Scienc Fair Project For High School - Is Air Pollution Different on Different Days of the Week?

This science fair project is good for high school students, and uses some

speciality equipment that every high school science lab should have. 

In this science fair project, students are going to figure out whether or not air pollution is different on different days of the week. So what do you think? Does the day of the week affect air pollution? What are some factors that do affect air pollution? Make sure to write out a hypothesis stating what you believe before you start the project.

For this project you are going to need: 

• a microscope
• glass slides
• petroleum jelly. 

Method:

The procedure for this science fair project is pretty easy and straightforward. 

1. Coat the one side of the glass slides with petroleum jelly
2. Place them in a variety of areas around your community. 
3. Put them outside your house, outside your classroom window, inside your classroom, in a park and so on. 
4. Let the slides sit for the same period of time, for example 8 hours, 12 hours or one day. 
5. After picking up the slides, you will want to study them under a microscope and see the particles on them. 
6. What kind of particles do you see?
7. Repeat this process for each of the days in a week, making sure that your slides are left out for the same period of time and in the same location.
8. Record your results. 
9. You may even want to make a diagram of what you can see through the microscope. 
10. For best results continue this experiment for at least two weeks but possibly even four weeks.

What did you find out? Does the air pollution change between different days of the week? Is a Monday typically cleaner than a Friday? Was your hypothesis right?

If you want to introduce another variable into your project, you can look at the weather reports for the days of the week that you looked at for the air quality. 

• Do you think the weather affected your results? 
• When did you have the best air-quality: on a sunny day, a cloudy day or a rainy day? 
• Which has a bigger role in air pollution: the day of the week or the weather?

Air quality is important, and finding out what affects air-quality is a good project for high school students. This science fair project uses a microscope, but it is still easy to do and can tell a lot about our environment and world.

If you are looking for a science project for a younger child you can have a look at my Hub:

Science Fair Projects, Grade One To Seven