Whether your students are preparing for the science fair or you’re looking for classroom ideas to grab their interest, we’ve got the answers! Find lots of 8th grade science fair projects across a spectrum of topics and difficulty levels (including plenty of easy science fair project ideas). Plus, check out fun classroom demos and hands-on experiments and activities your students will love.
To make it easier to find classroom activities or science fair projects for 8th graders, we’ve rated all the projects and activities by difficulty and the materials needed:
Difficulty:
- Easy: Low or no-prep experiments you can do pretty much anytime
- Medium: These take a little more setup or a longer time to complete
- Advanced: Experiments like these take a fairly big commitment of time or effort
Materials:
- Basic: Simple items you probably already have around the house
- Medium: Items that you might not already have but are easy to get your hands on
- Advanced: These require specialized or more expensive supplies to complete
Jump to:
- Biology and Life Science 8th Grade Science Fair Projects
- Chemistry 8th Grade Science Fair Projects
- Physics and Engineering 8th Grade Science Fair Projects
- 8th Grade Science Classroom Demos, Experiments, and Hands-On Activities
Biology and Life Science 8th Grade Science Fair Projects
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Explore human behavior, plants and animals, the water cycle, and more with these 8th grade science fair project ideas.
Measure and compare lung capacity
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Medium
This experiment combines math and biology to measure lung capacity using a balloon. There are a lot of interesting hypotheses students can form, document, and explore while taking these measurements.
Learn more: Measuring Lung Capacity at Blog She Wrote
Guide a growing plant through a maze
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Basic
Prove that plants really do seek out the light by setting up a simple or complex maze. This is a simple 8th grade science project with really cool results.
Learn more: Plant Light Maze at KiwiCo
Explore symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Many plants depend on nitrogen for growth, but how important is it? This science project compares the growth of pea plants with and without nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
Learn more: Nitrogen and Plants at Education.com
Test water quality
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Medium
A water-testing kit opens up limitless options for 8th grade science fair projects. Test the water quality of local streams, swimming pools, or even the taps at home.
Learn more: Water Quality Experiment at The Homeschool Scientist
Cast animal tracks
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Explore wildlife biology by becoming an expert tracker! Learn to identify tracks and take casts. Turn this into an experiment by trying different methods to take casts, or use it as a method of identifying wildlife in the woods.
Learn more: Casting Animal Tracks at Blog She Wrote
Determine a plant’s favorite music
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Medium
Play different types of music for plants, then observe and document any changes in the growth and development of the plants as they’re exposed to different genres of music.
Conduct fingerprint analysis
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Budding forensic scientists will love this idea. Learn to dust for prints and try a technique called “fuming” for trickier surfaces. See if you can compare prints and make accurate matches in the classroom. You can buy a fingerprinting kit just for kidsor use supplies from around the house.
Learn more: Fingerprinting at Home Science Tools
Examine the connection between personality and memory
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Basic
Do introverts have better memories than extroverts? This science project aims to find out. Round up some willing volunteers and administer the Myers-Briggs personality test, then challenge your subjects with a memory test. The results may or may not surprise you!
Learn more: Memory and Personality at Education.com
Measure algae growth
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Fertilizer runoff has become a serious cause of water pollution. In this experiment, students will see its effects firsthand and brainstorm ways to keep it in check.
Learn more: Algae and Pollution Experiment at Layers of Learning
Water plants with different liquids
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Medium
In this easy science fair project, kids water plants with different liquids, like rainwater, tap water, salt water, and even soda. They might be surprised at the results!
Learn more: Effecting Plant Growth at Calm the Chaos Parenting
Chemistry 8th Grade Science Fair Projects
Beakers and test tubes, pouring and mixing … do it all with these fun chemistry science fair project ideas for 8th graders.
Perform a starch test with iodine
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
This simple chemistry experiment uses iodine to determine the starch content of food items. Use the process to perform a variety of 8th grade science experiments related to food.
Learn more: Starch Test at Biology Notes for IGCSE
Keep your hands warm
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
If you live in a chilly part of the world, chances are you’ve seen chemical hand warmers for sale. In this 8th grade science fair project, use oxidation to make your own hand warmer, and find other creative ways to use this heating process.
Learn more: Homemade Hand Warmer at Steve Spangler Science
Compare electrolytes in sports drinks
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Sports-loving kids will enjoy the chance to learn just how many valuable electrolytes their favorite sports drinks contain. Compare them with water or orange juice for a cool science fair project. You’ll need a few special supplies, like a multimeter and an ohm resistor, but they’re not too expensive and they’re easy to find.
