1029 science project ideas, from class 1 to college.

What it shows

A falling magnet induces eddy currents in the copper pipe. By Lenz’s law these currents make a magnetic field that opposes the motion, so the magnet falls far more slowly than a non-magnetic object.

You will need

• A strong neodymium magnet
• A copper or aluminium pipe
• A non-magnetic object of similar size for comparison
• A stopwatch

Safety: Neodymium magnets snap together and can pinch. Keep them away from phones, pacemakers and young children.

Take it further: Time the fall through pipes of different thickness or length.

What it shows

A coin under water looks raised, because light bends as it leaves the water. The refractive index is the real depth divided by the apparent depth, so different liquids give different values.

You will need

• A tall clear glass or beaker
• A coin and a scale
• Water, glycerine and cooking oil
• A travelling microscope in the lab, or pins and careful sighting

What it shows

Piezoelectric discs make a small voltage when they are pressed. Many discs under a tile, with a rectifier and a capacitor, can light LEDs, though the energy from each step is very small.

You will need

• Piezo discs
• Diodes for a bridge rectifier
• A capacitor
• LEDs
• Plywood tiles and foam

What it shows

Falling water pushes on the cups of the wheel and makes it turn. The turning axle winds up a thread and lifts a small weight, so the energy of moving water becomes useful work.

You will need

• Eight plastic bottle caps (free)
• An old CD or a circle of stiff cardboard
• A pencil or a wooden skewer for the axle
• Two empty matchboxes or a small cardboard frame as stands
• About 50 cm of thread and a bottle cap with a few coins as the weight
• Hot glue or strong tape
• A jug of water and a tray

Safety: An adult must use the hot glue gun and make any cuts in the plastic.

Take it further: Fit a second, smaller wheel on the same axle and see whether the weight rises faster or slower when the thread winds on the smaller one.

What it shows

A single fixed pulley does not make a load lighter, but it changes the direction of the pull, so you lift a load up by pulling down. That is why cranes, flagpoles and wells use pulleys.

You will need

• An empty thread spool (free from a tailor)
• A pencil or a skewer to run through the spool
• A cardboard box or two chairs as the frame
• About 1 metre of string
• A small bucket made from a paper cup with a string handle
• Pebbles or coins as the load
• A rubber band to use as a simple force meter

Safety: Keep small pebbles and coins away from young children, and an adult must make the holes for the pencil.

Take it further: Add a second spool that hangs from the string and moves with the load, and show that the rubber band now stretches about half as much.

What it shows

A lever balances when the weight times its distance from the pivot is equal on both sides. One coin far from the middle balances two coins placed half as far away.

You will need

• A 30 cm plastic or wooden ruler
• A pencil, a cotton reel or a bottle cap as the pivot
• Ten identical coins (all one rupee, for example)
• A pencil and a notebook for the table

Take it further: Replace the coins with small objects of unknown weight and use the balance rule to work out how many coins each one weighs.

What it shows

An inclined plane lets you move a load up with less force than lifting it straight, but over a longer distance. The gentler the slope, the smaller the pull needed and the longer the path.

You will need

• A stiff cardboard sheet or a wooden plank about 60 cm long
• A pile of books to raise one end
• A small toy car or a matchbox with a pebble in it
• A rubber band and a paper clip as the force meter
• A ruler and a strip of paper to record the stretch

Take it further: Cover the ramp with a cloth and then with a smooth plastic sheet and see how friction changes the force needed.

What it shows

A shadow forms because light travels in straight lines and cannot bend round an object. Moving the puppet nearer the torch makes its shadow larger and fuzzier; nearer the screen makes it smaller and sharper.

You will need

• A shoebox or any cardboard box (free)
• White butter paper or tracing paper for the screen
• Cardboard for puppets and drinking straws or sticks for handles
• A torch or a mobile phone light
• Scissors, tape and glue

Safety: An adult must cut the window in the box; children cut only the puppets with safety scissors.

Take it further: Use two torches of different colours from two sides and see coloured, overlapping shadows.

What it shows

The shadow of a fixed stick is long in the morning, shortest around midday and long again in the evening, and it swings from west to east as the Sun moves across the sky. Shadow length depends on how high the Sun is.

You will need

• A straight stick or pencil about 30 cm long
• A sheet of chart paper and stones to hold it down
• A marker pen and a ruler
• A clock or a phone to note the time
• A sunny open spot such as a terrace or courtyard

Safety: Never look straight at the Sun, and work in the shade yourself between readings during the hottest hours.

