Stem Projects And Ideas for Middle School

 

Most of the previous posts submitted to this website have dealt with the internet and how it can benefit us in many ways.

This entry however focuses on the STEM projects.

Looking for some fun and exciting science projects to present at a science fair? Or maybe your looking to keep your STEM skills sharp over break. Whatever your reason these science projects are perfect for any middle school student looking for a bit of fun, active learning!

2 Fun Science Projects Guaranteed Perfect for Middle Schoolers

 

1. Purify Water with the Power of the Sun

Science isn’t just something teachers force you to read about everyday. Here’s a really practical science experiment that could save your life one day.

According to the United States Geological Survey, about 71 percent of the world is covered by water. Unfortunately for us humans nearly 97 percent of that water is salt water in the ocean and therefore not drinkable. Or is it? After your done building your very own solar still you’ll be able to drink from the saltiest sea.

First let’s grab a couple things from the kitchen. It’s probably a good idea to ask your family if you can borrow them first. Here’s what you’ll need to grab:

• A very wide glass or clear plastic bowl
• A glass that’s smaller than the bowl
• Some plastic wrap
• Rubber band or string big enough to fit around bowl
• Stone or something heavy like it
• Salt
• Water
• A sunny place to put bowl

Now that you have all the ingredients for your experiment let’s get down to business!

1. Take your water–it can be tap water from the sink–and your salt and mix them together. Make sure it’s good and salty!
2. Pour your salt water
3. Place your cup in the middle of the bowl. Make sure the top of the cup is higher than the water, but not higher than the top of the bowl. If necessary you can pour some of the water out.
4. Take your plastic wrap and place it over the bowl. Pull it tight! Secure it using your string or rubber band to create a solid seal.
5. Put your stone or heavy object on top of the plastic wrap right above your cup.
6. Gently place your contraption in a place that will get plenty of sunshine for the next hour and a half.
7. Go play or read for an hour and half. When asked be sure to tell people that this is a vital part of your science experiment.
8. After the hour and a half is up go check your solar still. Note the little drops of water on the inside of your plastic wrap. Remove the weighted object and wrap and grab your cup. Is there water in the cup? If there is, then taste it. Is it salty? It shouldn’t be!

So what happened to make the water in your cup drinkable? The simple answer is evaporation and condensation.

The heat from the sun added enough energy to the liquid water to turn it into a gas in a process known as evaporation. When the water turned into a gas, the salt stayed solid and remained suspended in the water that was still liquid. Normally the evaporated water would rise into the sky and then turn into clouds. However, your plastic wrap trapped the water. Instead of condensing into a cloud, your water vapor condensed into water droplets on the plastic wrap. The weighted object forced these tiny droplets to move to the center of the plastic wrap where they formed large drops that fell as fresh water into your cup.And that’s how you got drinkable water out of a bowl of salt water!

2. Play with Your Food While Testing Dish Soaps

 

If you’ve ever scrubbed a particularly dirty dish for several minutes, then you might have wondered just effective your dish soap really is. If you want to test out some dish soaps while making colorful art from milk, then you have some very specific goals…but also this experiment is handmade for you!

Before you can make milk art you are going to need a few supplies:

• 3 Slightly dipped paper plates or shallow bowls
• Whole milk–please note that it must be whole milk!
• Food coloring
• 3 Different types of dish soap
• Q-Tips

Now that you’ve rounded up your supplies–hopefully after you asked an adult if this was ok–you can start the experiment!

1. Set your three shallow bowls out on a flat surface and pour a layer of your whole milk into them.
2. Add a couple drops of food coloring to each bowl. For best results try using a few different colors and space the drops out.
3. Now get out your three different dish soaps and put them next to each bowl.
4. Grab a Q-tip for each dish soap and squeeze a little soap onto the Q-tip.
5. Dip the Q-tip into milk near a colored dot and watch the colors go!
6. Note how quickly and how well each colored dot spreads out and do the same thing for each bowl.

By now you should have three colorful bowls of whole milk, but what do they tell you about your different dish soaps?

 

Well dish soaps work by breaking down fats. When your plate is covered in grease and fat, the soap is suppose to cut through the mess by breaking down these fats. Since your whole milk contains a lot of fat, the dish soap should break it down and thin out the milk. As the fats break down and the milk thins, the colors spread. Thus the faster and further the colors spread in your bowl the better the dish soap is at doing its job of breaking down fats and cleaning your dishes. Now you know which dish soap really is better!

These two experiments are just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to keep your STEM skills sharp, then get out there and find you next experiment!