Jacob said he wanted to do "clouds" for his project. Jacob's brain goes a mile a minute and he loves to learn and he soaks up "input" like a sponge just like his older siblings, but in his case, his body goes a mile a minute too and his patience level about explaining things, or repeating things, is not very long. When I tried to get him to explain more about what exactly he wanted to do (so I could get stuff for it, find books on it, beg help from an expert, etc.) he'd just look at me and repeat that he wanted to do clouds - as if to say "Gee Mom, you know, the fluffy white things in the sky, CLOUDS!" Fortunately they have to write/draw what they want to do on their submission form (which parents get a copy of and have to sign) and I kind-of got the idea that he wanted to MAKE clouds. Last year when they were studying weather, his friend's grandpa (who has done all the cool science stuff with them over the years) had gathered and brought in equipment and MADE a cloud IN the classroom. Jacob had his own idea though envolving glasses and a match. I found some great books (and some online video clips) with simple experiment ideas and lots of great information about clouds and weather. Jacob's favorite is the cumulonimbus (I can spell it now but I still can't say it - Jacob can though) which can get to be enormously tall and dark and swirling and have thunder - very cool cloud. He studied the cloud types, what they each look like and how they form in nature, and he actually made clouds 4 different ways. Jacob was VERY particual about his poster - basically that he do it himself! He wasn't interested in anything "pretty" like colorful background paper that Jess and Jenna were using to make their poster "pop." He was using a lot of white paper and white cotton ball clouds though (on a white poster) and I had to beg to get him to just put a bit of blue behind some of it, oh and he did let me cut out his letters for his title from the fluffiest toilet paper we had. The judge he presented to told me later how impressed she was with all he'd learned and did for his project and how he was able to tell her about it. Jacob won a bronze medal for 2nd grade!
Jessica and Jenna wanted to be partners and went through a few ideas before settling on "Diet's Influence on Exercise" and they were going to eat junky breakfasts for a week and run laps and see how they did/felt, and then eat really healthy breakfasts for a week and do the same. They would keep a little journal of what they ate and how they were doing each day and study about healthy and unhealthy foods and then present all this. Both Jenna and Jessica are really good about eating, even preferring, healthy foods, and they like sweets but don't like most of the other junk foods and both girls are really active and like sports. Both Jenna's mom and I try to feed our kids healthy and have whole grains and fresh raw fruits and vegies but we're not against some treats either, but not for breakfast (when/if we ever have doughnuts, it's for a dessert, not breakfast) and we don't buy those fake-there's-no-actual-fruit-in-it-"juices" and almost never ever get sugary-food-colored cold cereal. They started their project right after the weekend of Valentines Day and so we started with the junk food week. The weather was still chilly but sunny that first week and the girls ate their doughnuts/sugar cereal/fake "juice" for breakfast and ran their laps at first recess and kept their journals (and ate their normal healthy lunches and dinners). They had assement tests that week though - future note to self: always check with the teacher before suddenly, purposefully switching your kids breakfast to sugar and junk. Then that weekend they ate super healthy to recover and ate their whole grains/fresh fruit breakfasts the next week (and the next week) but the weather (for those 2 weeks) gave us blizzards and rain and icy winds off and on and the track was mucky and so the girls had to just give up on running their laps and do jumping jacks at indoor recesses instead, so it didn't end up as a direct comparison - note to self: think twice about projects that require decent outdoor weather for multiple days. The girls actually learned a lot about the scientific process and the need for, and sometimes difficulties involving, constants in their experiments. They included this learning the hard way through experience in their project, and what they'd studied and already knew about nutrition and how it affects your energy and strength and abilities. During this time, Jenna is on a youth ski team and Jessica is on a youth basketball team and they put pictures of themselves on the poster too. They did a great job on the poster and presentation and won a silver medal for the 4th grade!
the hooks are the type that screw in but Nathan drilled the holes larger than that so that the glue or the sap had to actually hold the hook in place
Jessica and Jenna wanted to be partners and went through a few ideas before settling on "Diet's Influence on Exercise" and they were going to eat junky breakfasts for a week and run laps and see how they did/felt, and then eat really healthy breakfasts for a week and do the same. They would keep a little journal of what they ate and how they were doing each day and study about healthy and unhealthy foods and then present all this. Both Jenna and Jessica are really good about eating, even preferring, healthy foods, and they like sweets but don't like most of the other junk foods and both girls are really active and like sports. Both Jenna's mom and I try to feed our kids healthy and have whole grains and fresh raw fruits and vegies but we're not against some treats either, but not for breakfast (when/if we ever have doughnuts, it's for a dessert, not breakfast) and we don't buy those fake-there's-no-actual-fruit-in-it-"juices" and almost never ever get sugary-food-colored cold cereal. They started their project right after the weekend of Valentines Day and so we started with the junk food week. The weather was still chilly but sunny that first week and the girls ate their doughnuts/sugar cereal/fake "juice" for breakfast and ran their laps at first recess and kept their journals (and ate their normal healthy lunches and dinners). They had assement tests that week though - future note to self: always check with the teacher before suddenly, purposefully switching your kids breakfast to sugar and junk. Then that weekend they ate super healthy to recover and ate their whole grains/fresh fruit breakfasts the next week (and the next week) but the weather (for those 2 weeks) gave us blizzards and rain and icy winds off and on and the track was mucky and so the girls had to just give up on running their laps and do jumping jacks at indoor recesses instead, so it didn't end up as a direct comparison - note to self: think twice about projects that require decent outdoor weather for multiple days. The girls actually learned a lot about the scientific process and the need for, and sometimes difficulties involving, constants in their experiments. They included this learning the hard way through experience in their project, and what they'd studied and already knew about nutrition and how it affects your energy and strength and abilities. During this time, Jenna is on a youth ski team and Jessica is on a youth basketball team and they put pictures of themselves on the poster too. They did a great job on the poster and presentation and won a silver medal for the 4th grade!
