A sharing fair, not a contest 🔬

The Fox Science Fair

Fresh project ideas for junior and senior scientists. No ribbons, no ranking — every visitor leaves knowing something new, and every scientist gets to explain what they discovered. Host one with your co-op, family or friends.

• Junior (8–12)

  🔍 Tiny plastics in my house dust

  Which room in my home collects the most tiny plastic fibres?

  Try it:

  Leave a damp, dark paper square in four rooms for one week. Look at each under a magnifier or cheap clip-on phone microscope.

  Measure:

  Count coloured fibres in the same small circle on each square.

  How we know:

  Same paper, same time, same counting circle — only the room changes. That makes it a fair test.

• Junior (8–12)

  🌡️ My street's heat map

  Is it hotter near pavement than near trees and grass?

  Try it:

  With a grown-up, take a thermometer to six spots at the same time of day for five days: under a tree, on grass, by a parking lot, by a wall…

  Measure:

  Temperature at each spot, plotted on a hand-drawn map.

  How we know:

  Repeating over five days shows whether the pattern is real or just one lucky day. Cities call this the 'urban heat island'.

• Junior (8–12)

  🥛 Kitchen plastic that melts back to earth

  Which homemade plastic (milk, cornstarch or gelatin) is strongest — and which breaks down fastest in soil?

  Try it:

  Make three small bioplastic strips with a grown-up. Hang coins from each until it tears, then bury matching pieces in pots of soil.

  Measure:

  Number of coins held; how much is left after 2, 4 and 6 weeks.

  How we know:

  Weigh or photograph against a ruler each time so you compare evidence, not memory.

  Safety:

  Hot liquids — a grown-up does the heating.

• Junior (8–12)

  🎶 Do seeds sprout faster with music?

  Does gentle sound change how fast cress seeds sprout?

  Try it:

  Two identical trays of cress in two rooms with the same light and water. One room gets quiet music a few hours a day.

  Measure:

  Sprout count each morning and stem length on day 7.

  How we know:

  Swap the rooms and repeat. If the 'music' tray always wins, it's the music, not the room.

• Junior (8–12)

  🟡 Can a slime mould solve a maze?

  Will a brainless slime mould find the shortest path to oat flakes?

  Try it:

  Grow Physarum (sold for classrooms) in a cardboard or agar maze with oats at the exit. Photograph it every few hours.

  Measure:

  Time to reach food; does it trim away dead-end paths?

  How we know:

  Scientists in Japan showed slime moulds copying the Tokyo rail map — you can repeat a tiny version and see for yourself.

• Junior (8–12)

  💧 Nature's water filter

  Which layer order of sand, gravel and charcoal cleans muddy water best?

  Try it:

  Build three bottle filters with layers in different orders. Pour the same muddy water through each.

  Measure:

  Cloudiness — hold each jar in front of printed text and see which words you can read.

  How we know:

  The text test turns 'looks cleaner' into something anyone can check. Never drink it — clear isn't the same as safe.

• Senior (13–17)

  🤖 Is my AI fair to everyone?

  Does a simple image classifier work equally well for different hands, skin tones or lighting?

  Try it:

  Train a free browser model (e.g. Google Teachable Machine) to recognise hand gestures using only one person's photos. Then test it with family and friends who agree to help.

  Measure:

  Accuracy percentage for each tester and condition; then retrain with varied photos and test again.

  How we know:

  Before-and-after numbers show whether more diverse training data really improves fairness — the same question AI researchers study.

  Safety:

  Ask permission for every photo and delete them after.

• Senior (13–17)

  📳 Your phone as a seismometer

  How far through a floor can footsteps be detected, and do different floors carry vibration differently?

  Try it:

  Use a free accelerometer app (e.g. phyphox) on the floor while someone walks at set distances on wood, tile and carpet.

  Measure:

  Peak vibration size at 1, 2, 4 and 8 metres for each floor.

  How we know:

  Graph distance against peak size. If the curve repeats on every trial, you've found a real law of how vibrations fade.

• Senior (13–17)

  🍄 Growing packaging from mushrooms

  Can mushroom mycelium grown on cardboard or straw replace foam packaging?

  Try it:

  Use an oyster-mushroom grow kit to colonise moulds of straw, sawdust and cardboard. Bake to stop growth, then test.

  Measure:

  Drop-test an egg inside each; compare weight and strength with styrofoam.

  How we know:

  Repeat each drop at the same height several times — one survivor might be luck, five in a row is evidence.

  Safety:

  Work with a grown-up; wear a mask if anyone has mould allergies.

• Senior (13–17)

  🔊 A noise map of my neighbourhood

  Where and when is my community loudest — and does it match where people feel most stressed?

  Try it:

  Take decibel readings with a phone app at fixed spots, three times a day for a week. Run a short, kind, anonymous survey on how calm each place feels.

  Measure:

  Average dB per spot and time; survey scores.

  How we know:

  Check your app against a known sound first (a quiet room should read ~30–40 dB). Calibrating tools is how scientists trust them.

• Senior (13–17)

  🌈 Which light colour feeds algae best?

  Does red, blue, green or white light grow algae fastest?

  Try it:

  Pond water in identical jars under coloured cellophane filters with the same lamp distance.

  Measure:

  Greenness each day, scored against a paint-chip colour chart or photos analysed for green value.

  How we know:

  Plants reflect green light — that's why they look green. If green-light jars grow slowest, your data agrees with photosynthesis science.

• Senior (13–17)

  ☀️ The best recycled solar oven

  Which reflector shape — box, funnel or parabola — heats water fastest using only sunlight?

  Try it:

  Build three ovens from cardboard, foil and plastic wrap. Same jar, same water, same sunny hour.

  Measure:

  Water temperature every 5 minutes for an hour.

  How we know:

  Graph all three curves together. Repeat on a second sunny day; real winners win twice.

  Safety:

  Reflected sun is bright and hot — wear sunglasses, never look into the focus.

• Senior (13–17)

  🐦 Dawn chorus detectives

  Do birds start singing earlier on quieter streets or in brighter, lit areas?

  Try it:

  Record 30 minutes at dawn in two places for a week. Identify species with a free app (e.g. Merlin) and share data with eBird.

  Measure:

  Time of first song and number of species heard.

  How we know:

  Your recordings are evidence anyone can re-listen to — and citizen-science data helps real ornithologists.

• Junior (8–12)

  🎈 Static on a dry day

  Does damp air make static electricity weaker?

  Try it:

  Rub a balloon on wool 10 times and see how many tiny paper bits it lifts — in a steamy bathroom and a dry room.

  Measure:

  Paper bits lifted; humidity from a cheap hygrometer if you have one.

  How we know:

  Same balloon, same rubs — only the air changes. Water in the air lets charges leak away.