Take it further: Measure the midday shadow once a month for a few months and see how it changes between winter and summer.

What it shows

Sound is made by vibration. A thin, tight or short rubber band vibrates faster and gives a higher note; a thick, loose or long one vibrates slower and gives a lower note. The hollow box makes the sound louder.

You will need

• An empty tissue box or a shoebox with a hole cut in the lid (free)
• Five or six rubber bands of different thickness
• Two pencils to act as bridges
• Tape

Safety: Rubber bands can snap back and sting; pluck gently and keep them away from the face.

Take it further: Use a free phone tuner app to measure the frequency of each band and plot it against the band’s thickness.

What it shows

Tapping a glass bottle makes the glass and the water vibrate, and more water makes the vibration slower and the note lower. Blowing across the top vibrates the air instead, so the bottle with the most water gives the highest note.

You will need

• Six identical glass bottles or glasses
• Water and a jug
• Food colour to make the levels easy to see
• A metal spoon or a pencil to tap with
• A ruler to measure the water height

Safety: Tap glass gently; an adult must clear up if any bottle breaks.

Take it further: Use a free tuner app on a phone to find the frequency of each bottle and plot it against water height.

What it shows

Sound travels through the air as vibrations. A loud sound near a stretched plastic sheet makes the sheet vibrate, and grains of rice on it jump, even though nothing touches the drum.

You will need

• A large steel bowl or a wide-mouthed plastic container
• A piece of cling film or a cut-open plastic bag
• A rubber band to hold the film tight
• A spoonful of uncooked rice or sugar
• A steel plate and a spoon to make a loud sound, or a speaker playing music

Take it further: Put the drum in a sealed box with a thick blanket round it and test whether sound still gets through.

What it shows

The same lump of clay sinks as a ball but floats as a bowl, because the bowl shape pushes aside much more water. Floating depends on the shape and the water displaced, not only on the weight.

You will need

• A lump of modelling clay or plasticine about the size of a lemon
• A tub or bucket of water
• A handful of coins or marbles as cargo
• A ruler
• A towel for spills

Take it further: Float the bowl in salt water and in fresh water and compare how many coins it holds in each.

What it shows

An egg sinks in plain water but floats in salty water. Dissolving salt makes the water denser, so it pushes up harder on the egg. Measuring the salt needed turns a trick into a real experiment.

You will need

• A fresh raw egg
• A tall glass or a clear jar
• Table salt and a teaspoon
• Water
• A spoon for stirring and a notebook

Safety: Wash hands after handling a raw egg, and do not eat the egg after the experiment.

Take it further: Test an old egg and a fresh egg in plain water; an old egg has a bigger air pocket and may float, which is a simple freshness test.

What it shows

A balloon hung inside a sealed bottle will not blow up, because the air already in the bottle has nowhere to go. Make a small hole in the bottle and the balloon inflates easily, proving that air is real and takes up space.

You will need

• Two identical plastic bottles (free)
• Two balloons
• A pin or a hot nail to make a small hole, used by an adult
• Tape

Safety: An adult must make the hole with a heated nail or a drill. Blow gently so the balloon does not pop near your face.

Take it further: Fit a straw through the bottle lid next to the balloon neck and use it as a hand pump to blow the balloon up and let it down.

What it shows

A capped bottle of warm air shrinks and crumples when it is cooled quickly, because the cooled air inside takes up less space and presses less, while the air outside keeps pressing in. It shows that air pressure is a real and strong push.

You will need

• An empty thin plastic water bottle with its cap (free)
• Warm tap water, not boiling
• A bowl of cold water with ice cubes
• A towel and a tray

Safety: Use only warm tap water from the hot tap, never boiling water, and an adult must handle the warm water for younger students.

Take it further: Repeat with an empty aluminium drink can and warm water, and compare how strongly it dents.

What it shows

The time for one swing of a pendulum depends on its length, not on how heavy the bob is or how wide it swings (for small swings). A longer pendulum swings more slowly. Pendulum clocks are built on this rule.

You will need

• About 1.5 metres of strong thread
• A heavy nut, a stone or a bunch of keys as the bob
• A second, heavier bob such as two nuts
• A ruler or measuring tape
• A stopwatch or a phone timer
• A table edge or a doorframe to hang from, and tape

Safety: Hang the bob where it cannot hit anyone, and keep small nuts away from young children.

