Education & Higher Learning

Searching for an easy science project at the 11th hour can put you in a tricky situation. Our general perception of science fair projects is that they need a lot of homework and preparation for the experiments to be conducted. The process of understanding scientific concepts need not be tedious and time-consuming. It is possible to learn about the different phenomenon of science through short experiments. The following last minute science fair project topics should prove to be useful if you have less time on hand.

This project involves the activity of popping the corns with varying temperatures. The objective of this project activity is to find differences if any, in the popping of corns with different temperatures. Place equal number of popcorn in 3 separate bags. Keep the first bag in the fridge, the second one in freezer and the last bag outside, at room temperature. Pop the corns from all three bags the next day. Mark the differences observed in the popping and present it as the result of this experiment.

The project doesn't require more than 24 hours to grow the borax crystals. Materials needed for this project would be a cup of water, string, wire, borax and food color. First of all, twist the wire into a shape (preferable, snowflake) suitable for growing borax crystals. Heat a cup of water in a jar. As the water starts boiling, heating should be stopped and the jar placed aside. Borax should be added to the water slowly, up to the point of saturation. In the mean time, the solution should be stirred continuously.

The wire should be attached to a string and inserted in the saturated solution. In about 24 hours, borax crystals grow on the wire shape. A piece of pencil or other suitable object should be attached to the other end of string. This object helps in holding the string while the wire is inserted in the solution. There are many such one day science fair projects that kids can make use of.

One of the simplest last minute science fair projects, the activity of water testing should help gauge the quality of samples being collected. You can collect samples from lakes, rivers, etc. Tap water should also be used as one of the water samples. Each of these water samples need to be placed in separate jars. You can label them as A, B, C and so on... Rating can be provided on the basis of appearance (dirt present in each of the samples). Since, it is a last minute project, we cannot think about conducting sophisticated water tests to check whether the samples are suitable for drinking. Note - Ideally, we cannot determine whether a particular water sample is suitable for drinking purpose only by its appearance.

Yes you can slice a banana along its length without peeling, just by a small needle. You don't need any other tool for this activity. Micro-fibers present in the banana allow for slicing it without peeling.

The needle used for slicing should be placed at the side of banana skin. Once it is placed at the side, the needle should be pushed up to the point where it reaches the skin on other side. The needle should be stopped short of piercing the banana skin on the other side. The next step is important in the process of slicing the banana. The pivotal point of needle (at the side of skin) should be used to just shake or jerk it. This act of jerking the needle slices the banana internally.

The needle should then be taken out and inserted at different points along the length of banana. The same process (presented above) should be repeated to make slices. The conclusion derived from this project is that slicing the banana is possible only because of its micro-fiber construction. You cannot slice any other fruit with the steps mentioned above.

It is one of the easy science fair projects for kids that requires two bottles, cold water, hot water and ice cubes. The first bottle should be filled with cold water. After filling water in the bottle, an ice cube should be placed on the neck (of this bottle). Placing an ice cube on the cold water bottle should not exhibit any reaction. Now repeat the same procedure with hot water. You would observe the formation of fog in the hot water bottle. Find out the reason behind formation of fog and present it as the conclusion.

These are simple last minute science fair projects that won't require much time for completion. You would be able to finish them off, well within the deadline. Moreover, it is possible to learn about interesting scientific facts through these projects.