The Kids' Science Challenge

Our idea is that if you build a capsule-shaped ship, that spins, it would create gravity using centrifugal force. You could then be able to grow plants normally, without genetic engineering. You could also put animals in the ship, such as jackrabbits and worms. You would put clay and dirt, on the inside edge, then plant vegetables in the ground. There would be a donut-shaped water tank in the center, that would be long, and tall enough that the astronauts would be able to eat and sleep in it. The water would also create a shield from ultra violet storms. There would be solar panels on the outer rim of the ship, so that LED lights would be able to be powered to provide light for the plants. Since the rabbit reproduce so quickly, they would serve as food and their waste would create extremely fertilized soil. Some of the vegetables on the ship could be cucumbers, corn, and sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are great because you can eat every part of them. The corn can be harvested normally, and would be good to feed the rabbits. The cucumbers would be a fine idea to bring along because you can eat them as a raw snack and can preserve them by turning them into pickles, using brine. These vegetables can be stored in a storage tank, in the back of the ship. It would have an extra layer of clay to protect the food from UV rays. A smaller ship would be in the storage, so that when the astronauts get to Mars, they can send it out to find a safe place to land. It would have a drill on it, so it could explore the Red Planet.

We came up with this idea when we researched centrifugal force, and what plants are best for space. Origanally we were going to design powdered beverages, but it wasn’t what we bargained for, so Isabella asked her parents if there was a way to make gravity in space. They told her about centrifugal force. She has had rabbits before and knew how good for space they would be. I love worms and researched about how they fertalize the dirt. The space ship was first designed with a drill on it, but that had more than a few problems, so we made a smaller ship to survey Mars’ terrain. We remembered that NASA is looking for a new ship idea, so we decided to make the ships capsule-shaped, instead of the retired shuttle.

A bird feeder that requires 2 birds to work as a team to acess food.

I reviewed the KSC website. Then, I thought of animals working together. Next, I thought about racoons and skunks, but they don’t hang together.

No More Trash but a Package of Fun.

Every Christmas my sister and I receive lots of presents, but we throw away most of the packages that are not necessarily good to the environment. When I found out about the Kids Science Challenge, I decided to pick Zero Waste because I wanted toy packages to be a fun part of the toy and will not be instantly disposed to the environment.

After I saw all the videos and pictures on the Science Challenge Website and discussed with my friends, I came up with two ideas. But the first one did not work well. The second idea called “no more trash, but a package of fun” converts the toy package into a fun, integrated, part of the toy, It not only protects the environment by saving packages, but also adds a lot of fun to children.

I hope this Christmas my sister and I will recieve toys with packages using my idea.

My idea is to make a Mars house so that you can grow plants on Mars. Plants need carbon dioxide, water and sunlight to grow. The atmosphere on Mars is mostly carbon dioxide. The temperature on Mars is -60 degrees F. Probes have found out there is water on Mars. The sunlight on Mars has too much UV rays. UV rays are tays that have too much energy, There is a gas called ozone, Osone blocks the UV rays. But Mars has no ozone. To make ozone you need oxygen and UV rays. There are different types of UV rays they are: UV-a UV-b and UV-c. UV-c is the most dangerous.

My idea: First, we need to find a spot where there is water under the surface. Then, we will build two glass houses one inside another. We need to seal the 2 houses. Next, we put an oxygen tank between the two houses When the UV rays from sunlight hit the oxygen it forms ozone, The ozone blocks the bad UV rays from entering the house. Then, we have to dig a hole to get the water. Next we need to build a vent to get the carbon dioxide. Now, we have all the ingredients for growing plants.

I know that we get food by growing Plants on Earth. Why can’t you grow it on Mars? I read about the climate of Mars and found 3 reasons.
1. The temperature on Mars can go up to -200 degrees F.
2. There is too much UV rays in the sun on Mars.
3. There is water deep below the surface.

I also learned from the internet that Ozone blocks the harmful UV rays from reaching Earth. So I thought of growing plants in a heated glass house and making ozone to block the harmful UV rays.

My idea is to use big tubes (like giant toothpaste tubes). These tubes will have a one way valve and an air-tight lid at the opening. We will have a mechanism that will squeze at the top and the valve and airtight lid will open and the desired amount of food will come out. Each tube will contain a different type of food such as rice, shrimp, pasta... etc. Now astronauts can choose any combination of food they want that day. The airtight lid and one way valve will keep air and germs from getting inside the tube. Since space is very cold we can use it as a natural deep space frezer to store the stock of extra tubes. Each tube can last for 1-2 months. Now they can replace it with a new tube (maybe a new or different type of the same food or a different food. Example brown rice to sticky rice, ravioli to pasta). Now the astronauts won’t get tierd of the same foods.