Take it further: Make the length four times longer and show that the swing time only doubles, which is the square-root rule.

What it shows

Friction is the force that stops things sliding. A rough rubber sole needs the board to be tilted much more steeply before it slides than a smooth plastic sole, so the angle at which an object starts to slide is a simple measure of friction.

You will need

• A wooden plank or a stiff board about 1 metre long
• Three or four shoes or slippers with different soles (rubber, plastic, cloth, leather)
• A pile of books or bricks to raise one end
• A ruler to measure the height of the raised end
• A protractor if available, and a notebook

Safety: Stack the books so the board cannot slip off; an adult should steady a heavy plank.

Take it further: Repeat with the same shoe on different floors: tiles, cement, cloth and a plastic sheet.

What it shows

A movable pulley hanging with the load shares the weight between two lengths of string, so you need only about half the force to lift it, but you must pull twice as much string. Adding pulleys trades distance for force.

You will need

• Two empty thread spools and two pencils or skewers
• A wire coat hanger or a wooden frame to hold the top spool
• About 2 metres of string
• A water bottle half full as the load
• A rubber band or a spring balance to compare the pull
• Two bent paper clips or wire hooks
• A ruler

Safety: An adult must bend the wire hooks, and the load should be lifted only a little way above a soft surface.

Take it further: Add a third spool and work out how many string lengths support the load and what fraction of the effort is now needed.

What it shows

A magnet’s pull passes through paper, cloth, plastic, glass, wood and water, but gets weaker with distance. Only iron, steel and a few other metals block or are pulled by it, and a thick steel sheet shields the pull.

You will need

• A fridge magnet or a bar magnet
• A steel paper clip and a short piece of thread
• Sheets of paper, a cotton cloth, a plastic lid, a glass, a thin wooden board, a steel plate
• A glass of water
• A ruler

Safety: Keep small magnets and paper clips away from very young children, and never put magnets near a phone or a bank card.

Take it further: Make a magnet maze: draw a path on a paper plate and guide the clip along it from underneath with the magnet.

What it shows

Stroking a steel needle with a magnet turns it into a weak magnet. Floated on water so it can turn freely, the needle lines up north to south, because the Earth itself acts like a giant magnet.

You will need

• A steel sewing needle
• A bar magnet or a strong fridge magnet
• A small piece of cork, thermocol or a bottle cap to float the needle on
• A bowl of water
• A compass app on a phone or a real compass, to check

Safety: Needles are sharp; an adult must help young children to handle and push the needle into the cork.

Take it further: Use the compass to draw a map of your school ground, marking which way each building faces.

What it shows

A small compass placed near a bar magnet points along the field at that spot. Joining many such points draws the field lines, which loop from the north pole round to the south pole and crowd together where the field is strongest.

You will need

• A bar magnet
• A small plotting compass (available at stationery shops) or the needle compass from the project above
• A sheet of white paper and a pencil
• Tape to hold the magnet
• A second bar magnet for the extension

Safety: Keep magnets away from phones, cards and small children.

Take it further: Sprinkle iron filings collected with a magnet from sand on a paper over the magnet, and compare the pattern with your compass map.

What it shows

Warm air is lighter than cool air and rises. A paper spiral hung above a warm surface spins as the rising air pushes on its sloping coils, showing convection, the way heat spreads in air and water.

You will need

• A sheet of thin paper or an old magazine page (free)
• Scissors and a pencil
• About 30 cm of thread and a needle or tape
• A cup of hot water, a warm lamp with an ordinary bulb, or a sunny windowsill as the heat source

Safety: An adult must pour the hot water and the spiral must hang well above it; never hang paper over a flame or a gas stove.

Take it further: Hold a thin strip of tissue paper beside a hot cup, then above it, to find which way the air is flowing at different places.

What it shows

A dark surface soaks up most of the sunlight that falls on it and gets hot, while a white or shiny surface reflects most of it and stays cooler. This is why we wear light colours in summer and why solar heaters are painted black.

You will need

• Three identical empty tins or small bottles (free)
• Black paint, white paint and aluminium foil
• Water and a measuring cup
• A thermometer (a digital one from a chemist works well)
• A sunny spot and a clock

Safety: An adult should check the tin edges are not sharp, and the water can get hot enough to be uncomfortable, so handle it with care.

Take it further: Add a tin painted red and one painted blue and find where they sit between black and white.