Physics Science Fair Projects for High Schoolers
Are you looking to participate in your school’s science fair but are unsure what project to make? Physics projects are a great way to inspire friends and family, demonstrate and develop your academic skills, and even bolster your college applications.
This blog post will cover what exactly a physics science fair project entails, why you should choose to make a physics science fair project, and how you can begin to make your own physics science fair project (along with a few examples to get you started!).
What is a Physics Science Fair Project?
A physics science fair project is a physics-based research project created for a science fair or any other kind of STEM-related event. Physics is the study of matter and how it interacts on a microscopic and macroscopic level, which means a lot of different topics can fall under physics. Students spend time deep diving into a particular physics topic, which can span from the conservation of momentum to electromagnetism, and synthesizing their research into a cohesive and understandable presentation to share with others. Physics science fair projects typically also include an actual demonstration, or demo, of the particular physics concept.
Though the main goal of a physics science fair project is to engage others with physics principles, physics science fair projects can also be helpful towards college admissions. They demonstrate your independent research skills and commitment to pursuing an interest outside of the classroom, so physics science fair projects can help you stand out amongst others.
Advantages of Physics Science Fair Projects
Creating a physics science fair project has various advantages from encouraging others to pursue science, displaying and building your academic skills, and helping you stand out to colleges, among other things! Below, we go into detail about just a few of the many ways a physics science fair project can be beneficial to you.
Inspire Others to Pursue Science
Physics science fair projects can motivate others to learn more about science, and more specifically physics, as well. Physics is often perceived as a difficult, math-based science that deters students from taking physics classes or learning about physics in their free time. By creating a physics science fair project, you can demonstrate your passion for physics and help others understand why they should be passionate about physics as well. Furthermore, you can display real-life applications or fun demonstrations of physics principles to pique students’ curiosity about physics and show others that physics is a fun and exciting topic!
Exhibit and Augment Knowledge and Skills
Physics science fair projects are a great way to exhibit and boost your knowledge about physics. Building a physics science fair project can help you learn more about a physics topic you already know or a completely novel physics topic as well. It takes a lot of research to conceptually understand a physics principle but also be able to explain in accessible language how the principle functions. Moreover, being able to construct a display that demonstrates that principle in real life, thus bridging the conceptual and tangible worlds, takes an even deeper understanding of physics.
You can also display your academic research and communication skills through a physics science fair project. To make a well-informed project that guides others through your project-building process, you’ll likely have to have a compilation of sources that others can use to find more information about your topic. Furthermore, project display is a critical part of creating a physics science fair project as well. Through your project, you’ll demonstrate successful scientific communication skills.
Bolster Your College Applications
Beyond inspiring others and helping develop your own abilities, physics science fair projects can also help you stand out in college applications. Many students might have high GPAs, good standardized test scores, and volunteering hours, but committing to and creating a physics science fair project demonstrates your dedication to learning. This can help you stand out amongst other exemplary candidates. You can even write about the physics science fair project-building process to illustrate what you gained from the experience especially if you really pushed yourself and feel like the project really helped you grow and decide to focus on STEM subjects. Even if you aren’t going to major in a STEM field, you can focus on another skill, like communication, that building a physics science fair project helped improve.
Examples of Physics Science Fair Projects
Now that you’ve learned about what a physics science fair project is and why you should create a physics science fair project, here are some common examples of physics science fair projects you might pursue.
Conservation of Momentum and/or Energy
A popular physics topic is the conservation of momentum and/or energy. Momentum, the mass times the velocity of an object, and energy are always conserved in typical situations. This topic is great for students who are just getting introduced to physics and would like to learn more about some fundamental physics concepts. These kinds of projects are popular because they can be demonstrated in a variety of ways with materials that you can likely find around your house. Projects demonstrating the conservation of momentum and/or energy include:
Building a Newton’s Cradle
Building a marble ball run
Building a catapult
Light and Waves
Another topic you may consider doing a science fair project about is light and waves. This topic has to do with how energy travels through different mediums. Though it might be a little more difficult to find different kinds of lenses, mirrors, and lasers for these kinds of projects, there are definitely ways that you can use household items to create an engaging and interesting project! Common projects regarding light and waves include:
Using a prism to separate light or experiment with refraction
Arrow behind glass reversing demonstration
Electromagnetism
If you really want to challenge yourself, you could choose to do a topic about electromagnetism. Electromagnetism covers how electric and magnetic fields interact with each other. Electromagnetism is a particularly difficult concept because it is less intuitive compared to the conservation of momentum or waves, both of which we typically interact with in everyday life. However, there are many electromagnetism projects that can help you better understand this concept as well as help others understand too:
Building a simple electromagnetic battery motor
Building a magnet using a screw and a battery
Building a homopolar motor
You may also like this blog post on Engineering Science Fair Projects.
How to Start a Physics Science Fair Project
The first step to building a physics science fair project is to narrow down your topic. Choose something that makes you excited about physics, but also make sure that your topic isn’t too broad or complicated! For example, although you might be really interested in electromagnetic radiation, or light, you won’t have enough time to present all of the many aspects of the entire topic in an achievable amount of time! Instead, try focusing on one aspect of light, like how it interacts when it hits different surfaces, or how different kinds of light diffract. Likewise, it would be difficult to demonstrate nuclear decay in a safe setting. Choose a topic that interests you but is also attainable in terms of time, cost, and safety!
Once you’ve settled on a specific physics concept to demonstrate in your project, you can begin researching. You’ll likely find much more information than you can present—remember that your actual presentation will likely only be the tip of the iceberg! You don’t have to try to put all of your knowledge onto the poster or experiment, you just have to demonstrate that you are well-versed in the topic and thoroughly understand how your topic or project works.
It would be a good idea to bring an interactive demonstration of your physics topic to the science fair as well. Being able to engage with physics can have a lasting impact on viewers and can spark curiosity about the principle. Moreover, it can help viewers visualize concepts by relating ideas to tangible observations.
Though completing a physics science fair project may seem daunting at first, they’re a great way to inspire others, challenge yourself to learn more about a topic, and help with college applications. Most importantly, at the end of the day, physics science fair projects are extremely gratifying and can be a lot of fun!
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
