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My daughter is facinated by my coffee cup Stirling engine that I
purchased here.

It is soon going to be science fair time at her school and she wants
to pursue a project related to a Stirling engine.

I am looking for ideas on what she could do for a project. Ideas?

I'd suggest a demo using a 25 watt lamp to simulate the engine running on sunshine. Have her make a solar collector out of aluminum foil over cardboard as a focusing device.

Here is a story on our Stirling engines being used in a science fair from the February 4, 2004 issue of
The Ledger a local newspaper in Lakeland Florida.

If the link is changed you can probably search their site for the word "Stirling" and find the article again. A special thank you goes to Ron Steele for bringing this to my attention.

My daughter, Katie, won a blue ribbon with her MM-1 Coffee Cup Stirling engine at her middle school's Science Fair and will be going on to compete at the San Diego County Science Fair in March. Her project entitled "Ancient Greeks Solve the Energy Crisis" refers to the fact that the ancient Greeks described the principles of thermodynamics. Rev. Robert Stirling applied the principles of thermodynamics to his engine; with his engine, we have one more chance to solve the energy crisis.
The lady who has coordinated the County Science Fair for the last 30 years said she has only seen 3 Stirling engine projects in all that time. With the interest in alternative energy, the Stirling engine becomes a "trendy" project and thus earns more points with the judges.

There are some very helpful ideas on this website which she followed. Thank you! Katie tested 10 different sources of heat and cold to see under which the engine ran longer (on frozen blueberries) or faster (hot green tea). The articles on this website were added to her bibliography as were the articles from Discover Magazine and the Christian Science Monitor. Thanks again for all your help! Katie won the Science Fair!!!

With Joy, One Proud Mama Kathryn Lee Bazan