Kid's Science Fair Project Ideas
Do you need an idea for a winning science fair project? How about these popular science fair projects for some great ideas! Make a model of Earth and its many layers! How about an experiment on tsunamis? Will a magnet work better when it is hot or cold? These are great science fair projects that you can easily pull together for your science fair!! Each science fair project includes 15 pages of easy-to-follow directions to help you create your project step-by-step.
Also included in each project:
- Details about the scientific method
- List of needed materials
- Vital information on how to make your presentation
- Details about "What the judges are looking for"
As a bonus, every project includes 16 free original science games that you can play with all your friends!
In addition to these science fair project ideas, you can choose from over 200 winning science fair project ideas . Every subject is covered including chemistry, physics, biology, computer and environmental sciences, and more. Choose it and print it now; start your science fair project right away!
Just for Fun Science Facts! Ecology is the branch of science that lends itself to children science
fair projects, and that studies the distribution and abundance of living
organisms, and the interactions between organisms and their environment.
kid science fair project idea can be found in the environment of an
organism includes both its physical habitat, which can be described as the
sum of local abiotic factors like climate and geology, as well as the
other organisms which share its habitat. For a kid science fair project,
you could look up he term which was coined in 1866 by the German biologist
Ernst Haeckel from the Greek oikos meaning "household" and logos meaning
"science:" the "study of the household of nature."
Other children science fair project ideas include looking into ecological
systems which are studied at several different levels from individuals and
populations to ecosystems and biosphere level. Ecology is a
multi-disciplinary science, drawing on many other branches of science.
A Child science fair project in applied ecology is the practice of
employing ecological principles and analysis to solve real world problems.
For example, measuring the economic worth of ecosystems, calculating
fishing quotas, measuring environmental impact from construction, or
conserving endangered species and their habitat. This is good material for
kid science fair project idea.
When doing a child science fair project, outside scientific contexts, the
word ecology is often used as synonym of "the environment". Other
disciplines have used the term ecology to mean an analysis or study using
the principles and methods of ecology. For example, human ecology looks at
humans and their interactions with the natural environment. Political
ecology takes on both alternative meanings, and may use ecology's methods
in a new context by looking at interactions of societies and states rather
than species or populations, but may also mean politics related to
environmental issues. Great material for kid science fair project idea.
Ecology, as a scientific disipline, does not itself dictate what is right
or wrong. Children's easy science fair project ideas should always take this into
consideration. However maintaining biodiversity within ecosystems and
related ecological goals (such as preventing species extinctions) have
become scientific ways to express the goals of the environmental movement
and has given scientific methodology, measure, and terminology to
environmental issues, making the two heavily linked. The wholistic view
taken by ecological study is also stressed in environmentalism. kid
science fair project idea can be generated from all this data.
Scope for child science fair project idea
Ecology is usually considered a branch of biology, the general science
that studies living beings. Children science fair projects should make
note of this. These can be studied at several levels, from proteins and
nucleic acids (in biochemistry and molecular biology), cells (in cellular
biology), organisms (in botanics, zoology, and other similar disciplines),
and finally at the level of populations, communities, and ecosystems
which are the subjects of ecology. Conversely, some people consider
ecology to be the parent discipline and biology to be the sub-disciple,
since ecology includes not only the interactions between organsisms, but
also their interactions with their surroundings. A child science fair
project can benefit from this knowledge.
When looking for a child science fair project idea one should know that
because of its focus on the broadest level of life and on the
interrelations between living beings and their environment, ecology draws
heavily on other branches of science, such as geology and geography,
meteorology, pedology, chemistry, and physics. For this reason, ecology is
often said to be a holistic science. A child science fair project show
understand this.
the behavioural relationship between individuals of a species for
example, the study of the queen bee, and how it relates to the worker bees
and the drones.
the organized activity of a species for example, the activity of the bee
assures the pollination of flowering plants. A bee hive additionally
produces honey which is consumed by other species, such as bears. Children
science fair projects may learn from this.
and the environment of this activity for example, the consequences of
the environmental change on the bee activity. Bees may die out due to
environmental changes (see pollinator decline). The environment at the
same time both affects and is a consequence of this activity and is thus
intertwined with the survival of the species. kid science fair project
idea can learn much.