Nathan and Sawyer basically wanted to blow something up or at least set something on fire! That was their main goal. A very close second was the goal of turning in something (even if it didn't involve blowing anything up) for the science fair to complete one of the requirements for their teacher to recomend they are ready to skip the 9th grade science class and be able to go straight to Biology their Freshman year. We're a small school and can't offer all the advanced classes that big middle schools can, which enables those students to be further ahead when they enter high school and to get to, and complete more of, the college prep/advanced placement high school classes. So Nathan and Sawyer and some of their friends are "challenging" the 9th grade science and math classes - through studying on their own, completing projects, testing scores, GPA, and getting the recomendations of their 8th grade science and math teachers. Nathan and Sawyer's first few ideas for projects were turned down - against the rules about involving flamable fuel, major explosions, overall danger, no fireworks allowed in our county, etc. - and they finally settled on experimenting with the usefulness of sap as glue - "Adhesive Face Down Sap Verses Glue." They were being really silly about it at first but it turned out to be the makings of a really good project and they got serious once they started writing it up. If they had started on it sooner, the sap should have had weeks to dry, I think they could have won a medal too. There's a few trees at the church which were trimmed and have lots of sap dripping down where those lower braches were cut off. Nathan had thought he could just scrap some of that off to use as his sap samples. But the weather has been COLD and the sap wasn't drippy like he needed it. Again, note to self: remember outdoor temperature when planning science projects. There's a little tree that started growing up right near an outdoor faucet at home that needed to come out before it messed up the plumbing, so I told him if he got it out he could get sap from it which he did. Then it took longer than he'd figured to get the sap and he didn't get as much as he wanted either. In the mean time, they read/studied info on sap and glue and the librarian helped me find and copy some stuff from mechanical/engineering reference books for them (not allowed to check those out). Nathan drilled a hole in a board and put a hook in with glue and let it dry and did the same in another board but with sap - and it still wasn't completely dry after 5 days - and then he and Sawyer hung increasing amounts of weights from the hooks (using fishing wire) to test which was stronger. The glue (plain old Elmer's school glue) held 25 pounds before ripping the hook out of the hole. 25 pounds! that really surprised me. The sap only held 12 1/2 pounds, but like I said, it was still tacky and not completely dried hard. They were going to do a bunch of other types of tests but didn't have time (for sap to dry) or enough drippy sap (all the trees they checked were too cold). Nathan didn't want the "pretty" background colored paper I offered him either for his poster but when they finished it up at Sawyer's house, I noticed they did put some color on it. Note to others: the colorfulness, and neatness of printing/typing, and organization of the poster is one of the things the judges grade on. I never did hear their presentation, even a practice run through. They want to get more sap later (not for the science fair) and see how well it burns/explodes.
the hooks are the type that screw in but Nathan drilled the holes larger than that so that the glue or the sap had to actually hold the hook in placeThis is the "Magic Can" project my reading student made. I think this was his first oral presentation on a project he did himself and he did well. (notice his cool skull drawing)
There is a judge for each grade level - retired teachers, parents, volunteers, community members, etc. with an interest/some understanding of science - and the kids make their presentation to their judge one-on-one (or two-on-one if they had a partner) so it's a really casual and comfortable setting. Most of the teachers have the kids also present to just their own class too, so none of the kids have to stand in front of the whole school and be on "center stage" to make their presentation. The projects stay set up in the gym for a few days and teachers can lead their classes through to see everything and on the last evening there's an open house where families come and the kids can demonstrate/show off their projects one last time. This is a fun evening and lots of little guys run up to me to pull me over to see their project, they're all so excited. I LOVE that they are into science so much. I wish Magic School Bus or Bill Nye had been around when I was really little and I would have thought it was fun back then - and maybe have a better vocabulary and spelling for it now.
This was my favorite project - a potatoe launcher! (uses an air compressor, no gun powder/flames/fireworks) I happened to be outside when he demonstrated it to his judge.
