Stand out with your junior high school independent research! A collection of fun experiment and craft ideas

Experiment to make butter

Experiment to Make Butter – High School Biology Lab

Butter makes all sorts of foods delicious—spread on bread, melted over baked potatoes, and more.

Did you know it can actually be made with a very simple process? The main steps are to pour chilled heavy cream into a sterilized container and shake it vigorously for 15 minutes.

The liquid will separate and turn into solids—the solid part is unsalted butter.

Mix in salt, and you’ve got butter! Shaking for 15 minutes is surprisingly hard work, so it might be a good idea to do it while watching TV.

Let’s also summarize why butter forms in the first place.

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sasashina

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Research about Japanese tea

[Independent Research] Become a Tea Expert in One Day—Teach Your Teacher, Too!

When time is limited, it’s hard to prepare anything unusual, isn’t it? So here’s something to try: a study of Japanese tea.

You should be able to find tea leaves at nearby stores like supermarkets or shopping malls.

Once you get some, explore how the flavor changes with water temperature and steeping time, and figure out the best way to brew it for the most delicious taste.

Since you’ll probably be brewing a lot of tea, having paper cups on hand will be convenient! You could also look for traditional Japanese sweets that pair well with tea.

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Let’s make a speaker

www2.nhk.or.jp

A speaker is an acoustic device that converts electrical signals into physical vibrations, producing sound.

Some people use speakers to improve the audio when listening to music or watching movies.

In fact, you can make a simple speaker yourself.

Try making one with just three items: a paper cup, a tightly wound coil, and a magnet.

Attach the coil to the bottom of the paper cup.

Connect the ends of the coil to a CD player, and bring the magnet close to the coil.

Then you’ll hear the CD’s music coming from the speaker.

The volume will also change depending on the distance between the magnet and the coil.

It’s an easy device to make, so give it a try!

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Nakajima Junko

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repeating saline solution

Perfect for a summer vacation science project! ~Repeating Saltwater~ [Buntoku High School]

Let’s try a summer break experiment using everyday items like cups and saltwater.

Make a hole in a plastic cup filled with saltwater at your preferred concentration.

Place the saltwater cup inside a larger cup filled with plain water.

You’ll notice something curious: the saltwater will flow out of the hole and then stop, and after a while it will start flowing out again and stop once more.

It could be fun to experiment by changing the salt concentration or the number of holes in the plastic cup.

Just watching this setup is interesting, but there’s also a proper explanation for what’s happening.

Try to think about that answer, too.

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Nakajima Junko

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Piano de Independent Research

Piano de Independent Study / Special Summer Project ②

You can usually find at least one piano in schools, whether in the music room or the gym.

Many people also take piano lessons as an extracurricular activity, or have taken them in the past.

Since the piano is a familiar instrument even for high school students, why not use your summer vacation to put together a project about it? Try listing the questions you have about pianos—such as how many keys they have and how they were introduced to Japan.

As you work on your piano research project, you might be surprised by some unexpected facts.

It could be fun to get creative, too, like summarizing your findings on paper shaped like a piano.

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Nakajima Junko

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An experiment to make natto

Natto-making experiment (fermentation experiment) — high school biology experiment

Many people are likely interested in experiments that use items that appear in our everyday meals.

This time, we’re introducing an experiment to make natto.

Natto, which has been eaten in Japan since ancient times, is said—according to various theories—to have existed as far back as the Yayoi period.

To turn soybeans into natto, you need natto bacteria (Bacillus subtilis var.

natto), and it’s said that straw naturally contains these bacteria.

Prepare steamed soybeans and boiled straw, then place the soybeans sandwiched between the straw.

Natto bacteria are heat-resistant, so boiling the straw is fine.

It’ll be exciting to see after the experiment whether the natto has successfully formed.

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Nakajima Junko

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Programming

Introduction to Scratch Programming for Beginners | Scratch Basics and How to Use It [Even Elementary School Students Can Do It! Create Games and Learn Programming with Scratch]

How about making “programming,” which has been a required subject in elementary schools since 2020, the theme of a free research project? When you hear programming, you might think of memorizing special command code and feel it’s difficult, but there are free tools that even children can learn with easily.

For example, Scratch, which is also popular as teaching material.

It’s free to use, and since you don’t have to type code, it’s fine even if you’re not good at typing.

You can program simply by selecting and stacking blocks that replace code from categories like “Events” and “Motion”! For junior high school students, after creating a program in Scratch, it might be a good idea to research and summarize what actual code would look like.

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