Another important part that the astronauts can have is a mini garden located in the designated food area. The garden could have vegetables that don’t need to be cooked such as lettuce and tomatos. The garden would have soil and wont be a hydroponic garden. Since they are in space the garden would have a dirt blocker so that the soil wont escape. The astronauts might feel a bit less homesick if they can pop a fresh tomato into their mouth or munch on a piece of lettuce.

Adding a spice rack would help astronauts add thier own or wanted amount of spice. The spice rack would have many varieties of spice so with one push of a botton they could get the amount and variety of spice that they want to have. Similar to the spice rack they could have a candy/snack rack and a cheese rack.

After a tube is used up we will use the squezing mechanism to roll it up into a tiny roll. This eliminate a big portion of the trash problem.

The tubes will be made of matereals that can last in extremly cold tempature. The mechanism that they use is a one way valve to let the food go out and no air/germs to get in. There will be a push button to open the valves.

I hope my idea will let astronauts enjoy the first space grown vegetables and a buffet every day.

“Space Buffet”
Combine and Dine in Space!

We decided to provide you with the idea of making a zero gravity blender. It will provide the hard working astronauts with a very dependable machine that will make them feel more at home, and it will provide them with the freedom to create their own, not very boring meals. At the bottom of the invention there will be 6 batteries for maximum power. On the bottom left corner there will be a “door” for the food to be scooped into. In the center of the “door” there is a port hole like circular “door” in which they will sqirt drinks into the blender from a straw attached to the container of the liquid. You may be asking, how does this machine blend with no gravity. Well, there will be razor sharp blades on all four sides, making the floating food mix well. On the top there will be two cups upside down. When the astronauts are finished blending they can turn over the machine and empty the food from the blender. To keep the food from coming into the cups during the blend there will be a removable lever to stop the liquid.

The zero gravity blender was inspired by the feeling of home. While we were brainstorming we pretended we were floating around in a spacecraft. We thought of things we would miss on earth, and thought about homemade smoothies, soups, and other treats. We wanted to provide them with something that they would have at home. When we went on the Kids Science Challenge website, we witnessed what they were consuming. We thought having the same drinks and food would get tiring and boring. NASA could provide many different varieties of fruit, drinks, soups and other materials for them to mix.

Do you like to play with your food? How about having fun “slurping and squeezing” in space? Well, Golden Power minds could make it happen, try our out of this world idea: Aqua Crunch!

Aqua crunch is a tube that is food on the outside and drink on the inside. It is an edible tube for space traveling. When you bit off the top, you can drink the inside and then when you are through, eat the package! Astronauts or people on earth can eat the entire soft flexible package. It is made out of a bio-plastic that is made out of corn starch and colored with plant-based dyes. There is no room for waste in space and we don’t need it in the landfills here at home! So why not eat it up? We read that there are food scientists working with edible papers and inks like menus that taste like peanut butter and jelly! Our design would have three different tubes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The breakfast is Mexican spicy (because taste buds don’t work so well in space) eggs, toast, with juice inside. The lunch would taste like turkey or ham and cheese with drink of water. For dinner you can have steak flavor with mixed greens and milk. This is easier then trying to hold different parts to your meal, and no crumbs to float around in the microgravity. The best part is that you can eat the container so there is no waste leftover to take up room in space. And remember it is out of this world you could do tricks, squeeze and slurp!

Our idea started when we were learning about inventors. Our original idea was to make edible toothpaste to help astronauts so that they didn’t have to spit it out into towels. We did some research on NASA’s websites and How Stuff Works and found out that people already invented that kind of thing. So we brainstormed and came up with Aqua Crunch.

How to grow plants on Mars?

This is my idea about how to grow plants on Mars. Here are the steps: First, on Earth, take a sample of a Crustose Lichen’s genes and inject it into the seeds of the vegetables that we would be taking to Mars. I chose them because they are one of the three main types of lichens living in Antarctica, and they form a crust on the surface of whatever substrate they are growing on. That would help the plant tolerate cold and drought. It would also handle the problem of stress and the water coming out of the plants because of the microgravity, since lichens have small hairs on them that can catch the water if it comes out of it. Second, take the seeds to Mars. Third, take a sample of Martian soil and add a variety of bacteria to break it down and then add compost to give it nutrients. Fourth, plant the seeds in a greenhouse with artificial sunlight. Fifth, let it grow and enjoy!

