Anyone know of a simple science project for a 7-8 year old?

Question

My sister has 6 kids and she needs ideas for a son to do a science project,but it has to be something kind of simple so he can do it by himself. He doesn't want to do the things we've suggested because his older siblings have done them, but all he can come up with is a leaf display and an ant farm!!!

For those of you wondering he is in school year-round. 8wks on 2 wks off

Great answers. Everyone got a thumbs up, but the beautiful claudiacake got best!!!

Answer 1

Okay, someone already said volcano, but I think this one is a little easier.

What You Need:
6 cups flour
2 cups salt
4 tablespoons cooking oil
warm water
plastic soda bottle
dishwashing detergent
food coloring
vinegar
baking dish or other pan
2 T baking soda

First make the 'cone' of the baking soda volcano. Mix 6 cups flour, 2 cups salt, 4 tablespoons cooking oil, and 2 cups of water. The resulting mixture should be smooth and firm (more water may be added if needed).
Stand the soda bottle in the baking pan and mold the dough around it into a volcano shape. Don't cover the hole or drop dough into it!
Fill the bottle most of the way full with warm water and a bit of red food color (can be done before sculpting if you don't take so long that the water gets cold).
Add 6 drops of detergent to the bottle contents.
Add 2 tablespoons baking soda to the liquid.
Slowly pour vinegar into the bottle. Watch out - eruption time!
Chemistry is Cool :-)

Answer 2

Something that he can do by himself and might be a little fun (if it hasn't been done) is seeing what juice cleans pennies the best. I did the project in the 4th grade and got a ribbon. You use orange juice, lemon juice, grape, and apple. You could add another if you would like. Oh yeah...and some dirty pennies. It doesn't take long and you could come up with a colorful display with picture of fruits to represent the juices. You let the pennies soak in the juice for like a day or two and then compare. I called mine Juicy Lincoln...I thought it was creative. Well I hope you like the idea....Good luck finding something.

Answer 3

there is certainly nothing wrong with a 7 or 8 year old doing a leaf display or an ant farm for a school science project. If those were his ideas, I would let him go with one of those and support him in it. Does he know what the ants are doing? Does he know what they eat? Can he describe the ant farm and what happens in it? Can he name the different leaves on the leaf display? Does he know what the trees look like that the leaves come from? Does he know anything about how the leaves grow or provide for the tree?

Answer 4

Zoom (that kids science show on PBS) has a website with a ton of simple science experiments that are meant for children to be able to do on their own.

The thing I like about that website, in particular, is they post people's comments after each experiment, so that you can see how it worked for 'real' people.

Best of luck!

~Kyanna

Answer 5

We recently picked some flowers in our backyard and put them into a cup of water with some food coloring. By morning the flowers had changed colors. I think you can do the same with a stalk of celery that still has the leaves attached.

Let him catch some bugs in the backyard and observe them and write about them? Take pictures of them and research them at the library or on a website?

He could make a volcano. Not too difficult. Disposable pie plate for the bottom and form up some foil or something over it.
One site on making a volcano -
http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/volcano.html

Super simple science -
http://www.kidzone.ws/science/index.htm

Magic School Bus -
http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/simplescience/archive/index.htm

Zoom -
http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/

Answer 6

Earth's Crust and the Effect of an Earthquake

Get colored clay, (it comes in flat strips)
Layer diff colors, being sure red and blue are in there somewhere, and then brown and green last to represent the different parts of the earth's crust, then cut a slash with a butterknife (mom may need to help with this part) in it to represent an earthquake.

Answer 7

display of constellations -- take shoe box, cut a hole in the side large enough for a wide yeilding flashlight to fit into. cover top with transparency paper, and punch constellations into black construction paper. Put paper on top of transparency paper. put lid on shoebox, cut 4x2 inch viewing hole and display constellations to the class. switch construction paper at will

If he is feeling particularly ambitous he could put the flashlight on the bottom of the box, print the constellations out on the transparency paper (other way around has too little light), and project the constellations onto a wall in a dark room.

hope this helps, good luck!

Answer 8

Maybe you can do which one molds the fastest between bread and cake. He just has to keep an eye on them daily to look for mold. Take a before picture, between picture (1st site of mold) and after picture. Record what happen during the process and go from there. Good luck.
P.S. Remember to keep them in a sandwich bag.

Answer 9

I've got a great one that my nephew did and it was quite easy. "The Affects of Sunlight on Wood and Paint" He got a piece of plywood at the Home Depot and painted it. Then he covered half of the painted wood with another piece of wood to shield it from the sun. They put the wood on the roof and then let it sit there I think 4-6 weeks. When it was over, he wrote a paper on the difference between the exposed and unexposed paint.

Answer 10

A shoebox/posterboard scene of the wild animals/birds native to your area. Types of clouds. A "does it sink or does it float" experiment using all types of different objects - make up a theory sheet of your choice (sink/float) then drop each object in a large bowl of water and record your findings. Use pencils, pennies, erasers, CD's, his favorite action toy, legos, etc. Sometimes they are surprised at what actually sinks and what actually floats!