On this page you will find a whole range of different science projects you can have a go at. Remember that when we do a science experiment we must ensure that we first think about safety, how am I going to make sure that I don't hurt myself or anybody else? Next we must think about how we are going to plan our investigation and write up what we find out. A good way of doing this is following the plan below:

1. Title - Give your experiment a title, what are you going to try and find out? What question are we asking?

2. Variables - What are you going to change? What are you going to measure? And how are you going to make your test fair? Think about the equipment you are using to help you plan this.

3. Risk Assessment - This is the most important part of your plan, what could go wrong and how can I stop this happening? Think about all the different things you need to make sure you do safely.

4. Prediction - Before you start you must make a guess at what you think you will find out, try to explain why you think this too! (e.g. I think ... because...)

5. Method - These are your instructions, how are you going to do it? These should be numbered (e.g. 1. First I will…) You could also draw a diagram here to show what you are doing, remember to add labels.

6. Results table - You need to place your results in a table, how will you measure how shiny each penny is? (E.g. you could rank them from shiniest to dullest and get someone else to do so too?)

7. Graph - Time to draw a graph, will a bar chart or line graph be best? Put the dependent (what you are measuring) on the y-axis (vertical) and the independent (what you are changing) on the x-axis (horizontal).

8. Conclusion - What have you found out? Does this match your prediction? Why do you think this is? What could you do to improve this experiment?

How are video games made?

Watch the video and then have a go at answering the following questions (https://mysteryscience.com/mini-lessons/video-games?loc=mini-lesson-button#slide-id-10590, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGGMmguIZD0)

1. How are video games made? Write a few sentences to explain how they are made and what some of the difficulties that are needed to be overcome.

2. What did this lesson make you curious about? What other questions do you have about video games?

3. Suppose you want to make a video game. Most video games are made by a team, but you can get started by yourself. Think about what the player will do in the game. Will they explore a strange world? Will they solve puzzles? Think about what the player will see on screen. How will the game change when the player moves to a new level? How can a player win the game? Draw or write about your ideas. What will you call your video game?

How do polar animals survive the cold?

It's getting pretty cold, I don't know if you have noticed but I definitely have. When I cycle into school my fingers go all red and I don't like it. When going out for a walk I keep thinking to myself, 'I've gotta get myself a warmer coat, it's freezing!' That made me start thinking about polar animals, it's pretty cold there and not just during winter, all the time! I don't know about you but I've never seen a penguin in a bobble hat either, so how do they stay warm? Well today that is exactly what we are going to find out.

1. Follow the link to the video and write down all the different ways which polar animals keep themselves warm.(https://mysteryscience.com/mini-lessons/polar-animals)

2. Back to my coat problem, I want a warmer coat, have a think of how you could investigate which material will keep you the warmest. You should design this experiment remembering to plan it using all the sections.

3. Those polar animals had some pretty clever adaptations to help them stay warm, design a coat which uses ideas from the polar animals to keep you warm. You should draw a labelled diagram to help you show your design and have some information written underneath to show why it would keep you so cosy.

Do masks stop coronavirus?

1. Watch the video and write down how you think masks stop coronavirus spreading. (https://mysteryscience.com/mini-lessons/masks-stop-coronavirus?loc=mini-lesson-link#slide-id-10534)

2. Watch the video which discusses your answer and tick of any reasons that you wrote down. (https://mysteryscience.com/mini-lessons/masks-stop-coronavirus?loc=mini-lesson-link#slide-id-10543)

3. Design an experiment that shows which type of mask is best. In your design you should have the sections you find at the top of this page.

4. Now that you have planned your experiment see if you can try it out, once you have written down your results draw bar chart to show these results and make a conclusion. Think, what could you do to improve this investigation if you did it again?

Extension Activity: Masks help protect us from germs. But sometimes the straps can hurt your ears or the mask can fall under your nose. Sometimes you can even smell your own stinky breath! Can you create a better mask? Think like an inventor! What could you do to make masks more comfortable? Can you add something to the mask? Change what it’s made of? Describe or draw your new and improved mask!