Disciplines of ecology and children science fair projects ideas
Ecology is a broad science that encompasses many specialized branches,
including ecophysiology which studies the relations between a single type of
organism and the factors of its environment; population ecology or autecology, which studies the relations between a
population of individuals of the same species and its environment;
community ecology or synecology, which studies the relations between one's
community, in addition to individuals of different species within his
environment, often using the concept of ecological succession.
The study of specific ecosystems.
1) Global ecology , which studies ecology on the scale of the ecosphere or
biosphere (the totality of the space occupied by alive beings).
2) Chemical ecology, which deals with the ecological role of biological
chemicals used in a wide range of areas including defense against
predators and attraction of mates.
3) Molecular ecology , which attempts to address ecological questions at the
molecular level, usually through by looking at DNA or allozymes .
Ecotoxicology , which looks at the ecological role of toxic chemicals
(often pollutants, but also naturally occurring compounds).
4) Applied ecology , including agroecology and conservation biology
conservation ecology
5) Restoration ecology , which attempts to understand the functioning of
ecosytems in order to restore human-impacted sites.
6) Landscape ecology, which examines ecological questions at the scale of the
landscape and tries to understand how the arrangement of landscape
elements (such as forest patches) influences the ecology of species within
them.
7) Animal ecology
8) Plant ecology
9) Aquatic ecology
10) Soil ecology
11) Tropical ecology
12) Polar ecology
13) Urban ecology
14) Behavioral ecology
15) Ecoevolution or evolutionary ecology which looks at evolutionary changes
in the context of the populations and communities in which the organisms
exist.
16) Paleoecology, which seeks to understand the relationships between species
in fossil assemblages, and in so doing gain insight into the way these
species might have been shaped by their interactions with other species.
17) Macroecology
18) Theoretical ecology is a broad term which generally refers to any approach
to ecological questions which are addressed primarily in theoretical
terms, usually through simulation and modelling.
19) Ecosystem ecology (or systems ecology and biogeochemistry which focus on
the flow of energy and nutrient within and among ecological units.
Ecology also plays important roles in many inter-disciplinary fields:
1) Human ecology and ecological anthropology .
2) Social ecology, ecological health and environmental psychology .
ecological economics.
3) Ecological design and ecological engineering .
Finally, ecology has also inspired (and lent its name to) other
non-biological disciplines such as
1) Software ecology and information ecology.
industrial ecology.
2) Fundamental principles of ecology
Biosphere and biodiversity more data for elementary science fair project ideas
Main articles: Biosphere, Biodiversity, Unified neutral theory of
biodiversity
For modern ecologists, ecology can be studied at several levels:
population level (individuals of the same species), biocenose level (or
community of species), ecosystem level, and biosphere level.
The Earth, from an ecological point of view, consists of several
compartments, the hydrosphere (or sphere of water), the lithosphere (or
sphere of soils and rocks) and the atmosphere (or sphere of the air). The
biosphere, sometimes described as fourth envelope, is the part of the
planet on which the life developed. It is a very thin surface layer, which
goes down to 11000 meters of depth to rising up to 15000 meters of
altitude, although the majority of life live in the zone located between
-100 meters and +100 meters.
Life first developed in the hydrosphere, at low depth, in the photic zone.
Multicellular organisms then appeared and colonized benthic zones.
Terrestrial life developed later, after the ozone layer protecting living
beings from UV rays formed. Diversification of terrestrial species is
thought to be increased by the continents drifting apart, or alternately,
colliding. Biosphere and biodiversity are inseparable characteristics of
the Earth. Biosphere is defined as being the sphere of life, whereas
biodiversity is its diversity. The sphere is the container, whereas
diversity is the contents. This diversity is expressed at the same time at
the ecological level (ecosystem), population level (intraspecific
diversity) and species level (specific diversity).