Turn juice into spheres
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
You’ll need a few special supplies for this experiment, but the results are so cool. Turn spherification into a science fair project by experimenting with different beverages and liquids.
Block the sun’s UV rays
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Medium
Use color-changing UV beads to test the protective power of medicine bottles, hats, clothing, and more. This is an easy 8th grade science fair project with nearly endless possibilities.
Grow a carbon sugar snake
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Remember those little black pellets that fire up into long snakes on the 4th of July? This is the same concept but much bigger! The simple chemical reaction of sugar and baking soda makes it happen. Turn this into an 8th grade science fair project by varying the formula to create even bigger results!
Learn more: Carbon Sugar Snake at KiwiCo
Create a rainbow of flames
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
You can change the color of fire by adding chemicals found at your local grocery store—what a sight! How can you use these flame colors to determine the chemical content of other materials? Sounds like a cool 8th grade science fair project!
Get your laundry really clean
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Find out if all those laundry detergent commercials are really telling the truth with this 8th grade science fair experiment. Test their cleaning power on a variety of stains and fabrics, and analyze your results.
Learn more: Science of Cleaning Products at Steve Spangler Science
Study the effects of acid rain
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Basic
In this project, students use chalk as a stand-in for stone to learn how acid rain affects buildings, statues, and more. Turn this into a science fair project by exploring ways to mitigate the effects of the acidity.
Extract bismuth from Pepto Bismol
Difficulty: Advanced / Materials: Advanced
This is the kind of project that really makes you feel like a scientist. Grinding tablets with a mortar and pestle, filtering in beakers, heating over a Bunsen burner … this is what chemistry is all about!
Learn more: Extracting Bismuth at Popular Science
Optimize fermentation temperature
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Basic
Delve into the mystery of how temperature affects the fermentation process and determine the optimum temperature for yeast development. (Test your hypothesis by baking a loaf of bread!)
Learn more: Hot Yeast at Elemental Blogging
Brew up some root beer
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Who says science can’t be delicious? Tinker with the basic root beer recipe to make it sweeter, fizzier, or better in any way you like!
Learn more: Root Beer Science at Steve Spangler Science
Physics and Engineering 8th Grade Science Fair Projects
For those who love to build and tinker, try a science fair project that experiments with various physics concepts like energy, electricity, motion, and more.
Build a better light bulb
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
First, use the steps at the link to build a simple light bulb with a jar, some wire, and a 6-volt battery. Then, turn it into an 8th grade science fair project by tinkering with the various materials to make a light bulb that lasts longer, burns brighter, or is powered by an alternative source.
Learn more: Build a Light Bulb at 123 Homeschool 4 Me
Test the strength of interleaved paper
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Basic
Paper seems smooth and slides apart easily, right? Not when you add friction into the mix! Mythbusters was amazed at how much strength it took to pull apart two interleaved phone books. Try this with smaller books for an 8th grade science fair project that people won’t believe!
Stand on a pile of paper cups
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Basic
Combine physics and engineering and challenge 8th grade science students to create a paper cup structure that can support their weight. This is a cool project for aspiring architects.
Learn more: Paper Cup Stack at Science Sparks
Cook up a tasty treat with solar energy
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Students can design and build a solar oven, and then use it to cook food to compare the cooking time and temperature with a conventional oven. See if you can improve on the original design by changing up the materials or construction.
Investigate advanced properties of liquids
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Basic
Do surface tension and viscosity decrease with increasing temperature? Find out in this 8th grade science fair project.
Learn more: Surface Tension and Viscosity at Education.com
Make a solar desalinator
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Clean freshwater is a valuable commodity. Construct solar-powered desalination devices with readily available materials, and find the most effective desalination methods.
Engineer a roller coaster loop
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Kids may have created marble roller coasters before, but have they ever built one with a loop-the-loop? They’ll have to experiment to find out which initial height gives a marble the speed it needs to complete the journey.
Capture a picture of lightning
Difficulty: Advanced / Materials: Medium
Lichtenberg figures capture the branching path of electricity as it travels through an object. You can make your own in a variety of ways, including burning it into wood or acrylic.
Learn more: Lichtenberg Figures at Science Notes
Crash cars for science
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
This is a great class project for teachers, but it’s also excellent for an 8th grade science fair project. Build cars and crash-test them to learn the best methods of keeping passengers safe.
