Notice in Newsletter

I figure there are a lot of parents who are just starting their projects, and may be coming to the blog for the first time in response to the notice in the newsletter.

For your information, the categories on the left will take you to information about the rules, how-to tips to help your child with their science project, and ideas if your child is still struggling with what to do for a science project.

You can email me at the address in the upper left hand corner, or leave a comment.

Fun With Barometers

Last Spring my son's Cub Scout Den made barometers, much like the ones at this site. There are a lot of experiments that could be done with such a simple barometer:

• How does barometric pressure correlate to weather?
• Can you determine altitude with the barometer? How sensitive is the barometer to change in height?
  
• How do you make the barometer more sensitive? More accurate? Does changing the size or the dimensions of the jar help? What is the best type of membrane? What about using a pure gas instead of air in the barometer? Where is the best place to attach the straw?
• What about repeatability
  
• Can you reliably calibrate the barometer?
• How does the barometer compare with other types of barometer?

Any one of these questions would be the basis for an excellent science project?