ESM Science Inquiry Project Idea Bank
A. Ideas for questions you can further develop for a project in
the Aquatics Lab:
Develop questions about the interactions between and
behaviors of green crabs:
 Animal size
 Presence of food
 Substrate preference (size, color, depth)
 Food preference
 Light & activity (like feeding)
Snails:
 Food preference?
 How does water level (the tide) affect the periwinkle snail?
 Does “humming” really coax snails out of their shells?
 Does the kind of surface affect how fast a snail can move?
Goldfish:
 Can goldfish recognize shapes?
 Can goldfish hear our footsteps?
Other fish:
 Do cichlids prefer plants or rocky shelters/habitats?
 Breathing rates: what factors affect them?
 Do male bettas react to certain colors or shapes?
Amphibians:
 What is the ideal terrarium substrate for American toads?
 Do tadpoles prefer a certain kind of lettuce?
Brine shrimp (sea monkeys)
 How does pH affect brine shrimp?
 How do certain pollutants affect brine shrimp?
 The effect of light of sea monkeys (color? Amount?)
Aquatic plants:
 How does the amount of light in an aquarium affect algae/plant
growth?
 How does the presence of oil affect aquatic plant growth?
Water (Mrs. Hays can help you with the salt water!)
 Does the sun heat saltwater at the same rate of freshwater?
 How does air temperature affect the rate of evaporation?
 Does salinity affect the freezing point of water?
Using food:
 How do conditions like temperature, light and containers affect
the ripening rate of fruit?
 Does “Total” cereal really have more iron than other cereals?
 What has a longer shelf life: an organic product or non-organic
product?
 5-second rule: Is it really safe to eat something that’s been on
the floor for less than 5 seconds? (Need a microscope- talk to
a teacher)
 How can you keep an avocado (or guacamole) from going
brown?
Using your backyard:
 What kind of seed will attract the most ____(name a kind of
bird)____ to my bird feeder?
Using humans:
 What conditions impact productivity while doing homework (TV,
music)
 How does photo editing effect perception (how we feel about
that picture)?
 Does weather affect mood?
Using stuff around the house/quick trip to the store:
 What is the best way to reduce odor in shoes?
 Does recycled paper biodegrade faster than non-recycled
paper?
 Can crickets really tell us what the temperature is?
 Do crickets prefer the light or dark?
B. Greenhouse Science Fair Projects with Mr.
Cappaert
 Think about useful. Nobody really wants to know if beans grow
better in rich soil or plain sand. We probably know the answer.
A better experiment might be whether the bean grows better
with medium-rich, or super-rich soil. The answer will tell me
how important soil quality is if I want to grow beans.
 Plants need oxygen, CO2, light (sun or artificial), nutrients,
water, space (won’t grow as well if really crowded?), freedom
from pests and disease. They need to be propagated (started
up from seeds or cuttings). These are all variables that can be
changed so that you can see how important they are.
 Things you can measure about plants include height, weight,
number or size of leaves, color of leaves. Root mass or growth
pattern or length. Number or kinds of insects on leaves.
Direction or speed of growth. Size or number of flowers or
fruits.
 Effect of a microbial product on plant growth.
 Can high humidity reduce spider mite infestation? In theory,
yes. You could use petri dishes or small cages or hose spraying
to create different levels of humidity.
 How do millipedes use microhabitats? If you place objects
on the soil in the Vivarium, millipedes of several species will
show up under those objects. Possible questions: 1) do some
species colonize new habitats more quickly? 2) Do organic
objects (like wood) attract more millipedes than inorganic (like
rocks)? 3) How quickly do millipedes colonize new habitats? 4)
How far do millipedes move (you could mark them with paint)?
 Does the bagged (costly) soil we use grow plants better
than ESM soil?
 Fertilizer evaluation. We have a lot of Biotone, an organic
fertilizer. Some science fair projects last year seemed to show
that the fertilizer was actually bad for plants. More data would
help us decide whether to use, or discard Biotone.
 Cutting propagation. Dr. Gina would like to see some trials of
cutting propagation. Anybody can stick a coleus cutting into
water and get it to root. But for some other (more desirable)
plants we have, we need data on variables like moisture level,
growing medium, and plant hormone use.
 Hydroponic growing: You could test a pop bottle growing
system, and compare that to soil growing. You could try several
different nutrient mixes to investigate what works best for plant
growth or flowering. You could study aeration – does it help?
 Mushrooms: I would be glad to order mushroom spawn. And
then to find out which growing medium works best: sawdust,
leaf mulch, coffee, and/or cardboard.
 Seed germination. We have many seed packets. Some are
old. Are they still good? You could see if there is a difference in
germination rate between 2011 and 2013 seeds. It would help
us decide what to keep and what to throw out.
