Recommended for elementary school students' independent research! Experiment and observation ideas using everyday materials
Recommended for elementary school students who haven’t decided on a summer vacation independent research project yet! Choosing a topic can be tough, but in this article we introduce exciting ideas that will make you feel thrilled just reading them—from factory tours at candy makers to gemstone polishing, and even a DIY telescope you can build with materials you have at home! You’ll also find plenty of ideas you’ll want to tell someone about, like a curious experiment to check your ear age and a project to make water that’s both hard and soft.
You’re sure to find tips for independent research that use familiar items and are fun to try!
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Recommended for elementary school students’ independent research! Experiment and observation ideas using familiar materials (41–50)
Haiku Challenge
Learn from haiku masters! Here are some ideas for trying your hand at haiku.
The three great haiku poets of the Edo period include Kobayashi Issa, Matsuo Basho, and Yosa Buson.
A haijin is someone who composes haiku, and many haijin are active today as well! Why not try writing haiku while keeping in mind the key points taught by haiku masters? Everyone starts with no experience.
If you give it a try, you might discover a sense of excitement.
Go ahead and give it a shot!
Recommended for elementary school students’ independent research! Experiment and observation ideas using familiar materials (51–60)
Stargazing with a handmade telescope
How about doing astronomical observation with a telescope and turning it into an independent research project? You might think it sounds a bit dull, but here’s the twist: why not make the telescope yourself? The amazing part is that you can build it using materials like cylindrical empty snack boxes, black construction paper, reading glasses, a magnifying glass, black vinyl tape, and other items from the trash or a 100-yen shop.
Use your original, handmade telescope to observe the Moon and stars.
It would be great if a lunar eclipse or a meteor shower coincides with summer vacation for an extra celestial show!
Let’s catch a cicada and try feeding it!
Speaking of summer, you hear cicadas, right? This study involves catching cicadas and trying to feed them sugar water.
There are many species like the large brown cicada (Aburazemi) and the Minmin cicada (Minminzemi), so let’s look up their names and summarize the differences in their calls! Will they eat the food properly? Do they have a preferred type of food?
Observation of cicada eclosion
When you think of summer, you think of cicadas.
You can see them everywhere in the summer, but the way they are born and become adults is full of the mysteries of life, making them a wonderful subject to observe.
The moment they emerge from the nymph into an adult is especially remarkable.
They basically molt in the early morning, so it’s hard to witness it in everyday life.
I was a bug-catching kid myself, and seeing it back then moved me deeply.
How about observing them with your family during summer vacation?
Let’s take out the salt.
If you’re planning to go to the beach with your family during summer vacation, why not take the opportunity to try a science project like this? You can bring seawater home and use a stove to evaporate it to extract salt.
Since it involves using fire, be careful not to get burned.
Factory Tour Report
Wouldn’t it be great to visit a place you don’t normally get to go and have it help with your independent research project? With that in mind, here’s an idea: a factory tour report.
Start by looking into factory tours that interest you.
Even among factories that make well-known snacks and ice cream, there are several you can visit.
You could observe the production process and write it up, dig deeper into the secrets behind the delicious taste, or even try making something yourself by imitating what you saw.
Many factories also have hands-on activity areas, so you can make use of those as well.
Insect collecting
A classic summer activity for kids! This is an independent research project where you actually collect and examine what kinds of creatures live in places like forests, fields, and rivers.
You can have fun interacting with the animals.
It’s also a good idea to set out bait you made yourself in the forest, wait a while, and then check what kinds of insects gather.
If you go to the forest at night, be sure to go with an adult!