Science Fair Projects

About 5 or 6 weeks ago, Teresa brought home a note announcing the Science Fair at their school. As a 5th grader, she was required to come up with a project. 1st-3rd, apparently, had the OPTION of doing a project. We, of course, choose to have Alan complete one as well. Why not! Alan LOVES science!

The first step in doing a science fair project is CHOOSING the project. Both kiddos thought through lots of ideas before settling on the right one for them:

Alan wanted to do something with potatoes and electricity; Teresa wanted to do something with growing plants. Since this was their first Science Fair, Jim and I guided their decision making process. In order to do an experiment, you have to manipulate variables. It was a subject that took lots of explaining. They understood variables, but wanted to do too many at once. Narrowing their thoughts took a lot of compromise.

Alan finally agreed to test different potatoes to see which one produced the most electricity. We went to Home Depot and bought a volt meter and copper & zinc nails. We went to the commissary and looked at all the different potatoes before he settled on baking, sweet and red.

Then he got down to work:

and as you can see, when the work was done, he still had fun playing:

(insert wicked evil scientist laugh here)

When he finished, he typed in all the information to the computer all by himself. He also came up with the idea for decorating the board. ("Mom, ya know that thing you put your hand on at the science museum and lightning hits your hand? I want to put THOSE on my board.")

Here's the finished product:

Teresa wanted to do something with plants. At first, she wanted to water them with different kinds of water. She finally settled on different soils. She planted sunflower seed in sand, dirt from outside, and fertilized dirt. She put them in her window and diligently watered them every day. She wrote in her journal every time she watered them and when she noticed changes. I did have to "explain," however, that when she dug up the plant growing in the sand and moved it back to the middle of the pot because it had moved to the side, she was changing the results. The fact that the plant MOVED in the sand was a result of the experiment. She said, "OHHHHHH...." and then moved it back.

Good luck, kiddos! I hope judging goes as well!!!