Put a strawberry into one plastic bag and a banana into another. Make sure to press all of the air out before you seal them shut. Press the strawberry gently with your fingers through the bag until it becomes juice pulp. Do the same to the banana for about two or three minutes. Add either 50 mL of dish soap, 15 grams of salt or 900 mL of tap water into the strawberry bag and banana bag and then seal them shut without air. Gently smash the banana and strawberry for about one minute so bubbles will form. Put a test tube into a cup with a funnel on top of the test tube. Now place a cheesecloth on top of the funnel. Drain the strawberry and banana onto the cheesecloth until you have ¼ cup of juice in the test tube. The strawberry and banana chunks will remain on the cheesecloth. Pour ¼ cup of alcohol into the test tube while it is tilted. Stick a stirring rod where the alcohol and strawberry juice are combined at the surface. Stir only above the layer of alcohol. Now pull out the stirring rod to see what the DNA looks like.
Apply petroleum jelly to one side of four microscope slides and masking tape to the other. Place each slide in a different spot -- inside of a classroom, outside of the classroom, inside of your house and outside of your house. Write where you placed the slide on the masking tape. Leave each slide where it is for six hours. Collect the slides and put them on white paper, with the petroleum side facing up. Use a magnifying glass and a bright light to look at the slides and see what kind of particles are stuck to the jelly.
Choose three ponds in three different locations to observe and examine what kinds of organisms live in each. Go to the first pond and take a few drops of pond water by using a chemical dropper. Put the drops of water onto a petri dish and use a stereoscope to observe any living organisms. Use the chemical dropper to remove water from the dish. Drop the water onto a slide and observe what you see with a light microscope. Next, examine the water on the slide using low power to find organisms. If an organism is found, place a cover slip over the slide and turn on high power to see it better. Repeat for all three ponds and compare your findings.
Use an Elodea sprig, otherwise known as a water weed, for this photosynthesis project. Eliminate a few leaves from the portion of the stem that is already cut. Next, slice an angle off of the stem and crush the part of the stem that was cut. Put the Elodea sprig into a test tube with the cut side facing up. Add water and a pinch of baking soda into the test tube. Place the tube into a beaker that is already filled with tap water. Turn on a lamp next to the beaker. Once you begin to see bubbles appear in the beaker from the cut end of the plant, time what happens for 10 minutes. Divide the number of bubbles you counted by 10 minutes.