Science Fair Projects on Paleontology

You may be surprised to learn that paleontology is a field of study categorized under earth science and geology and not biology. This is because paleontology examines the mineralized remains of animals and not the actual biological components of these animals. If you are ready for a trip back in time then you need to experiment with science fair projects on paleontology. These earth science experiments will give you your first taste of what it's like to be a field researcher.

Young Scientists Club Set 2	EDU 7074 Weather Station Science Kit	Power House Experiments Science Kit	Experiment with Microbes in the Soil
Ages 5 -8	Age 8 and up	Ages 12 thru High School	Age 10+

Make your own fossil. This is a good project to get you started. For these earth science projects you will be replicating the fossilization process to see how it works. Obviously your results will not produce authentic fossils, as this takes millions of years, but it will produce interesting pieces that you can use for your science fair project display.

The second option that you have for science fair projects on paleontology is to reconstruct the ancient environment of your neighborhood using fossils found in your area. No matter where you live you can find fossils. The most likely fossils will be of plants and found in sedimentary rocks. If you can't find local fossils then visit a natural history museum and ask if they have fossils from your area. Use these fossils to learn about the plants, animals and climate conditions that were once common for your area.

What determines if organic material turns into a fossil, oil or is simply biodegraded? This is a complex hypothesis that will take significant research. After you find the answers to your question you will need to find a way to turn this data into a hypothesis. For example, your hypothesis may be that organic material buried under mud is more likely to turn into a fossil than organic material buried in loose soil. For this experiment your independent variable will be the material the organic material is buried buy and the dependent variable will be what happens to the material after it is buried.

The fossilization process can be sped up by introducing a mineral rich solution. This is an interesting hypothesis that you can experiment with. For this hypothesis your independent variable will be the presence or absence of a mineral rich solution and the dependent variable will be how fast the fossilization process takes. To find data for your hypothesis you will need to look for resources and articles on fossils found near mineral rich solutions, like in Yellowstone. One variation of this project is to look at how the presence of different types of minerals impacts how fast or how likely the fossilization process will occur.

All of these experiments are either intermediate or advanced projects. Because of this they make great options for science fair projects. However, if you want to really impress the judges you will need to add your own personal touch and angles to these projects. For example, you can focus your hypothesis on your local area or you can focus your hypotheses on a specific type of fossil, or a unique fossil formation. The key to developing a good paleontology project is to tightly focus it on an area that really interests you.