The biosphere contains great quantities of elements such as carbon,
nitrogen and oxygen. Other elements, such as phosphorus, calcium, and
potassium, are also essential to life. At the ecosystem and biosphere
level, there is a permanent recycling of all these elements, which
alternate between the mineral state and the organic state.
While there is a slight input of geothermal energy, the bulk of the
functioning of the ecosystem is primarily based on the input of solar
energy. Plants convert light into chemical energy by the process of
photosynthesis, which creates glucose (a simple sugar) and releases free
oxygen. Glucose thus becomes the secondary energy source which drives the
ecosystem. Some of this glucose is used directly by other organisms for
energy. Other sugar molecules can be converted to other molecules such as
amino acids. Plants use some of this sugar, concentrated in nectar to
entice pollinators to aid them in reproduction. (Honeybees concentrate the
sugar still further as honey, which can be said to be "stored summer
sunshine").
Cellular respiration is the process by which organisms (like mammals)
breakdown the glucose back to its constituents, water and carbon dioxide,
gaining back the stored energy the sun originally gave to the plants. The
proportion of photosynthetic activity of plants to the respiration of
other organisms determines the specific composition of the Earth's
atmosphere, particularly its oxygen level. Global air currents mix the
atmosphere and maintain nearly the same balance in areas of intense
biological activity and areas of slight biological activity.
Water is also exchanged between the hydrosphere, the lithosphere, the
atmosphere and the biosphere in regular cycles. The oceans are large
tanks, which store water, ensure a thermal and climatic stability, as well
as the transport of the chemical elements thanks to large oceanic current
s.
For better understanding of how the biosphere works, and the dysfunctions
related to human activity, American scientists carried out, under
greenhouses, a small-scale model of the biosphere, called Biosphere II.
The concept of an ecosystem - a great kid science fair project idea
Main article: Ecosystem
The first principle of ecology is that each living organism has an ongoing
and continual relationship with every other element that makes up its
environment. An ecosystem can be defined as any situation where there is
interaction between organisms and their environment.
The ecosystem is composed of two entities, the entirety of life (called
the biocenose) and the medium that life exists in (the biotope). Within
the ecosystem, species are connected and dependent upon one another in the
food chain, and exchange energy and matter between themselves and with
their environment.
The concept of an ecosystem can apply to units of variable size, such as a
pond, a field, or a piece of deadwood. A unit of smaller size is called a
microecosystem . For example, an ecosystem can be a stone and all the life
under it. A mesoecosystem could be a forest, and a macroecosystem a whole
ecoregion, with its watershed. More good data for children science fair
projects.
The main questions when studying an ecosystems are:
how could be carried out the colonization of an arid area?
What are the ecosystems dynamics and changes
how does an ecosystem interact at local, regional and global scale
is the current state stable?
what is the value of an ecosystem? How does the interaction of ecological
systems provide benefit to humans, especially in the provision of healthy
water?
Ecosystems are often classified by reference to the biotopes concerned.
The following ecosystems may be defined :
as continental ecosystem s (or terrestrial), such as forest ecosystem s,
meadow ecosystem s (meadows, steppes, savannas), or agro-ecosystem s
(agricultural systems).
as ecosystems of inland waters, such as lentic ecosystem s (lakes, ponds)
or lotic ecosystem s (rivers)
as oceanic ecosystem s (seas, oceans).
Another classification can be done by reference to its communities (for
example a human ecosystem ). Good for a child science fair project idea.
