plants. Be sure you water each plant the same. Repeat this for several days to ensure accurate results. MUST BE STARTED EARLY PRINT NAME:______ ___________________________ 7. aa BOTANY: How do circadian rhythms affect plants? Using a fast growing house plant and a dark room (or cardboard box) and a set of automatic timers, set up an experiment to expose several plants to different light/dark cycles. (Make sure to leave one with a normal day/night as the control) Does it matter to the plant at which time it receives “daylight” Compare the growth and development of these sets of plants. Which is the most prosperous? MUST BE STARTED EARLY PRINT NAME:____________________________ 8. aa BOTANY: Is it better to water a garden using a drip method or the overhead sprinkler system? Set up a simple fruiting plant (like a tomato) and water some with a sprinkle type method where the water is disseminated from over top of the plant. In the other, water via a drip type of method. How much water can be conserved with alternative forms of watering plants? Measure and compare the results from both. NEEDS TO BE STARTED EARLY PRINT NAME:__ ___ ________________________ 9. aa CHEMISTRY/ENERGY: The battery challenge: buy three different brands of batteries, a cheap priced one, a medium priced one and an expensive one and determine if the temperature will affect the longevity of its useful life with ambient, refrigerator freezing temperature. PRINT NAME:__ ___ ________________________ 10. aa CHEMISTRY: Hairspray comparison. Comparing the holding/staying power of several types/brands of hairspray. Pluck strands of hair from your head, curl them the same way and then spray the strands with different sprays and then tape to a poster board over some graph paper and monitor them over time measuring the change in shape to determine which hairspray had the least “droop” or change in shape. PRINT NAME:_____ __________________ 11. aa CHEMISTRY: Chirality with homemade polarimeter – The objective of this chemistry science fair project is to study the ability of a glucose solution to rotate polarized light Some molecules can be either left- or right-"handed." The left- and right-handed molecules have the same number and type of atoms, and their chemical structures look identical, but they are actually mirror images of each other. Many naturally occurring molecules have this property, called chirality. Chiral molecules can interact with polarized light in an interesting way—they rotate the plane of polarization. This chemistry science fair project describes how to make a homemade polarimeter that will allow you to investigate the ability of glucose, a chiral molecule, to rotate the plane of polarized light. To do this science fair project, you should already have the following materials and equipment: a laptop computer or other device with a flat- panel screen and a digital camera that takes short videos. This is a "do-it-yourself" kind of science fair project. It may present challenges SAVE A TREE!!! DO NOT PRINT THIS WHOLE LISTING!! JUST THE PAGE WITH YOUR DESIRED PROJECT!! Page 1 of 51 Harrison Hawks Science Fair Project Listing that will require some technical creativity. Some experience working with digital pictures and videos on a computer will be useful. PRINT NAME:_______ _____________________ 12. aa CHEMISTRY: Preservatives Which fast food places use the most chemical preservatives compare 5-7 fast food burgers and test them to see which ones contain the most preservatives and which are the most fresh. He would do this by purchasing similar burgers from each fast food location, placing each burger in a ziploc, & leaving them in the open air (pantry) for 1-2 weeks. After which, swabbing for mold/bacteria and placing specimen in petri dish to measure results PRINT NAME:_____ _______________________________________ 13. aa CHEMISTRY: The Cookie Experiment The objective of this experiment was to determine if the baking of the chocolate chip cookie was altered when using different types of baking sheets. Did the baking sheet alter the texture of the cookie or the taste? I made a triple batch of chocolate chip cookies that I used for all cookies in the experiment, so the cookie dough was not a variable. Then I baked each cookie using six different types of cookie sheets; silicone Silpat, ridged Sur La Table sheet, stoneware baking sheet, Calphalon non stick baking sheet, insulated platinum baking sheet, and an aluminum baking sheet. All batches were baked at 350 degrees for 13 minutes. I used a cookie scoop so all the cookies were the same size. Then I let all the cookies cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Then the cookies were placed in a labeled Ziploc baggie. Testers had a plate labeled with all the cookies and they filled out the survey for my data. Surveys were collected and then I tabulated the results. PRINT NAME:_____ __________________ 14. aa COGNITIVE SCIENCE: Do men or women learn/retain a new language better? First identify students who are not familiar with the ASL language (they can know what is and have seen a few signs but do not know more than 4 signs).