In my project, I was working on growing plants on Mars. I read an article about what happened to a plant in microgravity during my research, and I found out that the plant couldn’t survive because they were not made to live in that environment; that created stress. What happened to that plant was that it was not able to hold the water that it was storing inside it, and it was coming out of the holes that it uses to take in nutrients from the air. More problems that a plant would have faced on Mars would be cold, drought, and bad soil to plant in.

My first idea was to block half of the holes in the plant, and let the other half take in nutrients. But I realized that wouldn’t work, because the water would still come out of those holes. That wouldn’t have solve the other problems, anyway. So I continued my research.

I read many articles, with many ideas about what would help grow plants in space. I found out that scientists were planning to use greenhouses in space, with artificial sunlight that would still give the plants nutrients. I learned that scientists were thinking about using hydroponics, because the soil isn’t very good in space, and it needed to be broken down. On Earth, soil is broken down using compost, bacteria, and other organisms (such as mites, centipedes, sow bugs, snails, millipedes, springtails, spiders, slugs, beetles, ants, flies, nematodes, flatworms, rotifers, and earthworms), so I decided to use the same thing to break it down in space. I think it would be best to use a variety of bacteria to break down the soil, and then use compost to give nutrients.

I had solved the problem of the soil, but I still hadn’t solved the problem of the other bad growing conditions on Mars, mainly cold, drought, and stress from the microgravity. So I kept researching, and I found an article about taking genes from living extremophiles and inserting them into the plants that we are trying to grow on Mars. I knew that would probably work, so I started working on finding an extremophile that could survive easily in cold and drought, and would be able to handle stress. I finally found an article about lichens in Antarctica that could handle all those things. I learned that lichens are part fungus, part alga. The fungus part gives it water and nutritious salt, and the alga part produces organic substance, and that combination helps it to survive. The types of lichens I thought would be best are called Crustose Lichens.

If we can accomplish this, than humans may be able to live in space someday as well as plants. And maybe we can turn Mars into a planet as green as Earth someday, and have good soil and life everywhere.

Introduction The main challenge of this project is to design a greenhouse that can withstand the hostile conditions on Mars so humans and their plants and crops can survive inside and we can enjoy healthy meals on the red planet. My idea is very similar to that of the Biosphere 2. The greenhouse we are building is an enclosed area, with no water or air coming in from outside, like Biosphere 2. That scientific experiment has yielded a lot of important information on how to survive in such conditions. However, there are also differences between the two environments, for example, Biosphere 2 is in Arizona but my greenhouse will be on Mars. Below are the keys areas that we need to address in designing the greenhouse in the red planet. Protection from Cosmic Radiation Why do we need to stop cosmic radiations when building a greenhouse on Mars? Well, the Earth has a strong magnetic field and has a rather thick atmosphere to protect living organisms from cosmic radiations, while Mars magnetic field is as weak as a sick child and its atmosphere is as thin as a piece of paper. The trouble with cosmic radiations is that they are really harmful to living organisms. NASA has considered different ways of protecting the space shuttle from radiations in space. One method to block the harmful radiations is to use physical shielding, but it will also block useful sunlight and causes secondary radiations. Secondary radiations occur when radiations hit the shield and generate other radiations. NASA has considered another method, which is to wrap a superconductive coil around the whole protected area. The problem with this method is that the strong magnetic force generated by the coil can hurt the humans or other living organisms inside and you will be as dead as a doornail if you try this method. Our method, on the other hand, is to put small superconducting solenoids above the greenhouse in a dome shape. Unlike the NASA design, the magnetic field generated this way will be directed away from the greenhouse, and therefore it will be harmless to the humans inside. Superconductors will be incredibly cheap to operate on Mars because the planet is as cold as an ice sheet. This method does not harm humans, microbes, or plants; it will not block vital sunlight, and it will not cause secondary radiations. UV protection Strong UV light can harm living organisms, but we are lucky to have the ozone layer to protect us on Earth. On Mars, however, there is no ozone layer. So, to protect living organisms from harmful UV, windows in the Mars greenhouse need to have UV protection coating, such as those used in sunglasses we wear in sunny days on Earth. Generating electricity The method we are using is wind power. However, we are not using High Altitude Wind Energy Generation (HAWE) because the dust storms and dust devils on Mars can affect the turbines. Instead, our wind turbines will be on the ground. They will be made of a very light but structurally strong material such as graphite. There are some problems with that though. For example, the turbines need wind speeds of at least 8 kilometers per hour. So, we need a backup. That will be solar energy. The solar panels will be radiation-hardened and will use thin-film technology to minimize their weight. The reason that solar power is not our primary source of power is that sunlight is not always available and dust may cover the panels. The latter explains why NASA decided to use nuclear power for the new Curiosity rover instead of solar power as used on the older Spirit and Opportunity rovers. To prevent the solar panels from being covered by dust on Mars, they will have air holes in them to blow away the dust or sand, like an air hockey table. Air Pressure Scientists have built a greenhouse that does not let any air or moisture in or out. It is called Biosphere 2. It was a test to see if human beings and other organisms could survive on other planets or moons without biospheres. I think that we can make our greenhouse like Biosphere 2 with a few exceptions. One of the nice features of Biosphere 2 is that it handles the problem of air pressure difference well. It uses balloon-like sacks called lungs to maintain the correct air pressure constantly. This is crucial for our project because the air pressure on Mars is 0.6% times that on Earth. Such low pressure will cause problems with plants. We will keep the pressure inside our Mars greenhouse the same as that on Earth by using the same lungs idea. There are problems with Biosphere 2, too. One of them is that it is made with glass to let in sunlight. On Mars, you cannot use glass because it is heavy, may break, and cannot withstand the pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the greenhouse. Instead, we need to build our greenhouse using materials that are light-weight, flexible and transparent, for easy transportation to Mars, durability, and can let most of the sunlight through. Another problem is that we need to keep the greenhouse warm. Biosphere 2 is in Arizona, which is really hot, but Mars is much colder. The light-weight material we use to build the greenhouse may not be very good at keeping people inside warm so we will design a structure that uses greenhouse gasses to trap infrared radiation for warmth, similar to the global warming effect on Earth. The advantage of using greenhouse gases is that it will not produce excessive heat to make the greenhouse too hot for comfortable living, but it will shield the living organisms from the cold temperature on Mars. To form the greenhouse gas shielding, we will build our greenhouse with two outer layers, like double-glazing windows. Instead of having air between the two layers, we will have greenhouse gases.

