a volcano i know it sounds cheesy but it can be kinda cool like

1. Place the can on the ground outside or on a paper plate or tray, if inside.

2. Build a mound around the can using soil, sand, leaves, clay, or paper to create your own image of a small mountain.

3. Fill the can 1/2 to 3/4 full with vinegar. Add a few drops of red food coloring, then a spoonful of baking soda.

4. Watch the lava flow down the sides of the volcano as the chemical reaction between the acid and baking soda occurs.

5. Repeat as long as the vinegar and baking soda lasts.

or

plants with different conditions

you could do it cool like give it the same conditions but leave one with one type of music and one with another

or

do mento coke rocket!

1. get a two litter bottle of coke or diet coke

2. get a soup can or a roll that will fit around the mouth of the bottle

3. design it like a rocket ship with lots of decorations

4. use cardboard to make a funnel shape at the end of the bottle and glue it

5. place a mento or two in the funnel make sure they fall after you place the rocket on the bottle

6. take the top off the coke bottle and put the rocket on the coke bottle

7. shake the rocket to release the mentos so they fall in the coke the coke will spuw up and the rocket will fly up (make sure you do this outside)

or

* What is the difference in salinity between salt water and fresh water aquatic environments?

* How salty are estuaries?

* How can salinity be measured?

Materials and Equipment

* 12 oz. glass canning jars with lids

* cookie sheet

* oven

* metric measuring cup

* metric scale

1. You will be collecting several samples from different locations and making measurements during this experiment. You will want to make a data table to write down and organize your data:

# Collect samples of water from several sites that you think will have different salinities. Choose some freshwater sites (lakes, rivers, streams, springs, etc.) and some marine sites (beaches, marinas, bays, estuaries, etc.) for your study. Write the locations in your data table.

# Collect each sample by filling a canning jar with the water at the site and securing the lid. Then write the date, time, and place that you collected your sample on the jar with a permanent marker.

# After you collect your samples, each jar should be full to the brim with water and sealed tightly. If they are not full, you will need to remove some water from a few of the jars until the water level for all of the jars is the same.

# Take a new, empty jar and weigh the jar with your metric scale in grams. Write the weight in grams in your data table.

# In the new empty jar, fill the jar with distilled water to the same level as the other jars. Then measure the amount of water in liters (L) by pouring it into a large, metric liquid measuring bowl. Write this measurement down in your data table. It will be the total volume of liquid you collected from each site. Then re-fill the jar and use it as your negative control.

# Arrange all of your jars on a cookie sheet and carefully place them in a sunny location. Carefully remove the lids and leave them there for several weeks to evaporate. If you have your parents help, you can also bake the jars in the oven at a very low temperature (200oF) until the water has evaporated. This will take a few hours.

# After the jars have dried completely, weigh each jar in grams, and write the weight in grams in the data table.

# Subtract the weight of the empty jar (step 5) from the final weight of each jar you filled with a water sample. This is the amount of salt that was present in that water sample.

# Now divide the amount of salt in grams by the amount of water in liters, and this will give you the salinity, or concentration of salt, of the sample measured in grams per liter (g/L).

# Make a bar graph of your data to compare the salinity of each water sample. Make a scale on the left side of the graph (y-axis) representing the different ranges of salinity from your study. Then draw a bar for each sample up to the corresponding salinity level. Which samples had the most salt? Which had the least?

or

# a colorful spice, tea, plant, fruit or vegetable

(good sources include, but are not limited to: blueberries, cranberries, beets, yellow onion, red onion, tumeric, black tea, coffee)

# saucepan

# stove

# water

# strainer

# coffee filters

# jar

# drinking straws

# cotton cording 1/2 inch diameter (found at fabric or hobby store)

# small piece of clay

1. Pick out a plant source to extract your dye from. Good candidates are: blueberries, cranberries, beets, yellow onion, red onion, tumeric powder, black tea, coffee, etc.

2. If your plant source is large, you will need to finely chop it into little pieces. If the color is concentrated into the skin, like apples for example, you may want to peel the skin off and use only the skin.

3. Add the plant material to your saucepan and add water just enough to cover.

4. Bring to a boil and simmer covered on the stove for approximately 10–15 minutes. The pigment from the plant material will slowly begin to color the water in your saucepan.

5. If the color of your water is too faint, you may want to concentrate the color by removing the lid of the saucepan and boiling until enough liquid has evaporated, leaving behind a darker liquid.

6. When the color of the water is rich in color, remove the saucepan from the heat and allow the dye to cool.

7. Now that you have your homemade dye, you will want to compare it to a dye from a similar color of water-soluble marker.

8. Cut strips of coffee filter (or of filter paper from a scientific supply company) into 1 inch wide and 10 inch long pieces.

9. Poke a hole in the top of the filter strip, and push a straw through the hole.

10. Use the straw to hang your filter strip into a glass jar, so that just the bottom part of the filter strip touches the bottom of the jar. Trim the strip if necessary.

11. Now remove your filter strip, and place about 1 inch of water into the bottom of the jar.

12. At the bottom of your filter strip, place a spot of your dye 2 inches from the bottom of the strip.

13. Allow the spot to dry. If after drying the spot is too faint, you will need to repeat steps 12 and 13 to make your spot darker.

14. Make a similar filter strip with a spot of your water-soluble marker 2 inches from the bottom.

15. When the spots are dry, hang the strips in your chromatography chamber, the level of the water should be below the spots of color, and the spots of color should both be 2 inches above the bottom of the jar.

16. Now watch as the water moves up the filter strip, what happens?

17. When the water reaches the top of your strip, and you can see that the colors have separated, remove your strips from the jar and allow the strips to dry.

18. Lay your strips side by side to compare the color components. Make a drawing of each strip, what do you notice? Make a list of similarities and differences.

19. Now you are ready to make your dye into a marker. First, you will need to get a 1/2 inch diameter cotton cording and a drinking straw.

20. Cut a piece of cording that is 1/2 inch longer than your straw.

21. Place the piece of cording into a cup and add your dye, soak the cord in the dye.

22. Now thread the wet piece of cording through your drinking straw. Watch out, this will be messy!

23. Take one end of the straw and plug with a small piece of clay.

24. Let the cotton cording hang out of the other end of the straw, this will be the end you will use to write with.

25. Now you are ready to write a message or draw a picture with your new homemade marker!

GOOD LUCK

Do you like to grow things? Maybe you can try growing a plant under different conditions (with a lot of water, a little water, some water – or maybe with more sun, a little sun, some sun – and so on).

Or try experiments with different colors of water (using food coloring so the ingredients are all the same). Maybe one color of water evaporates faster, or another color of water attracts more bugs, or something?

make a rainbow w a bowl of water n a mirror?