Science Fair

If you like science experiments, I definitely recommend http://www.krampf.com/, where you can join a free email list that gives you a new, fun, easy science experiment every week. We love it in my home!

hehehe...I remember making a volcano with baking soda and vinegar that when it was activated, all this white foam would over flow on the sides of the (alum foil) volcano.

It didn't work and I was heartbroken. It worked at home but not at school :) LOL

The Mentos / Pepsi trick would be cool. Here's a few sites:

http://maura.setonhill.edu/~msct/chemclu...

http://site.ecfs.org/baglio/stories/stor...

http://www.science-house.org/learn/Count...

Science Fair Project Resource Guide

http://www.picadome.fcps.net/lab/sci_fai...

http://www.niles-hs.k12.il.us/jacnau/IJA...

http://www.ipl.org/div/projectguide/

http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/Resources/Gettin...

For all levels. There are hundreds of Projects.

http://www.freesciencefairproject.com/

http://www.scienceproject.com/

http://www.kathimitchell.com/scifair.htm

http://www.selah.k12.wa.us/SOAR/SciProj2...

http://collaboratory.nunet.net/timber/sc...

http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com...

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/

http://www.kathimitchell.com/cells.html

http://scitoys.com/

http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/

•Hundreds of free science fair projects are categorized under the following topics.
•Click on any of the topics below to view the science projects.
•You can then sort the projects alphabetically or by their level of difficulty.

http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/sciencefairs/in...

http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/sciencefairs/li...

http://lkwdpl.org/schools/emerson/scienc...

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/i...

http://www.homeworkspot.com/sciencefair/

http://www.hallbar.com/sciencecenter.htm...

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/

I LOVE SCIENCE FAIRS!!!!! And I cannot wait untill my son has the opportunity to participate. He is in second grade, but we have had no science fairs as of yet. But, at any rate, here are a few ideas...

**The drinking process of plants. Take a white cut flower and put it in a vase of water with your choice of food coloring and watch for a few days as the flower drinks the color up and changes before your eyes. You can do all the colors, and have a rainbow display for the fair.
**Changing a cookie recipe. As much as is doesnt sound like science, it is. It has to do with the chemical reactives in a cookie recipe. You can take a peanut butter recipe and alter one ingredient and look at the differences of the baked batches. You can change any of the ingredients, but here are some. You always bake a control group to the exact recipe. Then bake another batch with an altered recipe- You can double the butter to get flatter more crispy cookies...or double the peanut butter for a chunky thick cookie.
**Grow two pea plants and water one with only water that has been brought to a boil in a microwave (that of course has been allowed to cool completely- best to do a lot of water in the beginning and put in a labeled bottle) The microwaved water does not nourish the plants as well as tap or rain water and will produce a stunted malnourished plant. (This one ended up making me scared of microwaved foods)
**Chemical reactions. We did this one as a volcanoe. Vinegar and baking soda mixed causes alot of FOAM. Add red food color and a volcano made of clay and it becomes lava. We still do this from time to time just for fun. It may be a nice addition if your child in K needs a scene to go with the report on dinosaurs.

These are some, I have more. I am a science nut. My son and I do these projects just for fun. And good for you for encouraging your children to have fun with science.
Good Luck!

My sister was a great science fair freak. So here are some that she did. Do plants grow better in top soil or commerical soil? Are ants attracted to different colors? and Does music effect a spiders web? On all of these she won first place. She took a lot of great pics and kept a day by day journal. If this does not help try a book store you may be able to find a great science book.

Hope it helps
L.

My son is in 7th grade and just finished his science project last month that I think can be modified for younger kids. I'm not sure if you've seen this on youtube or elsewhere but it's pretty popular for kids to see the reaction that Mentos has on soda. My son did an experiment to see if the temperature of Mentos changed the reaction to the soda. Your son is younger so you could do something a little easier and just see if Mentos have a different affect on different sodas or if different flavored Mentos makes a difference. Go to stevespanglerscience.com to get some ideas of how to do it. We did buy the little 'geyser tube' for my son's experiment but essentially we did that to make sure that his experiment had no variables other than the temp of the Mentos. You can buy one on eBay for about $8 including s&h if you want one.

Anyway, it's a lot of fun & kids love watching things explode no matter what their age is. You do want to stick with Diet soda (no sugar means easier clean up and no ants). You could ask the teacher if he could do a live demonstration on science fair day or sometime that week so the kids can see what happens other than through pictures.

Hi M.,

This is a little silly sounding, but when you suggested cleaning pennies I remember we used to do that in college as a joke. Taco Bell hot sauce makes them shiny clean. It might be the tomato sauce in it. Maybe try that first. Just thought I would give you the idea.

Good luck

C.

here is a really easy one that I found in a Parenting magazine- "why is important to wash your hands?" the experiment is to put glitter on his hands and let him walk around for a little while. Then he can photograph (or you both can) where the glitter landed. Then have him do the same experiment after washing his hands quickly (say 15 seconds) and again after washing his hands for the recommended 30 seconds. Its a great experiment and teaches him about something he is told to do every day!good luck!

as far as cleaning pennies, I don't know why, must be acidity or something but taco bell hot sauce mamkes pennies look like new. it's easy and cheap!

Have you thought about letting him make a homemade volcano out of paper mache? You put baking soda in a cup inside the volcano and pour vinegar over it to make it bubble up and out. If you add red food coloring to the vinegar, it looks really neat!