How I Came Up With This Idea:

When I heard about this project, I started reading about Mars, renewable energy, Biosphere 2, and the technologies that NASA uses in its rovers going to Mars as well as other things that NASA builds. From references about Biosphere 2, I learned about sustaining an air and water tight environment. After reading books, scientific journals and websites on Mars, I learned about the hostile conditions on the red planet, including the cold temperature, the UV light, and the cosmic radiations. After that, I learned about the design criteria of different space vehicles that NASA sent, such as why the Curiosity rover uses nuclear power. I also read about renewable energy sources such as solar power and wind power. After doing all the research, I tried to come up with a solution for all the problems and also tried to identify the pros and cons about these techniques. For example, since there are dust storms on Mars, the dust will cover solar panels if we use them for electricity. So I came up with the idea that there should be holes in the solar panels to blow the dust out, like blowing air out on air hockey tables. I also thought that the balloon-like lungs in Biosphere 2 worked well, so I incorporated that into my greenhouse.

My experiment is....
To find out if cats have feelings. Like if they can feel sadness, anger, happiness, jealousy, etc. I will use treats, such as cat food, being brushed or petted, or other favorites, and see their response. Say, if I was to pet my one cat, Rex, in front of my other cat, Tiger, would he be jealous? Or would Rex feel happiness in being more important? I will work with a cat’s inner curiousness to find answers. If I split the cats up into different rooms, and fed them their favorite things, would they feel special or would they go to the other rooms and eat the different cat’s food? I will aslo work with my cat’s special quirks. Rex enjoys being brushed, but Tiger doesn’t. But, if Tiger saw Rex being brushed, would he allow himself to get brushed just to get the upper-hand, or in this case, upper-paw, on Rex? I have decided to conduct several experiments to see if my predictions are correct.

My experiments will be...

1. Try to see if I can access my cat’s feelings, and get them to cooperate. This will probably be the hardest step, knowing them.
2. Pet each cat and see if I get a reaction from the other.
3. Brush Rex, see reaction.
4. Food! How to get them to cooperate with that!

Okay, let’s get started! How to get the cats to cooperate with me?

