by Joshua Horn

Created on: November 04, 2009   Last Updated: November 17, 2009

Biology is an exciting field for students, for they begin to come to understand how the world around them works and how living organisms function. One of the best opportunities for students to gain practical experience is through science fair projects, where the scientific method can be applied and conclusions can be drawn. However, planning and designing unique and exciting biology-based science fair projects can be a chore. Here is a wide range of project ideas and the kinds of results you can gather.

Effects of Various Stimuli on Humans

If you have the right tools, you can easily see how a particular outside stimulus affects some measurable factor of the human body.

For instance, with a cheap blood pressure cuff, you could measure the effect of music, exercise, television, video games, room temperature, or just about anything else on a person's blood pressure. You could do the same for other measurable quantities, such as heart rate. These kinds of experiments are relatively simple, as the list of necessary materials is small. You do need willing volunteers for the experiments though

You could also test human responses such as reflexes and memory retention. Devise a plan where subjects perform a series of exercises while trying to remember various sets of numbers or letters, then test to see if the exercise inhibits or enhances memory. Make sure you always have a control group, one that didn't do the experiment, to compare to.

Conditions and Plant Growth

These kinds of experiments take a bit more planning, time and effort, as you have to grow and care for the plants over time. To have a sizable data set, you need more than just one plant. But once you have the materials, these experiments can be very rewarding. Here are a few ideas.

You could measure the effect of a magnetic field on plant growth by mounting magnets near plants in different arrangements. Then you allow the plants to grow for some period of time and take note of what happens. Does the position of the magnets affect the plant growth rate? Does the position of the magnet alter the direction the plant grow?

Also, you could see how cold affects plant growth. Place some plants in the refrigerator, while you leave the others in a warm spot. Then you can see how their growth rates are affected over time.

By watering a set of plants with salt water with different levels of salinity, can you change the plant growth rate or even prevent growth? Does the size of a plant's seed determine how quickly

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