Science fair projects you can do in a weekend

What to expect

A weekend is enough for a real project if the testing itself fits in one sitting. Saturday morning: gather the things and print the sheets. Saturday afternoon: do the test, three tries at every level. Sunday: find the middle numbers, draw the graph, write the conclusion and lay out the board. Every project here can be done that way.

The trick with a short project is to pick a question with a quick, countable answer. Anything that has to grow, dry or crystallise needs days you don't have, so those are on the longer pages. Print the results table first; filling it in as you go is half the board done.

Counted from the projects on this page: 44 about how things move, 35 about water, ice and mixing, 15 about growing and weather; 45 using kitchen things, 40 using paper, tape and toys, 9 using the outdoors and some seeds. 69 are free with what most houses have, and the rest cost about $3 or about $2 or about $1 or about $4. Testing takes from 1 to 2 days. 15 have a step a grown-up does, marked on the page.