My idea is to help the animals not get bored when they are at the zoo. It would stop them from sitting around doing nothing. They will have something that will involve their brain that they can do any time. The goal is to help these animals entertain themselves, keep themselves busy, solve problems, figure things out, and use their smarts. I know from my research (see question below for more) that some animals can recognize themselves in the mirror. My idea builds off this and has two parts. The first part of my idea is to use the animal s ability to recogize itself in the mirror. The second part will have the animal use that part of its body to actually touch the board at a specific spot. Let me explain. I would have a big touch screen, which is also a mirer, that would work like an interactive whiteboard (smartboard). The Orangatange (or a different animal, like gorillas, chimps, or European Magpies that could recognize themselves in a mirror) would sit in front of the big touch screen reflection. The touch screen would not only reflect their image, but also have a flashing airow on it, pointing to the body part that the animal should use to touch the screen. For example, maybe it would flash the airow near the top of the animal s reflection. I have included a drawng to show this example. Even just in the general area of the target body part, such as the head. The Oragnatange (or other animal) would see its image, and the flashing airow on the screen pointing at a certain part of its body. Next it would see a flashing shape on the mirer, sized to be right for the body part that was pointed to before. So the size of the flahing part would be small if it was for a hand or finger, bigger for a head or foot. Since an Orangatange can recognize itself in the mirer, it would know that the airow on the bard was meant to be talking about the part on him. The animal would then learn to use the body part that was flashed first, to now touch the screen/mirer with that part. The board would be able to know if the animal used the wrong part. If the animal used its finger to touch and not the head, the finger would have a different way of touching and pushing on the baord, and would only use a little bit of space instead of the whole flashing circle. If the animal did it right, more of the head would touch the board than the tip of a finger would, and it would press on the board differently than the finger would (see my drawing). And the problems could get harder. So maybe the board would flash an airow on the reflectin of the feet. But the circle for where to touch the board would be at the top of the screen. How would the Orangatange get its foot up there? maybe it would have to climb, or swing. it would have to use its smarts to do it, and have fun at the same time.

I came up with this idea when I went to your site and I was clicking around and reading the passages. One sentence I read said that some animals can even recognize themselves in the mirror. I was pondering about that and thinking that animals can really be as smart as humans, which changed the way I thought about animals. When finally I saw the passage about the contest, I knew that it would be best to do something about how some animals can recognize themselves in the mirer, because that fact my brain really took in. When I was reading more about this, I clicked on a button and saw a video about chipanzees CLICKING numbers on a touch screen computer and I put the two ideas together. Of course, I couldn t copy the one about them putting numbers in order, so I took time to think about how I could make the animals be entertained like when they put the numbers in order. The idea I came up with first was that the animals would have a mirer touch screen that would flash an arrow to show the body part they were supposed to touch on themselves. But there was a problem. How would the smartboard know if the animal was right and touched the right part of its own body? Then I thought the animal could touch the mirer s reflection of the actual body part, but that was a problem too. The problem was that the animals reflection would move as the animal moved its body part to touch the mirror. So I changed my idea again. This time, I decided on two steps, like I talked about above. I would be excited to get to put my idea to action with real live animals!

Our idea is to challenge the minds of chimpanzees. The idea to hav a box with clear squares that can slide and move over top. There will be a piece of a corner or side missing from each slide, so that when each slide is in a certain place they will all form a hole big enough for the chimp to fit his/her hand though. There will be a banana in the box under the slides. When the chimp forms the hole he will be able to get the banana or food. This idea mentally challenges the chimp by makeing him think. As our enrichment teacher would say, it stretches his/her brain. This idea physically challenges the chimp by causing him to use his hands or feet.

Our idea is based on what we have learned while playing a mind teaser. We have researched alot of information on chimpanzees and what they are capable of doing. We got part of our idea from Kids Science Challenge Animal Smarts videos.

Our first idea was similar to the idea we have. But in the first one instead of clear slides they had a picture on them. The chimp would now know his/her reward was food. So, we thought harder and figured the tiles, or slides, should be clear. Our enrichment teacher, Mrs. Parker, also helped us. Her idea was to double layer the clear tiles. We dug deeper and got the idea we have now.

We came up with the squares forming a circle because that way the chimp can get his/her own reward.

Jaguar Sensory Enrichment Activity

My idea for enriching involves sensory enrichment. I wanted to involve its sense of smell because while I was researching, I found that any big cat’s sense of smell is important in the wild. When I was just starting this project, at first I thought that every enrichment item or game needed to have food, but then I talked to a zoo keeper at the Kansas City Zoo and she said that I could just use the sensory enrichment instead of sensory and food enrichment. I call my idea JSEA, Jaguar Sensory Enrichment Activity.

