Stand out with your junior high school independent research! A collection of fun experiment and craft ideas
To all middle schoolers who want to wow teachers and friends with a “That’s awesome!” in your independent research project! There are tons of experiments in science and crafts that lead to surprising discoveries—even with simple materials.
Make a train run with copper wire and a battery, pop a balloon with an orange peel…
The real charm is getting to witness strange phenomena you’d never notice in everyday life with your own eyes.
Here, we’ll introduce fun experiments and crafts that can spark ideas for your project.
Whether you love science or not, you’re sure to find discoveries that make you go, “Aha!”
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Stand Out with Your Junior High School Independent Research! A Collection of Fun Experiment & Craft Ideas (131–140)
Hot Water Engine
Let’s deepen our understanding of the Stirling engine, an engine that operates by using the expansion and contraction of air.
By learning how an engine works, you might also become more interested in cars that use engines.
It’s good to experiment with a commercially available Stirling engine to observe its motion, but building one yourself can also deepen your understanding.
It also seems interesting to learn about its history and the kinds of things it has been used for.
Comparison of tin can telephones made with various materials
Have you ever made a cup-and-string telephone? These days everyone has a cell phone, so you might not need a string phone, but it makes a great experiment for studying how sound is transmitted—so give it a try.
This time, instead of just making a string phone, we’ll run an experiment by swapping the connecting string for various materials and observing the differences.
It’s really interesting how the sound changes depending on the thickness and material.
It’s also a good idea to investigate why the way it sounds changes.
Researching vaccines
In English, “ワクチン” is written as “vaccine.” The spelling can be a bit hard for Japanese speakers to remember.
Vaccines have undergone various developments to address viral infections that so-called “antibiotics,” which are thought of as cure-alls, cannot handle effectively.
For an independent research project, it would be good to investigate their history, key contributors, and country-specific approaches to notable vaccines.
You could also examine the progress of COVID-19 vaccine development—still ongoing—by consulting pharmaceutical companies’ websites, among other sources.
It might become an independent study that really resonates in our times!
Try making a video
How about making video production your independent research project? Video creation really makes you think: How many seconds should this cut be on screen? Is this the right display time for the subtitle? What structure will best catch the viewer’s eye? Gaining experience in creating with the audience in mind is incredibly valuable and transferable to many other areas.
These days, you can easily produce videos with just a smartphone, so it might be a very approachable topic to tackle.
Handmade Robot
Handmade robots that let you express originality depending on your ideas are also a classic choice.
Even when we say “robot,” the finished creation can vary greatly depending on the theme.
For example, you could make a robot that can run like an RC car, or you could build a practical robot that does cleaning.
And even for cleaning robots, there are many variations to consider, such as one equipped with a vacuum or one that drives a brush.
Be sure to come up with a robot that’s uniquely your own.
Let’s look into old textbooks.
The textbook we use in our regular classes has undergone multiple revisions to reach its current form.
Let’s research the pre-revision version of the textbook, or even older editions, and explore the differences.
A smooth way to start is by checking whether older textbooks are available at libraries or local history archives.
Binchotan charcoal battery
This is an experiment to turn binchotan charcoal into a battery and confirm that electricity is being generated.
Wrap the binchotan in tissue paper, pour salt water over it, and then wrap it with aluminum foil, leaving a little bit of the charcoal exposed—your battery is complete.
Once it’s done, connect it to a small light bulb or a sound-making device to check whether electricity is being produced.
Many people may wonder why binchotan turns into a battery through this process, so studying the reason will deepen your scientific knowledge.
It also sounds interesting to learn about other things that can be turned into batteries and about substances that conduct electricity.