DON’T PANIC! THE COMMUNITY OF SCIENCE FAIR WIZARDS ARE HERE TO HELP YOU… TEACHERS, PARENTS AND TEACHERS WORLDWIDE!
I know when its science fair time because e-ons of emails arrive every day from parents, students and teachers:
Will you send me a science fair project?
What is a good science fair project that my daughter can do for her 7th grade science fair?
Do you have easy science fair projects on your site?
Do you know where I can find ….
Well, now we have created a Forum for you to share your science fair experience, ask questions and get answers from each other. This is a blog for students, parents and teachers… a place for you to help each other.
Each post is monitored and will be posted after it is read by an adult. So please keep your comments honest, clean, and helpful. This is an educational site. The purpose of the Super Science Fair Projects blog is to help you to create the best science fair project on the planet! It is not a place to visit with your friends or to joke around. Those posts will be deleted.
By subscribing to the Free Science Fair Enthusiasts weekly/monthly newsletter where you will be kept informed of new information posted on this Forum.
We look forward to your input.
Madeline Binder
8 Comments »
If you want to make a superior showing at your high school science fair, then consider planning out a longitudinal study during your high school career. This project will begin in your Freshman year and it will conclude in your senior year of high school. These projects will demonstrate to science fair judges and to college admission boards, that you have what it takes to succeed in a science degree program.
The first step in planning out one of these long term science fair projects is to figure out what type of project to work on. Microbiology science fair projects and medical science fair projects are both great options for longitudinal studies. However, sociology and psychology studies also will work. The key to selecting a project type is finding a topic that can be studied over time and that you can reasonably predict a change in results over time.
The next step is to conduct your background research. This research will need to be done each year when you begin your science fair project. Any new information will be used to update your report and to deepen your understanding of your topic. You can then use this information to set up both your hypothesis and your experiment.
The final step is to collect and analyze your data. This will need to be done every year at about the same time of the year. You will need to talk about how the data trends evolve over time, and you will also need to compare the results that you got this year to the results that you got in previous years and to the baseline results you collected before you started the experiment.
Posted in 12th Grade Science Fair Projects, uncategorized | No Comments »
Watch this video and see if you look at things a little differently for the rest of the day….
This is a beautiful little 5 minute video which has won numerous awards around the globe. It won the Best Short Film at Cannes Film Festival 2008.
The Story of a Sign
This grabbed my attention because I was thinking of all the science fair projects that you can create just by watching a video that delivers a powerful message.
What science fair projects can you think up? How about generating them in the comment section below……
Posted in In the News, uncategorized | No Comments »
The 6th grade is one of the best years in school. This is because you are in a new phase of your education, middle school. The science that you learn about is more advanced and you get the chance to complete hands on learning activities like science experiments and science fair projects.
Renewable energy can be a great topic to explore when you are in the 6th grade, particularly if you are interested in participating in a science fair. The first step that you will want to take is to select a type of renewable energy source to work with, such as wind, solar, water or geothermal. Remember to select a topic that you are interested in.
The next step is to figure out your approach to the topic. For example, you may want to experiment with the impact that the use of a specific renewable energy source has on the environment, or you may want to find a way to make using the renewable energy source more efficient. You can also try to find new ways to utilize renewable energy sources.
If you are having a hard time coming up with a topic or an angle then you will want to conduct what is known as a literature review. A literature review is basically just a report on your topic. You collect and summarize the information that is available on your topic. This information will then help you to set up your science fair project. This is one of the required steps in completing a science fair project and it is usually done before a hypothesis or experiment is developed.
Posted in 6th grade science fair projects | 1 Comment »
During science fair project time, parents call to ask questions about purchasing a kit for their child or to ask a question about a kit that they already purchased. The following is a very typical conversation and this one occurred this last Thursday. The names of the people have been changed.
A mother called me up to ask a question about the PicoTurbine Windmill that she purchased for her son’s science fair project. When asked how old her son was, she said 13. I then requested that she put her son on the phone so I could answer his questions, for certainly he was old enough to take charge of his science fair project. What prompted me to do this was that she started off the conversation saying, “We have a science fair project and…”
No, there is no “we”. This was her son’s science fair project and she needed to give him the space to own it.
During the conversation with Tom, Jane constantly interrupted, talked about extraneous stuff, and finally I said to her in the nicest voice I could muster, “Please, allow Tom to ask his questions and share his thoughts, for this is his project and he really seems to have a good handle on what he wants to accomplish.”
Her silence only lasted until the middle of her son’s next sentence.
“Jane, this is Tom’s project, please let him be in charge of this conversation.”
This did not stop her and it was a constant struggle for her son to keep his space and own his assignment.
I ended the conversation with the following thoughts:
“Tom, the most important thing that you can learn from a science fair project is that when you change one minute thing in life, everything changes and everyone around you must change.
If you change the material of the blade that you use for the PicoTurbine Windmill experiment, ask yourself, ‘What happens to the speed of the windmill, the air? What other changes do I notice? How do I feel when these changes occur?’ Notice the effectiveness of the windmill, the things around it and the response you have to those changes.’
It is a profound experience to become aware of the fact that when you change one thing in life everything changes around it. What you do makes a difference. And that is what science fair projects are really all about.
That is what scientists do. They test and retest to see which change produces the most effective response. Then they go back and test again to find an even more effective way of doing things.”
Parents, teachers, and caregivers… what message are you giving your child or students? What questions are you asking them? What space are you giving them to learn and grow?
Posted in parents | 7 Comments »
The 12th grade is really your last chance to create entries for your resume. These entries are necessary as they show colleges what type of student you are and what skills you have developed in high school. Many students who are trying to get into the best schools or science programs put a lot of effort into finding ways to stand out from all the other college applicants.
One option that high school seniors have is to enter a science competition, such as a science olypiad or a science fair. These activities will give high school students the chance to show colleges that they not only have the academic proficiency to do well at these competitions, but that they also have the personal drive to take control of their education and their future. These are great indicators that a student will do well in college.
If you do decide to enter a science fair your senior year in high school you do not want to waste your time with basic or boring projects. You want your 12th grade science fair project to wow the judges and to really blow the judges’ minds. This may mean that you have to work with science concepts or tools that you are unfamiliar with or that you will need to invest a great deal of energy and time in completing your project.
When developing a high school level science fair project you will want to make sure you utilize the tools that are at your disposal, such as microscopes, lab equipment and measuring devices that are owned by your high school. You will also want to spend a considerable amount of time researching your topic. The more you know about your topic before starting your project the better your science project will turn out.
Posted in 12th Grade Science Fair Projects, uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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