The JSEA is a cardboard box scented with animal urine. This will make the jaguar have to use its sense of smell because the box should be well hidden in the trees. The box would be covered in brown paper mache. The mache would be attached by flour and water, which is something that would not harm the jaguar, like glue would. The box ideally resembles a monkey, one of the jaguar’s natural prey animals. It would be strapped to the tree branch by a loose vine. The vine would keep it straight up until the branch shook and the JSEA fell. Because of the smell and swinging motion, the jaguar would try to attack the toy. It would bat around and struggle with it until the jaguar finally puts it upright and shreds it.

I chose the jaguar as my animal. I wanted to do this animal because it spends a large portion of its life in a tree. Because I like to climb trees, it would be easier to think about if I were this animal, the jaguar, and I wasn’t exactly in my natural habitat, what would I want to do in order to busy with something that I would also do in the wild?

I already knew that the jaguar liked to climb trees but I didn’t know that it ate monkeys and other animals that live in trees. I thought that I might do something that involves enrichment in trees.

My first idea wasn’t in a tree and it might be better for a different big cat. It was to have a large box that has loops throughout it made out of vines. The vines would make it harder for the cat to get to all of the food.

My second might also be better for a different cat. It was a box that is on an underground mechanical device that would send the toy around the sanctuary causing the car to chase it.

I had another idea that you could have a box in a tree that would fall when the jaguar jumped to get it. It would most likely jump from the tree and get the meat from the box.

My best idea involves sensory enrichment. It is to have a scented box, well hidden in a tree, and attached to the tree by a vine. The jaguar would jump to get it. Because it was attached to the tree it would sway. The jaguar would bat around until if finally got that box and shredded it.

My last idea would probably be better for an animal that spends a lot more time in water than the jaguar. I thought about making a floating ball on special mechanism that would make the ball bob up and down.

When I talked to the zoo keeper about the JSEA, she asked me a few questions that changed my mind a bit about some materials I had planned to use. At first the JSEA was attached by velcro straps, to the tree instead of a vine, which is what I now am using. She asked me “What would happen to the jaguar if its fur made contact with the velcro? I realized that if the jaguar’s fur touched it, it would stick. Something safer for the jaguar might be a vine or rope.

Another thing she asked me was, “Do you always have to have meat inside? She told me that if I filled it with paper it would have the same effect it would have if I used food.

I think that the JSEA might really help some jaguars in captivity to use their natural abilities, like climbing trees and hunting.

My idea is to make a game for crows that teaches them to recognize people using photographs. The game would be taught and played by first using only one person and his or her picture. Whenever the bird finds the person, he gets a treat from the trainer. Then, as the crow gets better, you would add people and have them moving and hiding in a bigger space. These birds have been known to recognize people and remember them for a long time because of what they get from the person or because of what the person did to them. Not only would the game be fun, but it could be helpful for search-and-rescue, as well as wanted and missing people. Crows are very fast getting around because they can fly. They can also be fitted with a light tracking device when finding people that are far away, possibly even carrying food or water for those who are lost and hungry. A crow could be taught to make a specific noise when it finds the correct person, notifying the trainer or setting off the tracker. Crows can also teach things to other crows like what people look like, so they all can help find the person. Crows aren t suspicious, so they are safe locating wanted people, and yet all they might need is a photograph!

I designed a game for a crow that shows how well a crow can identify people. I came up with my idea by watching videos and reading articles about crows. I started by learning about crow vending machines: the crow puts in a penny, and gets a peanut. This showed the logic the crows use, and showed that crows are happy to do anything for food. Another article talked about a scientist who always wore a blue hat when he worked with crows. One of the crows that he had never met, but was related to one of his crows, was attracted to him because of his blue hat, showing that crows can learn from other crows. In another video, one person tagged crows while wearing a mask, and afterward the crows cawed at anyone wearing that mask. Similarly, that scientist once tagged crows without a mask and now, he gets cawed at wherever he goes by crows he didn t even tag. These actions show that crows recognize people by their faces and that crows communicate with each other. In another article, peanuts were soaked in poison and as soon as the first crow died from eating the poisoned peanut, all the crows left and no crows came back, proving that they can spread information quickly. Using all the things I learned from these articles, I created my game for crows.

Have you ever wondered how well dogs can actually smell? Or which breed can smell the best? That is what I am trying to figure out in this experiment.

The materials you need to do this are a timer to time how long it takes the dog to find the treats, assorted cups and boxes to cover the treats with, and different breeds of dogs. Make sure you have a young dog and an old dog from each breed. You will also need different types of dog treats. Do the experiment in a large field with tall grass so the dogs have to use their sense of smell and their sense of sight. It has to be a place the dogs have never been before. Use the same type of treats for each breed because some treats have a stronger scent than others.

