science fair ideas???

[northcanadian]

Hi folks:

My 13 year old granddaughter has to do a science fair project.  We are raising her and she has been with me since she was a tot on many stargazing expeditions, so she wants to do an astronomy project (including some images) We like the idea of balloons dotted with felt tip pens to illustrate the expansion of the universe as people blow them up. Also we were thinking of a small scale solar system....painted styrofoam balls on a taught string to show distances of planets from the sun. I'm hoping some SGL members may have suggestions also(?)

Thank you

Cheers

Roger

[RichM63]

What a great thing to do with her.

For an idea, hows about also a graphic explanation of how East and West seem to be reversed when looking heavenwards, terrestrial maps and star charts. A big N,E,S,W on the ground overlaid with a card N,E,S,W that classmates can then pick up and note that when facing N on the ground then when they raise it to the sky they have to turn around so that N is behind them and thus E/W are reversed. (might be too esoteric, but is certainly a question that arises)

or,

Using a Crescent Moon to find South by following an imaginary line from the tips down to the horizon, which will then lead to other directions N, E, W.

Cheers,

Rich

[jamespels]

Quite a good one can be a scale model with info panels about each object. Most people are amazed how big the sun needs to be for Earth to be any more than a dot.

Take the sun up to the size of a football and you can possibly involve the community by showing Jupiter by the corner shop, Neptune by the Green Man and so on. This would work well with your Styrofoam balls. Any imagery of your own to illustrate what the planets look like on the info panels would help.

[jamespels]

You can even get clever and use a prominent feature as Earth's location and arrange the other planets and the Sun according to where they will be at a certain time that night.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Nice ideas. If she wants to take some images a simple but effective demonstration might be to show some DSOs and their relative apparent size compared to the Moon. Most people are surprised to find there are bigger things up there, could be quite memorable.

[pete_l]

How about a demonstration of how the Sun apparently goes around the Earth from sunrise to sunset - and how the path varies according to the time of year. You (or she) could illustrate that during the winter, the Sun rises and sets more towards the south and that's why the days are shorter.

As an encore, it could also show how the effect varies with latitude and therefore why equatorial countries have a smaller difference between summer/winter day lengths that more northern places, like northern Saskatchewan.

[bomberbaz]

Great idea and very commendable. Dont know if video is allowed but if not, the idea can be used maybe using the styrofoam ball idea. Showing a size from our earth to the largest known star in the universe. (might have to go sun to largest because of the immense size differences, not sure without looking into it fully) Anyhow make different sized balls to give people an idea of the grand size of things out there, dimensions will be available on the net somewhere, thats your job should you choose to go along with it Grandpa 

Anyway, video link below that gives the general idea.

hope it goes ok

Steve

[Qualia]

Something that not everyone seems to be aware of is the fact that we are all made of star dust and so is everything around us. A little project on this might be a bit of an eye opener, if not least for the teacher

It needn't be a complicated story at all and in essence, could just be the story of a star like our sun and its planets. The project could include a

, some beautiful pictures of interstellar gas (Orion's), supernovae and planetary nebulae, a simple homemade spectroscope, a few catch phrases, perhaps a very simple explanation of the periodic table, focusing on C.H.O.N which make up most of what we are made of etc. A simple solar system to show how the planets orbit in the same way the gas once did etc and why the rocky ones are nearer the sun and the gaseous planets are further out etc.

When it came to stars death you could just do something like one Hydrogen + another Hydrogen makes Helium. Helium plus another Helium makes Beryllium. Beryllium plus a loose flying Helium makes Carbon and so on. The star explodes when it reaches iron stage that is in your blood, all the planets around the sun will also die. This iron crashes together to make new heavier elements and as the universe continues to expand (using your balloon), all those heavy and light elements get together and eventually create a classroom with people just like the one you're in. In short, it's amazing to think what Hydrogen can do given some 13,000 million years

[Mick J]

Hi folks:

 Also we were thinking of a small scale solar system....painted styrofoam balls on a taught string to show distances of planets from the sun. 

Thank you

Cheers

Roger

Quite a good one can be a scale model with info panels about each object. Most people are amazed how big the sun needs to be for Earth to be any more than a dot.

Take the sun up to the size of a football and you can possibly involve the community by showing Jupiter by the corner shop, Neptune by the Green Man and so on. This would work well with your Styrofoam balls. Any imagery of your own to illustrate what the planets look like on the info panels would help.

Always awed when I come across these distances,  just for interest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Space_Walk  may put sizes/distance into perspective.