Dynamics and stability more good information for children science fair
projects
Main articles: ecological factor, geobiochemical cycle , Homeostasis,
Population dynamics
The biotope is a region environmentally uniform, characterized by a whole
set of geological, geographical and climatological parameters, which are
called abiotic ecological factors:
1) Water, is at the same time, an essential element to life, as well as a
milieu
2) Air, which provides oxygen and carbon dioxide to living species, and
allows the dissemination of pollen and spores
3) Soil, at the same time source of nutriment and support of development
temperature, which should not exceed certain extremes, even if tolerance
to heat is significant for some species
4) Light, allowing photosynthesis. Good for a kid science fair project idea
5) Biocenose, or community, is a group of populations of plants, animals,
micro-organisms. Each population is the result of procreations between
individuals of same species and cohabiting in a given place and at a given
time. When a population consists of an insufficient number of individuals,
the species is threatened with extinction, either by underpopulation, or
by because of consanguinity. A population can be reduced for several
reasons, for example, disappearance of its habitat (destruction of a
forest) or by excessive predation (such as the hunting of a given
species). Good for children science fair projects
Biocenose is characterized by biotic ecological factors of two types:
intraspecific and interspecific relations.
Intraspecific relation s are those which are established between
individuals of the same species, forming a population. They are relations
of co-operation or competition, with division of the territory, and
sometimes organization in hierarchical societies. Perhaps a good kid
science fair project?
Interspecific relation s, i.e. those existing between different species,
are numerous, and usually described according to their beneficial,
detrimental or neutral effect (for example, symbiosis (relation ++) or
competition (relation --)). The most significant relation is the relation
of predation (to eat or to be eaten), which leads to the essential
concepts in ecology of food chains (for example, the grass is consumed by
the herbivore, itself consumed by a carnivore, itself consumed by a
carnivore of larger size). Ecological niche is the area shared by two
species when they live at the same place with the same type of diet. A
child science fair project idea?
The existing interactions between the various living beings go along with
a permanent mixing of mineral and organic substances, absorbed by
organisms for their growth, their maintenance and their reproduction, to
be finally rejected as waste. These permanent recyclings of the elements
(in particular carbon, oxygen and nitrogen) as well as the water are
called biogeochemical cycles. Look here for child science fair project idea.
They guarantee a durable stability of the biosphere (at least when human
influence and extreme weather phenomena are left aside). This
self-regulation, supported by negative feedback controls, ensures the
perenniality of the ecosystems. It is shown by the very stable
concentrations of most elements of each compartment. This is referred to
as homeostasis. The ecosystem also tends to evolve to a state of ideal
balance, reached after a succession of events, the climax (for example a
pond can become a peat bog).
Spatial relationships and subdivisions of land a child science fair
project idea
Main articles: Biome, ecozone
Ecosystems are not isolated from each other, but are interrelated. For
example, water may circulate between ecosystems by the means of a river or
ocean current. Water itself, as a liquid medium, even defines ecosystems.
Some species, such as salmon or freshwater eels move between marine
systems and fresh-water systems. These relationships between the
ecosystems lead to the concept of a biome.
A biome is a homogeneous ecological formation that exists over a vast
region, such as tundra or steppes. The biosphere comprises all of the
Earth's biomes -- the entirety of places where life is possible -- from
the highest mountains to the depths of the oceans.
Biomes correspond rather well to subdivisions distributed along the
latitudes, from the equator towards the poles, with differences based on
to the physical environment (for example, oceans or mountain ranges) and
to the climate. Their variation is generally related to the distribution
of species according to their ability to tolerate temperature and/or
dryness. For example, one may find photosynthetic algae only in the photic
part of the ocean (where light penetrates), while conifers are mostly
found in mountains. Children science fair projects from this information
can be stimulating.
Though this is a simplification of more complicated scheme, latitude and
altitude approximate a good representation of the distribution of
biodiversity within the biosphere. Very generally, the richness of
biodiversity (as well for animal than plant species) is decreasing most
rapidly near the equator (as in Brazil) and less rapidly as one approaches
the poles.
The biosphere may also be divided into ecozone, which are very well
defined today and primarily follow the continental borders. The ecozones
are themselves divided into ecoregions, though there is not agreement on
their limits.
Ecosystem productivity
In an ecosystem, the connections between species are generally related to
food and their role in the food chain. There are three categories of
organisms:
producers -- plants which are capable of photosynthesis
consumers -- animals, which can be primary consumers (herbivorous), or
secondary or tertiary consumers (carnivorous).
decomposers -- bacteria, mushrooms which degrade organic matter of all
categories, and restore minerals to the environment.
