When do large bodies become round? (Intermediate)

Measuring the diameters and shapes of moons and asteroids to find out when objects in space become round like planets. Have a look at one of the online guides to solar system objects. Some of these, such as The Nine Planets, have an archive of planetary satellite dimensions and accompanying pictures. From the pictures, classify the satellites and asteroids according to how round they are, and compare this against their average diameter. Determine what the minimum size seems to be where objects become spherical. You need to invent a number which indicates the 'roundness' of an object, and then compare it to the average diameter of the object.

Sunspots and the Earth. (Intermediate)

How about looking for a correlation between sunspot numbers and various indicators of northern hemisphere weather. You can find the sunspot numbers on the web under 'Space Weather Forcasting'. You can also look for correlations between solar storms and geomagnetic storms on the earth. Using statistics and the methods of hypothesis testing, see whether you can find a correlation or not. Details available here! also, visit a Middle School Space Science Workbook for related ideas.

How far away is the Moon? (Intermediate)

Lets suppose you can take advantage of the Internet and get a 'pen pal' located a 1000 miles away in another city. On the same night, and at EXACTLY the same time 'Universal Time', make a CAREFUL observation of where the Moon is located with respect to the background stars. You should be able to discern a slight (about 1/2 the Moon's diameter) shift in position due to parallax. Then, with a little geometry, you could estimate the distance of the Moon during the full lunar cycle.

Full Moon and Crime. (Intermediate)

Do a study of whether the Full Moon is really correlated with more crime, more births, in your city by using reports in your local newspaper, or data at a local hospital or Police Department.

Water drains and the Coriolis Effect. (Intermediate)

Does water really go down the drain in opposite directions in the north and south hemispheres? Use contacts on the Internet in Australia, and other southern or equatorial countries to set up a data base of 'toilet flushes'!

Lunar Crater Counting. (Intermediate)

Get a good photograph of the Moon showing LOTS of craters and count how many craters you find in a range of diameter classes. Most of these craters were formed during the first billion years of the Moon's formation, so the frequency of craters you count can be related to the cratering time scale for that size range. Small craters are more frequent than large ones so the interval between small cratering events is just the number of those craters you count over the whole Moon, divided by 1 billion years. With this information, you could estimate the ages for some of the craters you find in which smaller craters are seen inside them.

Sunspots and Earth Weather Effects. (Intermediate)

How about looking for a correlation between sunspot numbers and various indicators of northern hemisphere weather. You can find the sunspot numbers on the web under 'Space Weather Forcasting'. For weather, try averaging the annual rainfall statistics from many dozen non-big city cites across the USA, or the number of hurricanes during the year, aurora, or other major weather events. Using statistics and the methods of hypothesis testing, see whether you can find a correlation or not. Visit the Middle School Space Science Workbook At the NASA IMAGE satellite web site for related projects.