M., Remember that the purpose of an experiment is to answer a question. Think about really easy questions that 5 and 6 year old can understand. So your question could be "which candy tastes better?". Your child can give 10 people M&M's and Reeses, write down their answers, then report the number of people who preferred each. Based on this the child could conclude that one candy tastes better than the other. The experiment doesn't need to be something involving chemicals or projectiles--it doesn't need to be something that Mr. Wizard would do. It just needs to use the scientific method to answer a question. That means: ask a question, think about a way to answer the question, do it, report what happened, then based on what happened answer your question. If 6 of 10 people say that M&M's taste better than reeses then you could say that M&M's are the better tasting candy. Try doing a web search on "scientific method, kids" or "science experiment, kids". This will give you some good ideas.

found out accidentally, that tomato sauce left on a copper-bottom pot, cleans the copper -- so that could be your penny experiment!

Hi M., My son, 7th grade just got finished doing his Science Fair project...I don't remember the sites I went to, but if you google science fair projects/experiments you will find many sites to help with suggestions for experiments. They will give different ages or grades for you to pick from and even tell what is needed for the outline, reports etc. Ask him what he is interested in, cars,rockets, throwing a ball, the weather and then go from there. Anything will work as long as he likes the subject. For my son and his friend last year it was building, racing and testing balloon cars. And this year it was flying styrofoam planes with different weights and under different flying conditions. They had a great time. Hope this helps getting you started. Regards,P. Ibar livewellnessfirst.org Thanks

I think an experiment that would be age appropriate for a 1st grader would be experimenting with mixing colors. The display could be very simple with the colors separate and then mixed and what then label the colors.

you could do the whole potato battery thing.

Hi M.,

Sorry I missed your post last January. Congratulations to your sons! Please encourage them to keep up their scientific exploration. Personally, I think science fair can be the best part of school science education, because it allows kids to explore more freely than they usually can in the set classroom curriculum.

My daughter has participated in science fair for the last few years. Last year (8th grade) she won several hundred dollars in prize money, a calculator, a national statistical competition, and a special commendation from the US Office of Naval Research for her project, which she has continued this year. We're heading to county fair this week. In fact, if you can, bring your boys to the county fair on Friday afternoon (Apr. 18). There will be all sorts of hands on science activities for all ages, plus they (and you) can see the kinds of projects that the older students produce. The fair will be at the L.A. Convention Center (I think it's in West Hall this year) and is open to the public after 1 PM. If you can't make it to County, the State Science Fair will be held at the LA Science Center on May 20 (we're hoping that Laura will qualify for state again this year).

Here's my advice for success for future years -- as a mom and scientist, but also as a judge for the L.A. County Science Fair.

1. Don't get a project out of a book. The best projects are the ones that kids think up for themselves. Encourage your little guys to ask lots of questions about how the world around them works. As judges, we pay far more attention to originality than to rote repetition of a project that half of the county has done in the past 20 years!

Also, some kids come up with amazing projects that end up having significant real world applications. One girl I met at State Fair last year had invented a new method of detecting fingerprints that was far superior to what is currently being used. She published her results in 7th grade at the request of the FBI. The FBI has also helped her plan out the rest of her educational path through college and will have a job ready and waiting for her. My daughter's research may actually result in developing new ways to teach adults and children how to spell.

2. Develop some really inventive way for performing the experiment(s) and/or learn more advanced skills than would be expect for the age to analyze the data.

3. You can help out, but make sure that your children fully own the project. They need to come up with the question, test method, and conclusions. This doesn't mean that you can't guide them or that they can't get guidance from others. Far from it! Just make sure that it's their work. In fact, we actually award a prize for a project that it's clear the child did all by themselves.

4. Seek out expert advice. You'd be amazed at how excited researchers get when a kid takes interest in their field. My son sent email to professors in FL and Canada about different projects he explored in grade school. Both answered him, gave him suggestions and pointed him in the direction of age-appropriate information. One of them even kept up a running email conversation with him for several weeks.

5. Don't procrastinate.

6. Have fun!

R.

As usual, I'm late responding to these, but hope you'll get my note.
We have a lot in common, as I'm a 44 yr old mom with three girls, 7,5 and 2. My MOB (moms of boys) friends tell me they have the physical intensity of boys, plus the emotional intensity of girls... that's the part that puts me over the edge! I need roller skates too... plus Dr. Phil on call!

I was curious about your science fair dilemma as we just faced the same thing about a month ago. We found a great idea online for demonstrating the blind spot that everyone has in each eye (where the optic nerve connects to the back of the eye). We had a large 3-d diagram of the eye, with numbered parts that you could test yourself on... answers were under numbered flaps. Then there were numerous different paddles with things like a big red dot or broken line, When you look at these a particular distance from your eyes, with one eye closed, the red dot would disappear, or the broken line would appear continuous. It was fun to demonstrate it and even the adults got a kick out of it. So if you need more ideas next time around, give it a try. I found all the info and paddle diagrams on the internet. I initially googled science fair experiments and found a couple sites that let me screen by age/grade level and topic. It was a good way to "shop" for ideas.

Good luck with your 3 boys - and get plenty of sleep (I never do, but am trying harder!)
S.

Try mixing water and flour together to make dough. (Don't make it to wet.)Shape the dough into a volcano. Put the volcano on a piece of cardboard and let it dry. Afer the dough dries hard you could paint it or just leave it. Put baking soda in the volcano hole about 2 tablespoons. Add about 1 tablespoon of vineger ant the volcano should bubble over. It might take more vineger. (Some times they like to add food coloring to make it intresting.)