Detect invisible infrared waves with a Crookes Radiometer.

Are goldfish active by day? Could you switch their day-night cycle? Do they anticipate food?

Are heavy backpacks dangerous to health?

Are there different amounts of iron in different breakfast cereals?

At what pressure do basketballs bounce highest? (Use a video camera.)

Build a hovercraft that can lift a human being.

Build a levitating magnetic train.

Build a mechanical toy for your pet dog or cat.

Build a sundial, test it, and answer the questions on NASA’s web page.

Build a working crystal radio that needs no power whatsoever. (Bring it to Mitchell for a test.)

Build model houses of brick and wood and test for earthquake resistance on a shake table.

Build your own telescope from a copier lens.

Can an owl’s diet be determined by looking at its pellets?

Can I build a strong electric magnet? Can I fling a ring with one?

Build a professional-looking car ramp and race model cars

Can the chirp-rate of a cricket be used to tell the temperature?

Can you read weather patterns from tree rings?

Collect and study micrometeorites with a microscope and a magnet. Check your farm’s rock pile for larger meteorites.

Compare insulators of known R-values in a model home built by you.

Build your solar water heater.

Can polarized light be used to create automatic "headlight dimmers"?

Make a stained glass window without glass.

Create your own magic squares and explain how it is done.

Do boys and girls watch different TV programs? Who watches more?

Does wearing glasses affect your peripheral vision? What else might affect peripheral vision?

View a bug remotely through an electron microscope.

Do household disinfectants promote bacterial resistance?

Buy a binary clock and explain it Learn much more by building the clock yourself.

Examine a spider web under a microscope.

About how often do large meteor strikes occur? Do the largest disrupt life?

Examine the bacteria found in common yogurt under a microscope.

How accurate is the Weather Channel? (Compare with a variety of sources.)

Are base 16 or base 12 numbers superior to base 10? Can you use negative numbers to form a base for counting?

How do we tell how far away a star is from Earth?

How does an electric light diminish over time? How long do bulbs last?

How does temperature affect the bounce of a super ball?

How does temperature affect the bounce of balls that you’d normally use for playing sports?

How does the height of a dropped object affect the crater it makes in loose soil?

How does the thickness of motor oil (and other liquids) change with temperature?

How does the time of day affect Web page retrieval time?

How fast does an earthworm tunnel? (Convert into soil eaten/year.)

How many types of insects exist in a six-inch cube of farmland? (Use a sieve.)

Measure the diameter of the sun and moon.

Photograph the webs from different spiders (highlight with spray paint). Why are they different?

What are coprolites? Why are they important to the study of dinosaurs? How else can you study dinosaurs?

What is happening to South Dakota’s population and to its farmland?

What happens when I put two computer chess programs in competition?

What is the "golden section"? Where does it appear in nature?

What is the average weekly difference between above ground and below ground temperatures?

How does the Plant Hardiness Zone Map affect South Dakota’s vegetation?

What is the best way to melt ice?

What are the mathematics of the musical scale? How can this be demonstrated?

What shape makes for the fastest playground slide?

Which wood glue is best? Can you make a better glue than "Gorilla Glue"?

Which rolls faster down an inclined plane, a hoop or a disk of equal diameter?

Which types of fabric are the most flammable? (Have an adult present.)

Why does a child’s balloon suddenly pop?

Draw holograms by hand.

Build this charge detector.

Generate a tornado in a box and explain how tornados work.

Build Lord Kelvin’s thunderstorm electrostatic generator.

Build a high voltage Van de Graaff electrostatic generator.

Are body skin temperatures normally distributed?

Which golf ball flies farthest?

Study earthworms.

Verify the Birthday Paradox.

Study two coupled pendulums. What would happen if you used three pendulums?

Collect rocks and minerals and identify them.

Report on the geology of South Dakota.

Photograph snow crystals.

Find the speed of sound.

Launch a model rocket and explain it.

Investigate surface tension.

Make a herbarium of prairie plants.

Experiment with acids and bases.

Record the songs of birds.