It all starts with poster board.
Getting mom to drive to the drug store to load up on the thick flimsy is a great start to a great project. Grab a sheet of white, a sheet of neon pink, and if you’re lucky one of those thick cardboard three-folds. Come on, we both know that cardboard added some scientific integrity to your research — the seventh grade equivalent of getting your work published in The New England Journal of Awesome.
Now, it doesn’t end there. Next you’re grabbing markers, spray paint, baking soda, and Styrofoam. Once you’ve got everything together you’re rushing home and getting down to science, people. The carpeted corner of the unfinished basement becomes your lab and it’s time to spend hours putting on lab coats, staring into microscopes, and pour bubbling green liquids into beakers. Also, taping.
Come on and let’s count down some classics:
6. The solar system. Jabbing those spray-painted Styrofoam balls with a straightened out coat hanger is a truly great feeling. As is painting a splotchy brown Australia on Earth and a big eye on Jupiter. If you want to go the To Scale route, remember to leave Pluto at home.
5. Volcano. There are two types of eruptions. First, there’s the Underwhelming Fizz — where you stare deep into the mouth of the fiery beast only to witness some rock-hard hunks of baking soda floating in a pool of strong-smelling vinegar. It’s disappointing, but you can always try again and hope for a Superblow — where everyone stares with wide-eyes as red ooze bubbles and slides down your carefully painted volcano onto the GI Joe townspeople below.
4. The one the kid’s parents obviously did. Also known as robbing your child of the thrill of scientific discovery in exchange for a B+.
3. Growing something. Whether it was lima beans or patches of fresh grass, it was a a classic move to study Sunlight vs. Shadows, Music vs. No Music, or Watering Plants vs. Pouring Coke On Them.
2. Coke is bad. Speaking of Coke, did you have that kid who left a tooth or some nails sitting in it for a month? The groundbreaking research typically concluded with a harsh indictment of the entire soda industry. And maybe a business card for the kid’s dad who was a dentist.
1. The one that didn’t work. Every science fair had a few of these gems. They were sad and beautiful at the same time. Because that down-faced ten year old standing in front of a dim lightbulb was learning how to deal with lost efforts and how to get back their drive after a fall. Keep that chin up, tiger. You’ll get ’em next time.
Yes, beautiful science fair moments were always a perfect close to months of hallway passion, energetic teachers, and long lonely nights cutting construction paper letters with pinking shears. Letting kids learn, letting kids dream, letting kids try and try and try — well, there’s just so much good that comes of that.
As they bottle insects, jab battery wires into lemons, and rub magnets together, you can see the whirring gears spinning with delight. Yes, all that learning just sponges, soaks in, and sticks there forever as the next generation of curiosity seekers tease their buzzing minds forward and forward and forward…
AWESOME!
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How about “Getting along really well with your in-laws” : )
Getting away with it.
When you say something then realize it rhymed.
Example: “I have to go to my job, but have a good night bob!… woah i just rhymed!” my favorite.
getting something chunky out of your teeth with floss.
finally popping your ears after flying in a plane.
getting everything you wanted done in a shorter amount of time you thought it would take you :)
I think they forgot to put DNA models, that was always a classic in biology class and shoebox dioramas…nothing says fun like old used stinky shoe boxes!
Taking a long nap, and then waking up right at the time when your family is about to do something.
“Chris, time for (meal)!”
“Chris, wanna go to (really awesome place)?”
That first night after you’ve had a cold for a week when you can finally breathe through your nose again. Mmm, so awesome.
Kicking the big chunks of snow that build up behind car tires and having it drop in one big chunk.
you should have included acid rain projects in the science fair… pretty much ends in a cup of dirt. perfect for the kids that put it all together 2 days before it’s due :)
You forgot the “It’s Not Really an Experiment”!
But we went with it anyways! I lived near Cowichan Lake (Vancouver Island) and my friend was a very sciency person. She heard about this report some guy wrote about these ancient fossils (the kind you find imbedded into a rock) he found on the shores of the lake in the late 19th century of some extinct little seas creatures. So her dad took us out on a boat to see if we could find some, as it was generally accepted in the scientific community that they would have been washed away or broken down by that time. We actually did find some specimins that we we had to have sent out for verification. It was very cool, and we sort of had to sneak it under the radar of our teacher because he didn’t consider it an expirement (he was very keen on the tooth in cola crowd).
Oh and in Grade 4 I did a report on “Stuff Stuck in Ice”. For real. I ruined my mom ice cube trays.
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I doubt anyone ever notices this post but i have 2 say it….12:02 a.m????
In order to survive, an animal should always be ready to change by itself to be able to changing factors in their climate.
In order to survive, an animal will have to be prepared to adapt themselves to be able to changing causes in its climate.
It is all totally linked with everything else. Therefore if one is lost as well as removed there is no equilibrium.
So far, that grinding or even the agriculture can be call to become the actual “feeders of the society”
Ah, the science fair. My best year was when I made the Rube Goldberg machine… that actually worked! Thanks for the memories.
I once judged an elementary school science fair where one of the projects was entitled “The Roadkill Project.” This little girl wanted to see which animal was most unfortunate in a five mile radius from her house, so everyday for a month she had her dad pull the car over whenever she saw something and would identify it. Did I mention there were pictures?
Ally Lynn, I sympathize.
I also sympathize with my children for being stuck with me for their mom, who was daft in most conventional forms of education but especially when it came time for science fairs.
Oh my, the one “we” did on rainbows…to think I actually thought it would be brillinat to record the song and have it playing, with their project, in the auditorium,while judging was taking place; While being harshly judged by students and far smarter parents!
“Red, orange, yellow, green and blue, indigo and violet too…I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too, and so can you!”
I can’t beilieve they forgive me and we can laugh about it now, till it really hurts!
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