Science Fair

February 28, 2013

We spent a good deal of the months of January and February working on science fair projects.  We spent quite a few Saturdays (ugh...it felt like homework for me) executing experiments, gathering data, compiling research, and typing up ALL the information.  Then, I spent a couple long evenings gluing all our hard work onto tri-fold displays for each child.  I assumed our school would have a Grand Prize winner for the most inventive project.  Nope.  Everyone was graded off of a rubric.  Anyone scoring within "A" range was given a 1st place ribbon.  I wasn't expecting to win the Grand Prize anyways.  And yes, both kids received blue ribbons.  They were happy.  I was happy.  But it really was a lot of work!

Tyler's project was on lung capacity.  We created a model of a lung.  We also created an experiment to show who had the greatest lung capacity--men, women, or children.  We had friends and classmates take a deep breath and blow one big puff of air into a balloon.  Then we measured the diameter of the balloons.  Of course the men won.

Susie's project was on growing sugar crystals.  It took 3 attempts to finally grow crystals!  This was the project that would never end.  We discovered how critical it was to have plenty of sugar in the solution.