This article has information, instruction, and tips on making a chemistry science project. These chemistry projects can be adapted for use in private school, public school, or homeschool settings and used as chemistry science fair projects.

Here is a set of suggestions for science projects that can be adapted for different purposes. There are suggested extensions, which you may include, ignore, or reshape to fit your purposes. These projects can be used in a homeschool setting, as projects for public or private school science classes, or prepared as science fair projects. The projects are in the area of Biochemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Food Chemistry, Organic/Inorganic Chemistry, and Water Chemistry.

Biochemistry

•  Many of the cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins come with instructions not to drink grapefruit juice or eat grapefruit while taking them. Explore the effects of grapefruit juice on the metabolism of these pharmaceuticals.

•   What are the possible consequences if someone accidentally had grapefruit juice (say, in a fruit punch) while taking a statin?
•   What is the difference in effectiveness in taking a statin at different times of day?

Environmental Chemistry/Soil Science

• Determine what chemicals in and properties of soil are important to test for gardening and devise a way to test for them without buying a premade test kit.

•   What soil properties would be important to test for food, but not for flowers?
•   How would the needs for a lawn or a tree differ from a flower garden?
•   How do gardeners manipulate soil qualities to have desired effects on their flowers?

Food Chemistry

• Read this article about a cook's analysis of cooking pasta.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803EFDE1738F936A15751C0A96F9C8B63

Then do one of the following:

• Repeat his experiments, drawing your own conclusions.
• Extend his experiments by applying them to something else that is characteristically cooked in and then removed from water, e.g. pierogi, gnocchi, boiled potatoes, etc.
• Explain the chemistry behind the ability to cook pasta in less water if the water is cold at the start.
• Relate the properties of the cooked pasta (stickiness, fragility, etc.) to the cooking method.

• Create a chocolate frozen treat using soy milk as the main ingredient. You can either start with chocolate soy milk, or add the chocolate separately. Determine both which is the best tasting and stays on the stick best.

• Experiment with chocolate frozen treats using cow's milk as the main ingredient. Either start with chocolate milk or add the chocolate separately in some way. Compare the taste and staying-on-the-stick qualities with the soy milk treats.
• Design a frozen chocolate treat that has neither soy milk nor cow's milk. What ingredients can you use to make a satisfying treat? Use what you've learned from working with soy milk and cow's milk.

Organic/Inorganic Chemistry

• Unwanted pigment, left purposely or accidentally, can disturb the look of a  community. Design an experiment to determine the most effective solvents in removing permanent marker and spray paint from various surfaces.

•    Offer a chemical explanation of the effectiveness of the most effective solvents.
•    Explain the system of categorizing solvents as polar or non-polar. Why is this system useful?
•    Explain in chemical terms the compounding of several perfumes.
•    Design a perfume and explain its design in both chemical terms and by its fragrance characteristics.
•    Make a model that demonstrates the relationship of the olfactive families to the components that are used to create the scents in each group.

Water Chemistry

• Create a model to explain the formation of snowflakes, referring to the effects of temperature, air currents, humidity, particles, and any other important factors that affect it.

• If you live in a community in which it snows, catch snowflakes and analyze their appearance. Using a weather station or weather report see if you can correlate any elements of their appearance to the factors mentioned above or other factors.
• Write a report on current snowflake formation research.

• Place your rainwater in context, both compared to other rain and to tap water.

• What are the effects of rain, in your community, if your rain is acid; in the US, if your community's rain is not acid?
• What are the causes of acid rain (in your community or in the US, as applicable)?