Winning Sports Science Fair Ideas

Winning sports science fair ideas can be generated in a number of ways. The first way is to simply look at the sports that you enjoy and ask questions about that sport. The second way is to complete sample sports science fair projects and then expand on that project.

There are a lot of different sports that can be examined in physics science fair projects. You can explore team sports like baseball, hockey and soccer, or you can explore individual sports like walking, running and swimming. Below is a sample science experiment on walking. Use this sample to get an idea of how sports can be broken down and tested in an experiment.

Walking Ratios Experiment

Objective

In this experiment you will test if the height of a person is related to their walking pace, and if this information can be used to estimate the height of a person.

Procedure

Why is height an important variable for measuring how far a person has walked?

The measurements of a pedometer are based on the hypothesis that all people have common ratios and proportions, even if they are different heights. In this experiment, you can test this hypothesis by measuring the height of different individuals to see if this is related to the number of steps they take to walk a certain distance. Will the result be a ratio? Will the ratio of different volunteers be the same? Can you use the ratio to predict the height of a person by counting the number of steps they take to walk a certain distance?

Since walking is the basis of many sports, it is a good place to start your research. However, it is not the only movement or component of sports that you can experiment with. If you are a baseball fan or player then consider examining the mechanics of your and/or your teammate's swing, pitch or slide. You can experiment with these mechanics by changing joint angles, force and timing of each action.

Not all winning sports science fair ideas are going to deal with the mechanics of the sport. Some projects are going to look at internal and biological components of sports as well. For example, you can look at how sports drinks impact sports performance, or you can see how metabolism and eating habits impact sports performance. Use your imagination when coming up with your sports themed hypothesis and topic. Creative projects will help you to impress your teachers and your judges.