Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Shoots: How Do Mint Plants Branch to Form New Stems?
Do you like to climb trees? The branches of trees are what make them so fun to climb. Each branch starts out as a tiny shoot that grows out from a stem. How is the growth of shoots along a stem regulated?
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Science Buddies: Craters and Meteorites
Have you ever heard that the moon is made of cheese? Even though the craters on the surface of the moon resemble holes in Swiss cheese, we know that this common myth is not true. Find out how craters are formed and why they are different...
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Science Buddies: Color Saturation
Lively, vivid colors can add pizzazz and turn a dull photo into a work of art. Learn how changing the saturation levels of the colors in your photo can really make it pop.
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Science Buddies: Measuring the Moon
Sometimes a full moon can be so bright, you can walk around in the dark without a flashlight. How much brighter is a full moon than the other phases of the moon? How is the brightness of the moon measured?
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Science Buddies: The 'Ultimate' Science Fair Project: Flying Disk Aerodynamics
Tossing a Frisbee with your friends is a great way to have fun in the sun. As you practice your throws and become more accurate, you're learning about the aerodynamics of Frisbee flight intuitively. You're learning the body mechanics...
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Science Buddies: How Food Supplements Affect Weight Gain of Juvenile Mice
As your mom and dad always tell you, a healthy diet is important to good health. This project is designed to see what happens to mice when they are allowed to load up on sugary snacks. Do you think that they will gain excess weight? Do...
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Science Buddies: Why Do Aerobie Flying Rings Go So Much Further Than Frisbees?
Use the instructions from this Science Buddies project to develop your hypothesis on whether flying rings fly farther than flying disks. The Science Buddies project ideas are set up consistently beginning with an abstract, objective, and...
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Science Buddies: Stressed Out? Take a Break With This Project!
Is an I-beam as strong as a solid beam of the same size? What if you include weight in the comparison: which beam has the greater strength-to-weight ratio? Would an I-beam be stronger than a solid rectangular beam of the same weight?...
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Science Buddies: Strength in Numbers?
Ever try to tear a telephone book in half? Even though you can easily rip one or a few pages to shreds, the entire phone book has strength in numbers and holds together. This project is an introduction to measuring and comparing the...
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Science Buddies: Keeping Up
Do you ever feel like you need to walk faster than your parents just to keep up with them? This is because of the difference in leg length between you and your parents. In this experiment you will test if the height of a person is...
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Science Buddies: How Many Seeds Do Different Types of Fruit Produce?
Do you like your strawberry jelly with or without the seeds? Are you glad to have a seed-free watermelon, or do you enjoy spitting the seeds into the garden? You might not like to find seeds in your fruit, but fruit is nature's way of...
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Science Buddies: A Matter of Time
Do you wake up at the crack of dawn, or do you need an alarm clock to wake you up each morning? It may surprise you that the two are not always in synch. Nowadays, we use Standard Time to set our watches instead of Solar Time. Which...
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Science Buddies: The Milky Way and Beyond: Globular Clusters
Globular clusters, compact groups of about a million stars that move around together in galaxies, are among the oldest objects found in the universe. Since they are found most galaxies and since they've been around for so long, globular...
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Science Buddies: Sunspot Cycles
Sunspot activity has been monitored continuously since about 1700. The historical data shows that sunspot activity rises and falls in a roughly 11-year cycle. This project shows you how you can use both graphical and statistical analysis...
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Science Buddies: Pick a Card, Any Card
No matter what your favorite card game is, we all wish we could use psychic powers to draw the card we want on our turn. You may not have psychic powers, but you might have the power of probability on your side. Do this experiment and...
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Science Buddies: Finding Phyla
Animals come in all shapes and sizes, each a small part of the amazing diversity of life. These differences can also help us to classify animals into different groups. Which group do you belong to? Do this experiment to investigate the...
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Science Buddies: An Experiment in Visual Perception
Graphical methods of data presentation are a key feature of scientific communication. This project will get you thinking about how to find the best way to communicate scientific information.
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Science Buddies: Interpreting Area Data From Maps vs. Graphs
Graphical methods of data presentation are a key feature of scientific communication. This project asks the question, "What's the best way to compare the land area of states: a map or a bar graph?" You'll be measuring performance on two...
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Science Buddies: Air Particles and Air Quality
What does the phrase, "Like a breath of fresh air," mean to you? This common phrase can have different meanings: calming, relaxing, invigorating, energizing or clean. In this experiment you will test the quality of air by measuring the...
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Science Buddies: The Big Dig
Even though many cities have recycling programs, a lot of trash still ends up in the dump. Find out which materials will break down and which materials won't. Will the results of this experiment change which products you often buy?
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Science Buddies: Dry Spells, Wet Spells: How Common Are They?
Here's a project that looks at what the weather was like for over a hundred years. The goal of the project is to compare long-term precipitation patterns in different regions of the country. You will work with historical climate data,...
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Science Buddies: Get Down and Dirty: How Does Soil Change With Depth?
What covers less than 10% of the Earth's surface, yet is a vital natural resource for terrestrial life? What filters ground water and supports most of our food production, not to mention the production of building materials and paper?...
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Science Buddies: Play Doh Math
One piece of Play-Doh can make many different shapes. Even though you can change the shape by squishing or stretching the Play-Doh, it is still the same size unless you add or take away some of the dough. Try this experiment to test how...
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Science Buddies: Juice Box Geometry
Juice boxes are so convenient, just poke the straw in and sip away. It might surprise you how much thought goes into the design and manufacturing of a juice box. Each manufacturer has carefully calculated how big each side should be to...