Ed Tech Ideas

Science fairs have been going on for quite some time now. I still remember making a working electromagnetic telegraph with my dad in his garage when I was just a lad, strolling into my school gymnasium with my 3-fold poster-board tucked proudly under my arm, and knowing without a doubt that I’d be walking away with that 1st prize blue ribbon (until I saw Scott Johnson’s 5-foot tall tornado simulator).

If your school is planning on having a science fair, or if your students are simply interested in learning more by doing, here’s a list of great science fair resources to get you experimenting.

Discovery Science Fair Central

Easy to search using the Idea Finder, Discovery’s Science Fair Central has hundreds of resources and projects to get young scientists motivate and focused. The interactive Display Board help section is a must-see.

Science Fairs

This site has been around since 1995 and is designed to aid students in the most difficult aspect of their science fair experience; getting an idea.

Science Buddies

Great resource for idea finding divided into topics. There’s also a Topic Selection Wizard that guides you through a series of questions to help students narrow down their selection based on their likes and interests. After going through the wizard, there are follow-up resources to get students moving in the right direction.

Science Fair Adventure

Fantastic resource with comprehensive listings that feature science fair projects across several distinct categories, including chemistry, physics, biology, and many more. Each project is listed in an easy to follow manner with step-by-step instructions on how to carry out the project.

Science Bob

Fun site – Science Bob has a lot of activities and experiments for students to try out.

All Science Fair Projects

Nice resource with different ways to search for science fair ideas. Probably the most useful is the Browse section which allows students to find ideas in 10 different categories.

100 Cool Science Experiments

Kids love watching videos and this site has (as the title suggests) has 100 great videos all about science experiments!

Parents Guide to Science Fairs

We’ve all seen it – the amazing exact replication of a nuclear reactor with flashing lights, sounds, and real smoke. The projects that didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that they were created by, well, a rocket scientist. This site helps parents define their roles in helping their child with his or her science fair project.

PBS Science Fair

PBS has a nice spin on science fair idea generating. Students click on a spinner and new topics appear with a link that takes them to more information about the topic that they chose. There’s even videos of the project in action!

Happy experimenting!