Does exercise affect breathing rate?

When you exercise it requires energy, but where does that energy come from? Your body needs two things to make this energy, the first is obviously food which has glucose inside it. The second is oxygen that you find in the air. The glucose and the oxygen react together to make water, carbon dioxide, and ENERGY! When you exercise your body starts to burn up the glucose from your food that it has stored which is why lots of exercise can make you lose weight, it also needs lots of oxygen though which means you will need to breath faster.

Using a scientific method I would like you to design an experiment which shows how exercise affects breathing rate. You must include a method, results table, and graph in your write up before writing a conclusion stating what you have found out.

Ext. When you exercise your pulse increases too, why do you think this is?

Why do cats purr?

Many of you will have pets at home, they are all part of the animal kingdom. One of the amazing things about our pets is they are so different from us, when I was little I had a pet snake called Sid and I loved seeing how good he was at climbing and then studying to find out how he could move so well without havnig any legs. Did you know snakes have tails? They are not just a head with a tail but instead they have a whole body, but when they are developing in the egg (70%) or in their mother (30%) their body tells their legs to stop growing! There are lots of amazing things about every pet, from a goldfish to a parrot to a dog. This week I would like you to make a leaflet all about cats, I want you to think about why they are like they are and use books and the internet to research this. Your leaflet must answer the following three questions:

1. Why do cats purr?

2. Why do cats have rough tongues?

3. Why do cats have retractable claws?

You can use this link to help you get started, it takes you to a video all about why cats purr.

https://mysteryscience.com/mini-lessons/cats-purr?loc=mini-lesson-button#slide-id-5724

Alternatively you can make a leaflet about your pet at home, please research three science questions about that animal, remember to add pictures, lots of colour and make it easy to read.

Is there anybody out there?

Earth is unique in the universe, it is the only planet which has life! Earth is teeming with it, there are almost 9 million different types of living creatures on earth making almost one trillion in total, that a 1 with 12 zeros on the end (1,000,000,000,000 ). It would take you thirty two thousand years to count to a trillion if you were counting one number a second, it's a very big number. But lots of scientists ask the question, is there anybody else out there? The universe is so big, could there be life anywhere else? The answer is probably no, Earth is so special for so many reasons, and if any of them were slightly off life couldn't exist here.

Your project this week is a little bit of a different one and it's a bit weird but I want you to have a go. If life did exist somewhere else int his solar system which planet or moon would it be on? I want you to make a fact file for each planet and at the end choose one planet in our Solar System that you think you could find life on and why.

The planets and moons you can choose from are:

Mercury

Venus

The Moon

Mars

Jupiter (or one of its moons)

Saturn (or one of its moons)

Uranus (or one of its moons)

Neptune (or one of its moons)

Pluto

To start you off check out this video on why Mars is red:

https://mysteryscience.com/mini-lessons/red-mars?loc=mini-lesson-button#slide-id-5363

Apple Oxidation

When you leave slices of apple on the side what happens to it? They start to go brown over time. This is called oxidation, it is called this because it is the oxygen in the air that reacts with the apple turning it brown. In this experiment you will test different solutions to find how well they stop apple slices from browning, this is especially useful in pre-sliced apple packets you may get in McDonald's or the supermarket.

You will need:

• An apple

• 6 cups

• 6 solutions

(e.g. Water, Salt water, Sugar water, Lemon juice, Lemonade, Coca-Cola, Apple Juice, Orange Juice, Honey water, Milk.)

• A plate

Method:

1. Before you start you must make a prediction, which solution do you think will stop the apple being oxidised the longest? Which one do you think will help the least? Why do you think this?

2. Prepare and pour each liquid into its own cup. Be sure to label the liquids and use the same amount of each.

3. Slice an apple into small pieces and immediately place one apple piece into each liquid. Make sure the liquid is covering the white part of the apple. Leave one piece of apple out of the liquid as the control variable.