Learn more: STEM Car Crash Project at The Ardent Teacher
Discover the center of gravity
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Once you find and maintain its center of gravity, almost any object will balance, even in surprising circ*mstances. Using this concept, what amazing objects can you balance and where?
Learn more: Center of Gravity at Rookie Parenting
Power up homemade batteries
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Building batteries is a classic science experiment for any age. Make it into an 8th grade science fair project by trying different variables and exploring the amount of power you can produce.
Learn more: DIY Batteries at 123 Homeschool 4 Me
Assemble a spring balance scale
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Apply Hooke’s law to find out if the stretching of a spring can be used to accurately measure the weight of objects. The materials are simple, but you’ll need patience and physics to calibrate a spring and use it to test weights.
Design a robotic hand
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
This is a project that can be tweaked by coming up with ways to improve upon the design. Can you build a hand that can pick up a ball? How about one that can pluck up a piece of string? So many possibilities!
Learn more: DIY Model Robot Hand STEM Activity at Mombrite
Build an infinity mirror
Difficulty: Advanced / Materials: Medium
Experiment with optical illusions by creating a tunnel of lights that seems to stretch away into infinity. Eighth grade science students will learn about engineering and the physics of optics along the way.
Construct a Rube Goldberg machine
Difficulty: Advanced / Materials: Medium
Create a machine to complete a simple task in the most complicated fashion! This is a neat 8th grade STEM fair project because it allows you to use a variety of physics concepts in a fun way.
8th Grade Science Classroom Demos, Experiments, and Hands-On Activities
Explore a wide variety of 8th grade science concepts with these fun and engaging activities.
Protect an egg in a crash
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
We love this spin on the classic egg-drop project. In this version, students build a structure to protect an egg during a collision with a wall, making the connection between crash tests and physics concepts.
Drop an egg to prove the first law of motion
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Medium
This experiment looks like a magic trick, but it’s firmly grounded in Newton’s first law of motion. When you knock the pie tin out of the way, the egg falls straight into the glass thanks to inertia. (Worried about making a mess? Use plastic eggs instead.)
Learn more: Egg Drop Inertia Challenge at Steve Spangler Science
Break out the leaf blower to teach Bernoulli’s principle
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Medium
Eighth grade science students have probably seen a Bernoulli demo or two, often with straws and Ping-Pong balls. So grab their attention by trying it with a leaf blower and a beach ball instead!
Assemble a Newton’s cradle
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Newton’s cradle is a fascinating way of demonstrating momentum and energy transfer. Follow the directions at the link to build one, or challenge 8th grade science students to experiment with their own construction methods.
Learn more: Newton’s Cradle at Babble Dabble Do
Extinguish a candle without blowing it out
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Combine an acid/base experiment with some fire science in this really popular classroom science demo. It seems like magic, but it’s just science!
Relight a candle without touching it
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Medium
Tell students you’re going to relight a candle without touching the flame to the wick. The results will boggle their minds!
Learn more: Magic Traveling Flame at Steve Spangler Science
Demonstrate the “unpoppable” balloon
Difficulty: Easy / Materials: Medium
Your students won’t believe you when you say you can hold a balloon up to a flame without popping it. Use the conductivity of water to prove your point.
Extract your own DNA
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
DNA is the blueprint of life, and you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to extract your own with a few simple supplies. Preserve it in alcohol in the freezer when you’re done.
Learn more: How To Extract DNA at Home at Home Science Tools
Build a trash can air cannon
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
This is such a fun way to demonstrate an air vortex! It takes a little effort to build the air cannon, but you can use it year after year for amazing 8th grade science demos.
Separate water into hydrogen and oxygen
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Use electrolysis to prove that water really is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. It’s a simple concept but one that never fails to amaze.
Learn more: Separating Water at Navigating by Joy
Assemble a ring of Pringles
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Medium
Everybody loves an edible STEM challenge! Here’s one that seems simple but takes some time to work out: Build a ring of Pringles chips without using any other materials.
Construct a cup holder
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Basic
Can your 8th grade science students build a device to stabilize and carry two cups of water, using only a few simple supplies? Oh, and can they manage it in just 5 minutes? This timed challenge pushes their creative engineering limits!
Learn more: Cup Holder STEM Challenge at Homeschool Creations
Navigate a light maze
Difficulty: Medium / Materials: Basic
Here’s the STEM challenge: Bounce a beam of light around a corner past an obstacle. Increase the difficulty by adding more obstacles and variables.
Engage your 8th grade science students further with these 24 Science Kits for Middle and High School That Make Hands-On Lessons Easy.
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