Science Fair Projects: Four Sports-Type Activities
Tall and Short Runners
If you’re on the track team, this sports science fair project may be perfect for you. Think about whether tall runners have a better chance of winning a track meet than shorter runners. Are shorter runners really at a disadvantage? Then have several of your track teammates run the same length various times, and clock their speeds. Measure their heights, and chart all of the data you’ve collected to test your hypothesis. You might also try repeating the experiment with people who are not on the track team, to see if that makes a difference.
Bouncing Balls
Why are specific balls used for specific sports? While it’s obvious why a tennis ball would not work well in a game of bowling, it may be less obvious why a basketball cannot be used for a soccer game. Often, the answer has to do with how well the balls bounce. Your science fair project can test the “bounceability” of the balls from various sports. Alternatively, you can run the same tests on different brands of balls, or on how each ball bounces on a different surface (e.g., an indoor basketball court, a soccer field, a blacktop court). You can even create a sports science fair project that would test which baseball bat material works best, or which tennis racket makes the ball move the farthest distance.
The Power of a Helmet
Will a helmet really protect your head in case of a collision? How strong of an impact can a helmet sustain? To test this, consider using a watermelon or other large, heavy, round object in place of a head inside the helmet. Then drop the watermelon-helmet from various heights and then inspect the watermelon for effects of the impact. You can use different brands or types of helmets to see which is most effective.
The Effect of Exercise on Brain Power
Does playing sports make your brain work more effectively? Put together a simple memory test, such as one involving word pairs that the subject must remember, and give the test to your friends – half before playing a sports game, and half afterwards. Will one group have a higher success rate than the other? Find out!
These sports science fair projects are the perfect way to combine your love of sports with your need for a science fair project. And who knows – you may even learn something new that can help you in your sport!
This post is part of the series: Science Fair Project Ideas
Looking for an interesting science fair project topic? Take a look at some of these science fair project ideas to spark your interest.
