Sunlight vs. Artificial Light Science Fair Projects

While most sunlight vs. artificial light science fair projects are going to be based on plant experiments, you can break out of this mold by looking at how artificial light impacts other organisms. In these biology science experiments you will want to look at how artificial lights affect organism behavior. Here are few example projects you can try.

The types of artificial light that you use at school or at home may be affecting your behavior. This is a great subject for sunlight vs. artificial light science fair projects. Here you will want to set up several experiments to see if the light source impacts normal human behavior like activity level and mood.

Biology science fair projects can be developed around the amount of exposure that people have to artificial light. For example, look at if artificial light impacts a person's moods. In this sample experiment your hypothesis will be that too much exposure to artificial light will make people feel depressed or tired. The control project for this experiment will be people who are exposed only to natural light. When collecting data look for symptoms of depression like exhaustion, sadness, low activity levels and a desire to sleep, as well as note the severity and frequency of these symptoms.

The next experiment that you can use for sunlight vs. artificial light science fair projects is to vary the exposure times people have to natural and artificial light. The purpose of this experiment is to see if (1) there is a behavior change that occurs and (2) to find a healthy balance of natural and artificial light. You can expand upon this experiment by creating several experiments, with each one using a different type of artificial light or a different intensity of artificial light.

Energy experiments can also be used for twelfth grade science fair projects. In these experiments you will want to see how much energy is used by schools or a household because of their artificial light sources. You can then develop a more advanced project that determines ways to save energy by relying more on natural sources of light. You can also look at ways to amplify natural light to light institutions like schools and office buildings.

Finally, compare how sunlight and artificial light exposure affects the health of a person. In this experiment you will want to look at disease rates, vital statistics and other health indicators are affected by the amount of artificial light that a person is exposed to. If there is a relationship between artificial light exposure and health, what is this relationship? Is it good or bad? How can this information be used to improve people's health?