25 Fun Science Fair Project Ideas for Teachers to Share With Their Students

Written by Holly (Teach Starter)

Updated 4 months ago | 4 min read

School science fairs can cause a boom of excitement, but they also cause planning, materials, and, well, mess! For teachers, planning the school science fair can be a lot of work, from planning a list of easy science fair projects to steering students in the right direction to mapping out the components of what makes a good science project. Thankfully, you’re not alone!

Whether you’re getting ready for National Science Week or simply prepping for a regular science fair, the Teach Starter teacher team has been right where you are, Googling like mad for help making the science fair a success for your students.

Good news! We’ve put together some of our favourite science project ideas for kids, suggestions on how to organise a successful science fair and more tips to ignite purpose and possibility in your classroom.

What Makes a Good Science Fair Project?

Before we dive into the best science fair project ideas to list out for students to choose from, it seems wise to take a look at exactly what sorts of science experiments your students should be working on. As you can imagine, the answer to ‘what’s a good science fair project idea’ is going to vary pretty wildly, depending on the year level. Naturally, a science fair project for year 3 won’t be as complex as a science fair project for year 6.

Then we add students (and let’s face it … parents) into the mix, and the definition of ‘good’ can get very muddy very quickly. What makes a good science fair project for you and what makes a good one for students is, well … different! Students are likely to focus on the fun — and fun is a wonderful aspect of science! — but chances are good that you want them to actually learn something through experimentation, right?

Well-meaning parents can also over-complicate the experiments and hurt the learning process — even when they mean to help.

Print a copy of the steps of the scientific method for each student to refer back to, or post it on your classroom wall!

Creating your list of guidelines and science fair ideas will help ensure the science project is appropriate for their year and skill level to ensure students are activating their knowledge rather than getting frustrated with a project well beyond their level.

It’s also helpful to provide a list as it limits students to projects you know are largely safe — ahem, no mixing dangerous chemicals — and allows you to set up parameters that keep the playing field equal among students of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Here are a few criteria our science teachers use for evaluating their students’ science experiments:

A good science fair project should:

Follow the scientific method or use the engineering design process
Be built from a scientific question or a problem that the student intends to solve
Be focused on results or a specific expectation
Be an experiment, not a demonstration

Components of your students’ science fair projects can include:

A project title
A question that the project answers
A hypothesis
A list of materials
An explanation of the experiment — what procedures were done to test the hypothesis?
A reporting of the results
Data analysis such as charts or graphs

Science Fair Project Ideas

This list of school science fair ideas compiled by our Teach Starter teacher team is designed for use in primary school. Some of the science projects challenge students to test their understanding of chemical reactions, others challenge students to use what they have learned about energy while still more focus on working with water discovery. There’s a little something for everyone!

Feel free to pick and choose the science fair project ideas that are right for your classroom!

Evaluate which type of sugar will turn into rock candy fastest — white granulated sugar, light brown sugar or dark brown sugar.
Test various substances to find out ‘what makes ice melt the fastest?’
Evaluate ‘which gum flavor lasts the longest?’
Build an egg drop container out of common household items.
Dissolve marshmallows in different liquids to determine which will work best.
Turn milk into plastic.
Create a plastic bottle submarine that propels underwater.
Test the effect of using different amounts of yeast in baking bread.
Evaluate bacteria growth with a balloon and drinks bottle test.
Poke a stick into a balloon without popping it.
Poke holes into a bottle of water without causing a leak.
Discover which brand of popcorn pops best.
Make a lemon battery.
Power a clock with a potato.
Explore capillary action by making water run uphill with an Archimedes screw.
Bounce balls of different sizes and materials to determine which will bounce the highest.
Use different solutions to determine what can make a gummy bear grow.
Turn a hard-boiled egg into a cube.
Measure the effects of various weights in a floating aluminium foil boat.
Test the effectiveness of sunscreens with a variety of SPF ratings.
Make a tornado in a jar.
Make a snowstorm in a jar.
Make a rain cloud in a jar.
Test ice cream under different conditions to find out which ice cream melts fastest.
Test the endurance of nail varnish against different variables.

Print a set of science lab safety posters for your classroom!

More Science Projects for Students

Looking for science project ideas for students who need a bit of extra help? Students can build from any of the following experiments, making small changes to test a brand-new hypothesis. For example, if they love the naked egg science experiment, a student might replace the vinegar used in the popular science project with other household liquids!