Doing this experiment takes many steps. First you let the dog smell the treat. After that go and hide the treat far away under a cup or box. Don’t let the dog see you hide the treat. Then let the dog smell around and look for the treat. Time how long it takes the dog to find the treat. Then repeat these steps with the other breeds. Make sure the treat is the same length away from the dogs each time you test a different breed. Once you’ve tested them all with the same treats try using different treats. Then record all the times of the dogs for the first treat you used and compare. Whichever breed has the fastest average time can smell the best.

To get the best results you could vary this experiment. You would have to vary the dog breeds. You could change the treats to see if it makes the dog’s time longer or shorter. Use old dogs and puppies from each breed so you could see if their sense of smell dulls as they get older. Use more than one dog from each breed is better because it might be that the particular dog is a bad smeller. You could also vary this experiment to see if the dogs could follow a trail of treats by leaving a trail of small treats that leads to a big treat.

I came up with my idea by observing my dog and seeing how she smells to find treats. Whenever she drops a treat or we throw one for her she sniffs around to find it. I also thought of my idea by watching the video on the Kids Science Challenge website. At first I was going to make a toy using a dog’s sense of smell but I changed it into an experiment. I am interested to find out which dog can really smell the best.

Wonder Window Washers

I propose designing a competitive, interactive game between elephants and zoo guests. In the elephant compound, there would be an area set up with two giant windows. In front of the windows would be multicolor tubes of bathtub paints. Kids could decorate the windows with all kinds of creative designs, then move to a protected area. Then they could then guess or hypothesize on a computer, which elephant they think will win. Then zoo keepers would bring out two elephants and roll out two gigantic barrels of water. The elephants would each go to a barrel, suck up as much water as possible in their trunk, and then power spray the windows as fast as they can. The elephant who sprays all the paint off first, would be the winner and would receive a special treat. Eventually, the elephants would come to understand the connection between spraying the water and earning the prize, just like they do in the circus. For the elephants, the game would be a great way to exercise their mind and body and keep their trunks clean. For zoo guests, it would be a great way to learn cool things about elephants such as their water power and strength and intellectual abilities. It would also provide a fun and safe way to interact with the animals.

I came up with this idea by thinking about animals that have special talents or characteristics and how they could use them differently than they currently do. I was also thinking about what would be cool or interesting to see at a zoo as a young person.

That socks come in a mesh bag to wash them in. Millions of baby socks are bought each year. Each set is packaged in cardboard or plastic Many packages are bought to replace lost socks. I think that all baby socks should be packaged in mesh laundry bags instead. If the bags had large mesh holes they would allow good water flow and keep the socks together and they wouldn’t get lost.

While I was Wal-mart my mom and I were looking for socks that my little sister can wear. My mom buys socks all the time because, they dissapear in the wash. For instance one day I found a sock in a pair of pants I wore. The socks came packaged with plastic or cardboard that has to be disposed of. Nice people would at least recycle this material, but people just throw it away. If small socks came in a mesh bag it would eliminate the waste of the packaging. And people like my mom wouldn’t waste socks, because they’re lost. So not as much cotton would have to be used for making socks.

The topic I picked is Zero Waste. My idea is a recyclable design for a toy packaging, such as a toy car packaging.

The back of the packaging is made out of recyclable cardboard, with a picture that is related to the toy. For example, if the toy is a car, the cardboard could have a picture of a road on it.

The front of the packaging is a 2-layer recyclable transparent plastic in the shape of half-sphere. The half-spheres are spin-able. The two layers of half-spheres are connected to each other by an “I”-shaped axel that is also made out of recyclable plastic.

On two opposite sides of each half-sphere are two opening that are in the shape of lower-case letter “n”, and are big enough for the toy car to go through. The spin-able top half-sphere should be in a position that the openings of each half-sphere are covered by the other half-sphere.

Both half-spheres are attached to the back cardboard. Each half-sphere has 2 flaps at the edges of two opposite sides that do not have the openings. The cardboard has 4 silts where the gaps are, and the flaps are inserted into the slits making the half-spheres attached to the cardboard.

After the toy car is removed from the packaging, the 2-layer half-spheres become part of the toy. When half-spheres are in the same position as when they are in the packaging, they make a garage for the toy car. When the openings of the top half-sphere are lined up with the openings of the bottom half-sphere, the half-spheres become a tunnel on top of the “road” on the cardboard.