These relations form sequences, in which each individual consumes the
preceding one and is consumed by the one following, in what are called
food chains or food network. In a food network, there will be fewer
organisms at each level as one follows the links of the network up the
chain.
These concepts lead to the idea of biomass (the total living matter in a
given place), of primary productivity (the increase in the mass of plants
during a given time) and of secondary productivity (the living matter
produced by consumers and the decomposers in a given time).
These two last ideas are key, since they make it possible to evaluate the
load capacity -- the number of organisms which can be supported by a given
ecosystem. In any food network, the energy contained in the level of the
producers is not completely transferred to the consumers. Children science
fair project ideas can come from here. Thus, from an energy point of view,
it is more efficient for humans to be primary consumers (to get
nourishment from grains and vegetables) than as secondary consumers (from
herbivores such as beef and veal), and more still than as a tertiary
consumer (from eating carnivores).
The productivity of ecosystems is sometimes estimated by comparing three
types of land-based ecosystems and the total of aquatic ecosystems:
1) The forests (1/3 of the Earth's land area) contain dense biomasses and are
very productive. The total production of the world's forests corresponds
to half of the primary production.
2) Savannas, meadows, and marshes (1/3 of the Earth's land area) contain less
dense biomasses, but are productive. These ecosystems represent the major
part of what humans depend on for food.
extreme ecosystems in the areas with more extreme climates -- deserts and
semi-deserts, tundra, alpine meadows
3) Steppes -- (1/3 of the Earth's
surface) have very sparse biomasses and low productivity
finally, the marine and fresh water ecosystems (3/4 of Earth's surface)
contain very sparse biomasses (apart from the coastal zones). kid science
fair project idea can be found here.
Humanity's actions over the last few centuries have seriously reduced the
amount of the Earth covered by forests (deforestation), and have increased
agro-ecosystems (agriculture). In recent decades, an increase in the areas
occupied by extreme ecosystems has occurred (desertification).
Ecological crisis good background for kid science fair project idea.
Generally, an ecological crisis is what occurs when the environment of
life of a species or a population evolves in an unfavourable way to its
survival.
It may be that the environment quality degrades compared to the species
needs, after a change of abiotic ecological factor (for example, an
increase of temperature, less significant rainfalls).
It may be that the environment becomes unfavourable for the survival of a
species (or a population) due to an increase pressure of predation (for
example overfishing).
Lastly, it may be that the situation becomes unfavourable to the quality
of life of the species (or the population) due to rise in the number of
individuals (overpopulation).
Ecological crises may be more or less brutal (occurring between a few
months to a few million years). They can also be of natural or anthropic
origin. They may relate to one unique species or on the contrary, to a
high number of species (see the article on Extinction event).
Lastly, an ecological crisis may be local (as an oil spill) or global (a
rise in the sea level related to global warming).
According to its degree of endemism, a local crisis will have more or less
significant consequences, from the death of many individuals to the total
extinction of a species. Whatever its origin, disappearance of one or
several species often will involve a rupture in the food chain, further
impacting the survival of other species. kid science fair project idea can
be found here.
In the case of a global crisis, the consequences can be much more
significant; some extinction events showed the disappearance of more than
90% of existing species at that time. However, it should be noted that the
disappearance of certain species, such as the dinosaurs, by freeing an
ecological niche, allowed the development and the diversification of the
mammals. An ecological crisis thus paradoxically favored biodiversity.
Children science fair projects from here.
Sometimes, an ecological crisis can be a specific and reversible
phenomenon at the ecosystem scale. But more generally, the crises impact
will last. Indeed, it rather is a connected series of events, that occur
till a final point. From this stage, no return to the previous stable
state is possible, and a new stable state will be set up gradually (see
homeorhesy ).
