Science Fair
Science Fair
Students and parents, read this first
Students: everything you need is written down. Read it, do it yourself, and write to us if you get stuck after reading. Tell us what you tried. We answer students.
Parents: read all of it, please. But this is your student's project, not yours. If you call us with their questions and then have them call us back with the same ones, karma is going to come and find you. Hand them the page instead. They are more capable than you think, and the judges can always tell.
Start here
Our complete culturing guide covers what algae is, which strain to pick, what to buy, light, media, how to start a culture, how to measure it, and what to do when something goes wrong. Read it before you design anything.
How to Culture AlgaeWhat makes a good algae project
One thing you change. One thing you measure. Enough repeats that the result means something. Algae is close to ideal for this, because you can run eight identical bottles on a windowsill, change one variable across them, and measure the result with a two dollar Secchi Stick.
Make a parent culture first. Mix one large bottle, then pour it out into your test containers. Every container now starts identical, and you can say so honestly in your write-up. Judges notice.
Projects that work
- Light intensity. Bottles at measured distances from one lamp. Measure Secchi depth daily, plot growth against distance. Produces a real curve.
- Light colour. Coloured filters over identical bottles. Green should do worst, because green is the colour algae reflect instead of absorbing.
- Temperature. Growth climbs, peaks, then falls off a cliff. The cliff is the interesting part.
- Salinity tolerance. A series from fresh to full seawater. Different strains draw the line in different places.
- Toxicology, an LC50. A dilution series of a household substance to find the concentration where half the culture dies. A real laboratory technique. Our Experiment Kit is built for it.
- Is my local water already fertilized? Culture pond or creek water, half with added nutrients and half without. If both grow the same, that water is already carrying all the nutrients it needs, which tells you something real about your neighbourhood.
- Grazing and predator-prey. Algae and brine shrimp in a Beaker Bag. Count shrimp, measure algae, watch the two populations chase each other.
Plan your timeline honestly
- Lag phase runs 1 to 10 days. Nothing visible happens at first. Build that into your schedule and do not panic.
- Give yourself three to four weeks minimum from the day the culture arrives to the day you need results.
- Keep a backup culture. Hold half a litre aside under dim light. If the main one crashes the week before the fair, you restart in an afternoon.
- Write down every measurement with the date. One reading tells you nothing. A column of readings is your whole poster.
Projects that usually fail
Some ideas sound great and do not work in ten weeks on a kitchen counter. Lipid accumulation for biofuel is the usual one. It needs equipment you do not have, and even a professional lab with a half time technician would have a good chance of getting nothing in that window.
Write to us with your plan and we will tell you honestly whether it will work, and suggest something that will. We would rather do that than sell you a kit for a project that disappoints you.