I decided on the topic Zero Waste, because I love nature and I love trees. I hope my idea could protect nature and save the trees.

I have lots of toys. Sometimes when I bought a new toy, I had to throw out the packaging. That gave me the idea to design a toy packaging with zero waste.

In order to have zero waste, I think I should use recyclable materials. To make it more fun, I want the packaging to become part of the toy. That is how I decided to use recyclable cardboard for the back of the packaging and recyclable plastic for the front. The plastic has to be transparent so that people could see the toy inside. The cardboard could have a design of a road for the car to drive on. I also thought a spin-able top would be cool, so I chose 2-layer half-spheres that care connected to each other for the front of the packaging. Since half-spheres are spin-able, I came up with the idea of having opening on the half-spheres so that you could line up the openings and make a tunnel for the car to go through. At last, I needed to find a way to attach the front plastic part to the back cardboard. I thought about using a string made out of recyclable plastic to tie the front to the back cardboard, but it would need more material and it would not look very nice. Instead of using a string to tie the half-spheres through the cardboard, I realized I could give the half-spheres some flaps that could be inserted through the cardboard, this was the packaging would look very neat and no more extra pieces of materials are needed.

That is how I completed my zero-waste toy packaging design idea.

Why spend all that money on instuction paper when you can look it up on the internet? Why even have instuctions when they tell you in the begining of the game? Wouldn’t it be cool if it came with an OUTdoor activity? Why waste all that plastic when you can just make it fit around the disc like a glove?

These are the questions that go through my head every time I get a Wii disc. That’s why I though about how to improve it to it’s max but still have pictures and what game it is.

Instead of wasting money on paper why not just make a website with videos and everything! That way people can look at what for example, a side-flip from Super Mario Galaxy, looks like in action. Mom’s and dad’s are always trying to get their kids active. So why not give a frisbee out with every purchase? Because it’s exspensesive that’s why. So just make it out of a light matereil like cork and let half be detachable. Finally, instead of wasting matereil and making it in a square why not just make it circular and it fits like a glove?

All these things would make bying a Wii game much more exciting.

I’m a big Wii fan. So every time I get a disc I take the disc out and start playing without even looking at the instuctions. So why even make it? That’s why I thought just make a QR code and a website with the instuctions on it.

When you buy a tablet or phone the company uses lots of packageing like plastics, foam and cardboard to protect the merchandise. Most of this packaging ends up in landfills. A better way to package the product is to pack it in a protective case instead of all the unnecessary materials. Since most people have to buy a case for their tablet of phone anyways the case will be used and not thrown away. The case would be made out of recycled cloths and clothing that are donated to the company from people who no longer need them. The inside of the case would be made from thicker clothing such as fleece or animal fur. The outside of the case could be made from shirts, bed sheets or even a pair of jeans! All the company would have to do is attach a zipper and stitch the case together. My product protects the tablet or phone when it is shipped or just so it doesn’t break. This is because I would put metal in it. The kind of metal I would use is steel. I would use steel because when you drop a chair it does not brake so this case won’t break either.

Do you want a bag that makes you and the future look good? Have you ever been doing errands and you are afraid your bag will break and all of your groceries will fall out? Well we have created the Weg. The Weg is a super strong, environmentally friendly bag made out of special spider web materials. The web combines a web and a bag. In our research we learned about how strong spider’s web are. From Madagascar, the Darwin’s bark spider has a web 10 times as strong as Kevlar, two times stronger then a regular spider. The weave design makes it stronger. Spider silk is made out of chains of amino acids (proteins) so we wondered if we could make the same kind of proteins in a manmade spider silk that would be biodegradable and still be strong. We could also use plastics made from corn to make the bag waterproof too.

We were looking for something strong to make a reusable bag that didn’t hurt the environment, or end up in a landfill. We started out with a paper bag, but we read that half the landfills are filled with paper and we didn’t want to waste trees. We have had reusable bags that don’t last, rip easy, and can sit in the landfill when you are done with them for years and years. Plastic bags can stay in the landfill for many years and most end up in the water in the giant garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean hurting animals. The Weg was something we brainstormed. We designed the Weg after we researched spider webs. By the way, Weg stands for Webs Ending Garbage! One day we were researching for an idea and we came across the Darwin Bark Spider, and we thought it would be a good idea to make a bag out of spider webs The bag may also be turned into the smaller WAG, that would be a “scoop the poop” bag for a dogs that would biodegrade back into the earth when you throw it away.

So you want to make your friends jealous with a cool looking reusable bag? It is up to you to save the future, take the Weg!!