Lastly, if an ecological crisis can cause extinction, it can also more
simply reduce the quality of life of the remaining individuals. Thus, even
if the diversity of the human population is sometimes considered
threatened (see in particular indigenous people), few people envision
human disappearance at short span. However, epidemic disease s, famines,
impact on health of reduction of air quality , food crise s, reduction of
living space, accumulation of toxic or non degradable wastes, threats on
keystone species (great apes, panda, whales) are also factors influencing
the well-being of people. Child science fair project ideas from this info
should be sought out.
During the past decades, this increasing responsibility of humanity in
some ecological crises has been clearly observed. Due to the increases in
technology and a rapidly increasing population, humans have more influence
on their own environment than any other ecosystem engineer.
Some usually quoted examples as ecological crises are
Permian-Triassic extinction event 250 million of years ago
Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event 65 million years ago
global warming related to the greenhouse effect. Warming could involve
flooding of the Asian deltas (see also ecorefugee s), multiplication of
extreme weather phenomena and changes in the nature and quantity of the
food resources (see Global warming and agriculture)
Ozone layer hole issue keep on the lookout for a child science fair
project.
Deforestation and desertification, with disappearance of many species.
The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986 caused the death of many people
and animals from cancer, and caused mutations in a large number of animals
and people. The area around the plant is now abandoned because of the
large amount of radiation generated by the meltdown.
History of ecology
One of the first ecologists may have been Aristotle who had interest in
many species of animals. He was followed by numerous naturalists such as
Buffon and Carolus Linnaeus, whose work is usually considered the origin
of modern ecology. Great info for kid science fair project idea.
The botanical geography and Alexander von Humboldt
Throughout the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the great
maritime powers such as France and Germany, launched many world
exploratory expeditions to develop maritime commerce with other countries,
and to discover new natural resources, as well as to catalog them. At the
beginning of the 18th century, about twenty thousand plant species were
known, versus forty thousand at the beginning of the 19th century, and
almost 400,000 today.
These expeditions were joined by many scientists, including botanists,
such as the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Humboldt is often
considered the true father of ecology. He was the first to take on the
study of the relationship between organisms and their environment. He
exposed the existing relationships between observed plant species and
climate, and described vegetation zones using latitude and altitude, a
discipline now known as geobotany .
In 1804, for example, he reported an impressive number of species,
particularly plants, for which he sought to explain their geographic
distribution with respect to geological data. One of Humboldt's famous
works was "Idea for a Plant Geography" (1805).
Other important botanists include Aimι Bonpland and Eugenius Warming .
The notion of biocenose: Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace
Towards 1850 there was a breakthrough in the field with the publishing of
the work of Charles Darwin on The Origin of Species: Ecology passed from a
repetitive, mechanical model to a biological, organic, and hence
evolutionary model.
Alfred Russel Wallace, contemporary and competitor to Darwin, was first to
propose a "geography" of animal species. Several authors recognized at the
time that species were not independent of each other, and grouped them
into plant species, animal species, and later into communities of living
beings or biocenose. This term was coined in 1877 by Karl Mφbius .
The biosphere - Eduard Suess and Vladimir Vernadsky -
By the 19th century, ecology blossomed due to new discoveries in chemistry
by Lavoisier and de Saussure, notably the nitrogen cycle. After observing
the fact that life developed only within strict limits of each compartment
that makes up the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere, the Austrian
geologist Eduard Suess proposed the term biosphere in 1875. Suess proposed
the name biosphere for the conditions promoting life, such as those found
on Earth, which includes flora, fauna, minerals, matter cycles , et
cetera.
In the 1920s Vladimir I. Vernadsky, a Russian geologist who had defected
to France, detailed the idea of the biosphere in his work "The biosphere"
(1926), and described the fundamental principles of the biogeochemical
cycles. He thus redefined the biosphere as the sum of all ecosystems.
First ecological damages were reported in the 18th century, as the
multiplication of colonies caused deforestation. Since the 19th century,
with the industrial revolution, more and more pressing concerns have grown
about the impact of human activity on the environment. The term ecologist
has been in use since the end of the 19th century.
