Physical Science & Chemistry Projects

Question: How Much Oxygen is in Our Air?

The air around you is made up of about 21 percent oxygen. This science experiment will show you how to discover the amount of oxygen for yourself by analyzing a chemical reaction between oxygen and rust. 

Materials Needed:

(Any of The Materials Highlighted in Blue are Clickable Links for Purchasing)

Package of fine steel wool (available at hardware stores)

Wide, shallow bowl or dish

Water

Food Coloring

Rubber Gloves

Glass jar

White vinegar

Four test tubes

Permanent marker

Procedure:

1. Fill the glass jar with equal parts Vinegar and Water
2. Put the package of steel wool in the glass jar, and leave it there overnight to soak. This will form iron oxide (rust) on the steel wool.
3. Pour an inch of water into the shallow bowl/dish. Add two drops of food coloring to the water.
4. Wearing gloves, pull a few strands of the steel wool from the rusted piece, and roll them together to make a tiny ball. Repeat this procedure two more times so you have three tiny balls. The balls should be slightly wider than the test tubes.
5. Use a pencil to push one ball all the way to the bottom of one of the test tubes, one ball three quarters of the way to the bottom of a second test tube, and one ball halfway to the bottom of a third test tube.
6. Make a paper ball the same size as the balls of steel wool, and push it to the bottom of a fourth tube.
7. Put the four tubes upside down in a row in the shallow dish of prepared water. Leave the tubes there for 24 hours.
8. Now mark the water level on each tube. Notice the difference in water level. The tube with the paper in it should not have risen. Now measure the length of each tube, pretend that the bottom of the steel ball is the highest point of the tube. Write both of these measurements into a table, like the one below.
9. Fill in the fourth column of the table by dividing the amount the water moved up by the length of the test tube. Remember that the water that rose into the test tube was actually replacing the oxygen that reacted with the rusty steel wool. The percentage for all three tubes should be the same, since it is the same as the amount of oxygen in the air, 21% give or take.

Question: Can You Measure Surface Tension of Water With a Penny?

Did you know that even though water is a liquid, it isn't always able to get into little cracks and crevices? So how do clothes go from caked with mud to clean? How can dishes go from greasy to glistening? With a few simple household items, you can find out!

Materials Needed:

(Any of The Materials Highlighted in Blue are Clickable Links for Purchasing)

Tap Water

Dish Soap

Drinking Glasses

Spoon

Dropping Pipet

Penny

Paper Towel

Lab Notebook

Project Procedure:

1. Create a table in your lab notebook like the one below.

2. Fill a glass with tap water

3. Fill a second glass with tap water. Add a few drops of dish soap and mix gently with a spoon

4. Use the bulb on the Pipet to suck some of the plain tap water into the Pipet

5. Place your penny on a flat level surface 

6. Use the Pipet to drop one drop of water onto the center of the penny

7. Continue slowly adding drops until the bubble of water on the penny bursts and spills over the edges.

8. Make sure and record the number of drops it took before the bubble burst

9. Dry off the penny and repeat steps 5-7 twice. Record the number of drops in the table each time

10. Repeat steps 4-7 with soapy water. Again, be sure to record your data in the table

11. Calculate the average drops it took for each of the two kinds of water

12. Based on the number of drops for each attempt, do you think adding soap increased or decreased the surface tension of the water?

Question: Will adding glycerin or corn syrup help your homemade bubble solution work better?

Summary: Making your own bubble solution is fun, but sometimes the bubbles don't seem to work as well as the solutions you buy in the store. In this experiment you can test if adding corn syrup or glycerin to your bubble solution will make it just as good as the stuff you can buy. This experiment will have you blowing bubbles!

Looking for a kit with everything you need to complete this experiment? Click Here!

Materials Needed:

(Any of The Materials Highlighted in Blue are Clickable Links for Purchasing)

3 Glass Jars

Graduated Cylinder (for measuring liquid)

Distilled Water

Liquid Dishwashing Soap

Glycerin

Light Corn Syrup

Pipe Cleaners

Permanent Marker

Stopwatch

Project Procedure:

 1. Use the table below to make 3 separate bubble solutions in the Mason Jars, label these according to their ingredients. 

2. Now make a pipe cleaner wand for each solution. Pinch a pipe cleaner in the middle and give it a kink. Bend one half of the pipe cleaner into a circle and twist together at the center. Repeat with the other two pipe cleaners, and make sure that all 3 wands are approximately the same size.

3. Go outside and test your bubble solutions. Blow a bubble and catch it on your wand. Immediately start the stopwatch and time how long the bubble lasts. This will take some practice, so try it out on some extra solution before you start!

4. Repeat the experiment as many times as possible for each solution.

5. Record your data in a data table like this one: