HELP! I need some ideas for a 1st grade science project for my daughter.

[Yo Ma Ma]

Science Project With Dolls:

Place doll into microwave for a couple of minutes. Place doll into toaster oven for a couple of minutes. Provide insight as to why both appliances make our food hot, yet only one will destroy the doll.

Another, less violent possiblity:
One doll, Sunny Susie has a garden and keeps it in the sun all day long. The other doll, Shady Sally, keeps her garden in a dark, dismal closet. Why does Susie's garden grow so well, while Sally's is pale and sickly?

Any experiment using dry ice is a winner.

 

[MaxFusion16]

pick up apple, drop, explain why it hit ground and not ceiling.

 

[eakers]

pop bottle rocket?

 

[StageLeft]

I'm thinking something along the line of bubbles. At discover store for $20 at most there is a pimp ass bubble kit for kids her age. You could take ideas out of it and submit them as your own, instead of just bringing her in with the kit. It's got a whack of neat tricks.

 

[BullsOnParade]

For the icecream project, you usually put the mix in a clean soup can and put
it in an ice bath that has rock salt in it, then stir the mix scraping the sides
with a popsicle stick.

 

[Dead3ye]

About 5 days or so before the project is due take some very damp (not drenched) paper towels and put them into two glass pie plates. Get some radish seeds (home depot or where ever) and put them on the paper towels. Wrap both with plastic wrap to keep the moisture in, and put one in a bright (but not sunny, that would be too strong) place. Put aluminum foil around the other. IMPORTANT!!!!
The foil MUST block out ALL light, and NO PEEKING. Flashing them for only a second or two will screw them up.


Once the time comes, unwrap the foil and compare the two.

You can do a dry run of course to see if 5 days works. It should, but too long and you get mold.

OK, what happens? She has to be able to explain how and why. This one sounds interesting.



All these ideas are good. Well, except for destroying her dolls. I don't think she'll go for that.

 

[axelfox]

electro magnet

 

[WhiteKnight]

I did paper chromatography for my 3rd grade science project. I tried to guess what the components of different marker colors was.

 

[Qacer]

Ask her what she is curious about. I've been a science fair judge and any project is fine. However, she must fulfill a couple of things:
- it must follow the scientific procedure (question, hypothesis, procedure, data, conclusion, etc..)
- try to control all variables (temperature, location, time, etc..)
- try to understand what you are trying to accomplish with the experiment

Those are pretty much the top three things that I look for. I've seen kids do a project on sink holes, the effects of alcohol on brine shrimp, radiation emission of appliances, does the amount of air in a soccer ball affects its distance when kicked, and the list goes on.

Just make sure that she has fun with it.

You can check out my science fair page for typical questions a judge would ask:
Fair

Enjoy!

 

[JetBlack69]

Originally posted by: lirion
You could get some fabric swatches that are idetical except for color, and put each of them under a light bulb for a certain amount of time. Put a thermometer under the fabric and see what color absorbs the most energy. It's the closest thing to dolls I could come up with apart from dowsing dolls with various accelerants, igniting, and noting the results.

I did something like that except for M&Ms. The brown ones would melt faster.

 

[Ameesh]

The impacts of Ghost Condensate with regards to Dark Matter

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
The impacts of Ghost Condensate with regards to Dark Matter

That's second grade.

 

[Joker81]

do the soda water and raisins thats pretty cool.

 

[Salvador]

Definitely a Volcano. You also might want to consider doing something with auditory sensory of Mice.

How about building a space shuttle from household appliances? Badger did it in the movie "Better off dead".

Sal

 

[AnyMal]

Glowing pickle!

 

[WhiteKnight]

The problem with science fair volcanos is that they don't actually test anything. They aren't science experiments, they're models. Plus, everyone and their dog's brother's Rabbi does a volcano. Do something original.

Plus, the teacher already vetoed the volcano idea.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: Dead3ye

About 5 days or so before the project is due take some very damp (not drenched) paper towels and put them into two glass pie plates. Get some radish seeds (home depot or where ever) and put them on the paper towels. Wrap both with plastic wrap to keep the moisture in, and put one in a bright (but not sunny, that would be too strong) place. Put aluminum foil around the other. IMPORTANT!!!!
The foil MUST block out ALL light, and NO PEEKING. Flashing them for only a second or two will screw them up.


Once the time comes, unwrap the foil and compare the two.

You can do a dry run of course to see if 5 days works. It should, but too long and you get mold.

OK, what happens? She has to be able to explain how and why. This one sounds interesting.



All these ideas are good. Well, except for destroying her dolls. I don't think she'll go for that.

You will find the plants grown in the dark to be long and leggy.

Plants want to grow. They need light. Plant hormones cause the little guys to keep going until they reach light or run out of food in the seed. Makes sense in that seeds germinate underground (for the most part). They have to break the surface to survive. Once they get there, all is well, and they can slow down.



It's called etiolation, and this site at least gets you started

The basic concept is not too much for children of this age, and kids identify with growing things.

 

[Dead3ye]

Originally posted by: Qacer
Ask her what she is curious about. I've been a science fair judge and any project is fine. However, she must fulfill a couple of things:
- it must follow the scientific procedure (question, hypothesis, procedure, data, conclusion, etc..)
- try to control all variables (temperature, location, time, etc..)
- try to understand what you are trying to accomplish with the experiment

Those are pretty much the top three things that I look for. I've seen kids do a project on sink holes, the effects of alcohol on brine shrimp, radiation emission of appliances, does the amount of air in a soccer ball affects its distance when kicked, and the list goes on.