4. After 3 minutes, remove the apples from the liquid and place them on a platter. Record your observations.

5. Repeat your readings every 3 minutes for 15 minutes, observe the apples each time and record any new observations.

6. Write a conclusion, what have you found out and what would you do differently if you repeated this experiment.

Out with the mould and in with the new...
if you pardon the bun.

Moulds are microscopic fungi that live on plant or animal matter, they grow from tiny spores that float around in the air. Moulds grow particularly well on food and so this week our experiment is to test the importance of washing your hands using bread.

You will need:

• 6 sealable sandwich bags

• 6 slices of bread

• A marker pen

Method:

1. Before you start you must make a prediction, which slice of bread will grow the most mould and which one the least?

2. Prepare your bread slices, remember to write on each sandwich bag which slice of bread is going in it:
   a. Place the bread slice in the sandwich bag touching it as little as possible.
   b. Put your hands all over the slice of bread and then place it in the sandwich bag.
   c. Wash your hands with just water and put your hands all over the slice of bread.
   d. Wash your hand with soap and water, and put your hands all over the slice of bread.
   e. Rub the slice of bread over your mobile phone so the phone touches all of the bread.
   f. Run the slice of bread all over the toilet seat and then place it in the sandwich bag.

3. Once you have prepared your slices of bread put them all in the same place, such as a dry cupboad.

4. The next day check your slices of bread, leave them in the sandwich bags but write any observations you see.

5. Repeat your observations each day for 7-10 days. Once you have finished write a conclusion, what have you found out and did it match your prediction? What would you do differently if you repeated this experiment?

Solubility

If something can dissolve in water it is called soluble, its solubility is how good it is at dissolving. This week you will be finding out which dissolves best, salt or sugar (we have done this experiment before in school, so I will be giving minimal instructions to you!) If you get stuck you can send me an email for some help.

1. Title - Give your experiment a title, what are you going to try & find out.

2. Variables - Think about your equipment, how are you going to make your test fair?

3. Method - These are your instructions, how are you going to do it? These should be numbered (e.g. 1. First I will…)

4. Prediction - Before you start you must make a guess at what you think you will find out, try to explain why you think this too.

5. Results table - You need to place your results in a table, remember to try each one more than once to make your results reliable.

6. Graph - Make a graph from your results, for this experiment it will be a bar chart.

7. Conclusion - What have you found out? Does this match your prediction? Why do you think this is? What could you do to improve this experiment?

Blobs in a Bottle

Have you ever had a lava lamp? They were big when I was a kid. I have found a way for you to make your own lava lamp without needing to plug it in or it getting hot.

You will need:

• A clean 1 liter clear soda bottle

• 3/4 cup of water

• Vegetable Oil

• Fizzing tablets (such as a Vitamin C tablet)

• Food colouring

Method:

1. Pour the water into the bottle.

2. Use a measuring cup or funnel to slowly pour the vegetable oil into the bottle until it’s almost full. You may have to wait a few minutes for the oil and water separate.

3. Add 10 drops of food coloring to the bottle (we like red, but any color will look great.) The drops will pass through the oil and then mix with the water below.

4. Break a seltzer tablet in half and drop the half tablet into the bottle. Watch it sink to the bottom and let the blobby greatness begin!

5. To keep the effect going, just add another tablet piece. For a true lava lamp effect, shine a flashlight through the bottom of the bottle.

How does this work?

To begin, the oil stays above the water because the oil is lighter than the water or, more specifically, less dense than water. When you added the tablet piece, it sank to the bottom and started dissolving and creating a gas. As the gas bubbles rose, they took some of the colored water with them. When the blob of water reached the top, the gas escaped and down went the water. Cool, huh? By the way, you can store your “Blobs In A Bottle” with the cap on, and then anytime you want to bring it back to life, just add another tablet piece.

Investigation:

Now you know how to make your blobs in a bottle it is time to make it a true experiment, you can try to answer these questions:

1. Does the temperature of the water affect the reaction?

2. Does the size of the bottle affect how many blobs are produced?

3. Does the effect still work if the cap is put on the bottle?

4. Does the size of the tablet pieces affect the number of blobs created?

Ext: Can you explain why you got the answers you did for these questions?