The ecosystem: Arthur Tansley children science fair project ideas
Over the 19th century, botanical geography and zoogeography combined to
form the basis of biogeography. This science, which deals with habitats of
species, seeks to explain the reasons for the presence of certain species
in a given location.
It was in 1935 that Arthur Tansley, the British ecologist, coined the term
ecosystem, the interactive system established between the biocenose (the
group of living creatures), and their biotope, the environment in which
they live. Ecology thus became the science of ecosystems.
Tansley's concept of the ecosystem was adopted by the energetic and
influential biology educator Eugene Odum. Along with his brother, Howard
Odum, Eugene P. Odum wrote a textbook which (starting in 1953) educated
more than one generation of biologists and ecologists in North America.
Human ecology more info for a kid science fair project
Human ecology began in the 1920s, through the study of changes in
vegetation succession in the city of Chicago. It became a distinct field
of study in the 1970s. This marked the first recognition that humans, who
had colonized all of the Earth's continents, were a major ecological
factor. More good info for a child science fair project. Humans greatly
modify the environment through the development of the habitat (in
particular urban planning), by intensive exploitation activities such as
logging and fishing, and as side effects of agriculture, mining, and
industry. Besides ecology and biology, this discipline involved many other
natural and social sciences, such as anthropology and ethnology,
economics, demography, architecture and urban planning, medicine and
psychology, and many more. The development of human ecology led to the
increasing role of ecological science in the design and management of
cities.
James Lovelock and the Gaia hypothesis another source of kid science
fair project idea.
The Gaia theory, proposed by James Lovelock, in his work Gaia: A New Look
at Life on Earth, advanced the view that the Earth should be regarded as a
single living macro-organism. In particular, it argued that the ensemble
of living organisms has jointly evolved an ability to control the global
environment by influencing major physical parameters as the composition
of the atmosphere, the evaporation rate, the chemistry of soils and oceans
so as to maintain conditions favorable to life.
This vision was largely a sign of the times, in particular the growing
perception after the Second World War that human activities such as
nuclear energy, industrialization, pollution, and overexploitation of
natural resources, fueled by exponential population growth , were
threatening to create catastrophes on a planetary scale. Thus Lovelock's
Gaia hypothesis, while controversial among scientists, was embraced by
many environmental movements as an inspiring view: their Earth-mother,
Gaia, was "becoming sick from humans and their activities". A good child
science fair project idea can come from the above.
Conservation and environmental movements and more kid science fair
project idea.
Indeed, since the 19th century, ecology has been obviously relevant to
social and philosophical movements related to protection of the natural
environment, such as conservationism and environmentalism. Today ecology
is a major political topic, and a source of ideology for major political
organizations such as the Green Party and Greenpeace.
Ecology and global policy a good source for children science fair
projects
Ecology became a central part of the World's politics as early as 1971,
UNESCO launched a research program called Man and Biosphere , with the
objective of increasing knowledge about the mutual relationship between
humans and nature. A few years later it defined the concept of Biosphere
Reserve.
In 1972, the United Nations held the first international conference on the
human environment in Stockholm, prepared by Renι Dubos and other experts.
This conference was the origin of the phrase "Think Globally, Act
Locally". Children science fair project ideas. The next major events in
ecology were the development of the concept of biosphere and the
appearance of terms "biological diversity" -- or now more commonly
biodiversity -- in the 1980s. Always keep your eye pealed on finding good
kid science fair project idea. These terms were developed during the Earth
Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, where the concept of the biosphere was
recognized by the major international organizations, and risks associated
with reductions in biodiversity were publicly acknowledged.
Then, in 1997, the dangers the biosphere was facing were recognized from
an international point of view at the conference leading to the Kyoto
Protocol. In particular, this conference highlighted the increasing
dangers of the greenhouse effect -- related to the increasing
concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, leading to global
changes in climate. In Kyoto, most of the world's nations recognized the
importance of looking at ecology from a global point of view, on a
worldwide scale, and to take into account the impact of humans on the
Earth's environment. Many good children science fair projects can come
from this
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