Just make sure that she has fun with it.

You can check out my science fair page for typical questions a judge would ask:
Fair

Enjoy!

I don't think they are actually judging the projects, but I'm not sure. Thanks for the info.

 

[ed21x]

you two can work together to make one of those big cylinders where if you hit the back, a smoke ring comes out the other side. Or how about just lighting different types of chemicals on fire for some nice colorful light shows =) Then of course, there's the usual stuff like letting a piece of bread sit there and get moldy, etc.

 

[Dead3ye]

Originally posted by: WinstonSmith

Originally posted by: Dead3ye

About 5 days or so before the project is due take some very damp (not drenched) paper towels and put them into two glass pie plates. Get some radish seeds (home depot or where ever) and put them on the paper towels. Wrap both with plastic wrap to keep the moisture in, and put one in a bright (but not sunny, that would be too strong) place. Put aluminum foil around the other. IMPORTANT!!!!
The foil MUST block out ALL light, and NO PEEKING. Flashing them for only a second or two will screw them up.


Once the time comes, unwrap the foil and compare the two.

You can do a dry run of course to see if 5 days works. It should, but too long and you get mold.

OK, what happens? She has to be able to explain how and why. This one sounds interesting.



All these ideas are good. Well, except for destroying her dolls. I don't think she'll go for that.

You will find the plants grown in the dark to be long and leggy.

Plants want to grow. They need light. Plant hormones cause the little guys to keep going until they reach light or run out of food in the seed. Makes sense in that seeds germinate underground (for the most part). They have to break the surface to survive. Once they get there, all is well, and they can slow down.



It's called etiolation, and this site at least gets you started

The basic concept is not too much for children of this age, and kids identify with growing things.

This one might just be the one I'm looking for.

Keep the ideas coming though.

I knew you guys would come through, you bunch of science geeks. (Me included of course)

 

[Bleep]

electro magnet

Best and easiest. The kid can wrap the wire around a bolt or nail themself, just a little battery and it works.
To many of these projects are so complicated that the kid could never do them alone. This is a project for the kid not the parents.

Bleep

 

[Qacer]

She can do the simple test whether a certain color absorbs heat more. It was interesting, but the students who presented it weren't prepared to answer certain questions. But for a 1st grader maybe she can compare people's reaction to certain things.. young vs. old.. You got lots of options..

Here's one thing I found from the European Space Agency:

Light and temperature

All the light in the Universe has been emitted (radiated) by something. The wavelength of the light emitted often depends very closely on the temperature of the object that is emitting it. For example, the yellow colour of the Sun is characteristic of its surface temperature of about 6000°C. This is the link between radiation and temperature, and astronomers have learned to use it very effectively: by observing at what wavelength an object is emitting light, we can tell precisely what its temperature is!

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: eakers
pop bottle rocket?

in all honesty, I think that's too dangerous for 1st graders... I've heard of high school students getting injured with them (I'll be doing the pop bottle rockets/egg think with my physics students this year anyway!)

Before my suggestion, let me point out that you stressed (by bolding) "and she's a girl."
Quit being so sexist. It's those types of attitudes which have long contributed to lower rates of achievement in science for women than for men.


Anyway, my suggestion: something with magnets. Pick up some cool neodymium magnets for her to play with. (but not big ones, they can pinch pretty good). My high school students can't resist the things... kids are naturally attracted to magnets and love to play with them (their curiosity is good!). Other things to consider using with the magnets are: a compass. Maybe wire (to generate currents/voltage, but that's a little too advanced). Get a few of the cylindrical magnets, enough to stack to about 1 foot long, and you can actually *feel* the earth's gravitational field. She might also discover that the earth's North pole is *gasp* actually a south magnetic pole. Most people are familiar with the fact that some materials are attracted to magnets. And, some materials don't seem to be acted upon by magnets. What very few people are familiar with is that some materials are diamagnetic. That is, they're repelled by magnets. Water is an example of a diamagnetic material. I've read of experiments where people actually get grapes to roll away from neodymium magnets. (or something like that... maybe it was balanced on a stick with a pin in the center as a fulcrum and the whole thing rotated away from the magnet... do some googling.

Another really really cool thing to do with neodymium magnets: Get a copper tube. Drop various materials through the tube of approximately the same size. A magnet dropping through the tube will fall very very slowly.

I think the chase the grape thing and the magnet through a copper tube thing will blow the minds of the people judging the science fair, and they're both things that your daughter may discover on her own while playing with the right combination of materials. (Give her a copper pipe, about 24 inches long, and some magnets that'll fit into it, and she's bound to discover that one on her own. She may not be able to explain why, but she'll be able to determine that it has something to do with being a magnet since other materials won't fall slowly. And, she can deduce it has something to do with it being copper, if you give her PVC pipe to play with. (don't bother with steel pipe, the magnet will just stick to it, remember? )

Good luck!

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Fun site for uber-geeks

 

[Joker81]

I tried to make a telephone building with magnets and crap. Never worked. Had to rely on the old string and 2 cans method