 We have 2 or 3 aphid species. Which of them reproduces
more quickly? Which plants do they grow better on? Which of
them gets parasitized more? How much do they affect plant
growth?
Plants for cuttings
Cuttings are a fast way to grow plants. You place the end of a small
branch into water or damp soil or sand; when roots start to grow, you
transfer to a pot. You could do some tests of how to make healthy
cuttings. Or use the method to make plants for other experiments.
 Puerto Rican oregano – This roots within a week. You could
have strong plants in small pots within a couple of weeks.
 Coleus, spider plant, Aloe vera– Very easy to grow from
cuttings. Also easy to produce testable plants in a month or so.
 Many others – most of our plants can be grown from cuttings,
though not as easily as coleus. You could easily make an
experiment about cuttings. Cuttings can be done with water or
soil or other media. You can use a rooting hormone, or not. You
can keep them very wet, or moist. You can compare small
cuttings and large cuttings. And so on.
Potted plants
Potted plants we already have:
 Milkweed – we have about 50 potted plants. Most are pretty
infested with an insect (thrips), which would also be interesting
to study.
 Nasturtium, thistle, tomato, marigold – we have 12 of each
of these in small pots.
 In the vivarium: there are quite a few species for which we
have several plants.
Seeds you could plant:
 White beans (navy or lima) grow quickly. You could have
plants with several leaves and several inches of growth in a few
weeks.
 Radishes germinate quickly – a few days – but they won’t
become very big. Not a good choice if you are measuring
length or number of leaves. Maybe a good choice if you want to
measure the edible part (enlarged step, aka radish).
 Sunflowers grow pretty quickly, but they get “leggy” (stretched
out, weak stems) when grown in winter.
 Nasturtiums. A flowering plant that will germinate in a few days
and be ready for small pots in few weeks.
 Potatoes, sweet potatoes. Large plants can be grown from
tuber pieces within a month.
 Avocados. You can use toothpicks to place an avocado pit into
a water glass. Large stems grow quickly.
 We have lots of other seeds. We can order seeds if you have
a special interest.
Other Plant Ideas
 Effect of non-toxic pesticides on our worst greenhouse
pest: thrips. You can easily see thrips on leaves, and count
numbers per leaf to estimate the population. We can use
several different treatments (for example, soap) to try and
reduce the thrips numbers. It would be really helpful to have
data about which of these (if any) actually work.
 Ditto study # 1 for spider mites.
 Effect of biological control on spider mites or thrips.
Similar, but a little harder: we can release predatory mites, and
see how the populations of both pests and predators change
over a month or so. This could be a greenhouse trial, and/or a
petri dish trial.
 Fertilizer evaluation. We have a lot of Biotone, an organic
fertilizer. Some science fair projects last year seemed to show
that the fertilizer was actually bad for plants. More data would
help us decide whether to use, or discard Biotone.
 Cutting propagation. Dr. Gina would like to see some trials of
cutting propagation. Anybody can stick a coleus cutting into
water and get it to root. But for some other (more desirable)
plants we have, we need data on variables like moisture level,
growing medium, and plant hormone use.
C.General Science Fair Project Ideas
 Which type of soil do Earthworms like best?
 How does the number of “legs” affect how fast an organism
moves?
 How does blubber affect heat retention in animals?
 How do different types of natural repellents affect ants?
 Which materials break down faster in a landfill?
 How does air pollution vary in different locations around ESM?
Hartford? My house?
 How are different animals distributed in our local environment?
 How do fertilizers affect water quality?
 How does acid rain affect aquatic ecosystems?
 How does the type of soil affect what is living in it?
 How do macro-invertebrates affect the soil around our local
environment?
 How do the levels of lead vary in soil around our local
environment?
 How does porosity and particle size affect the absorption of
water?
 How does the saltiness of water affect the density?
 How does melting ice affect sea levels?
 How does the color of a building affect its energy bill?
 Which method helps stop erosion the most?
 Which method is best in cleaning up oil spills?
 How can solar energy be used to make salt water into fresh
water?
 How can solar energy be used to heat up a room?
 How do taste buds vary from person to person?
 How does the UV Index change throughout the days, month
and seasons?
 Which plastic wrap prevents evaporation the best?
 Which plastic wrap prevents oxidation the best?
 Which solution grows the largest crystals?
 Which enzymes in laundry detergents are the most effective
stain removers?
 How do nitrogen fertilizers affect plant growth?
 How does the amount of space a plant take up affect its
population?
 How does gravity affect the growth of plants?
 How can plants grow without soil?
 How does fruit ripening affect the dispersal of seeds?
 Which factors increase the reproduction of fungi?
 How do plants affect the impact of greenhouse gases?
 How do potatoes affect the growth on new potatoes?