Science Fair 2009

We are preparing for the upcoming Science Fair. Please use the following to help you through your project. You are expected to complete most of the science project at home. Your parents may help but you are expected to do the work. If you have questions you may contact me at any time.

Science Fair Tips and Suggestions

Your child will need to include the following in their project and onto their display:

Question---The question should be answered in their project by their observations
Prediction/Hypothesis—The possible answer to the question or a reasonable guess of what will happen
Materials—A list of all things used during the experiment
Procedure—A step by step of how to do your experiment- don’t assume something-write it out
Results—A data table or chart may go here. It must show something of your results from the experiment in a neat way. You will need to write a conclusion or summary of the experiment stating what happened, whether your prediction was correct-no worries if not, why do you think it happened, anything unique or unusual. The summary should be at least 2-3 paragraphs long.
References—List any websites, materials, books, people you used while doing this project

An example of a Science Fair Project:


Question: How much water is too much for an aloe plant?

Prediction: I think if I water the aloe more than once a week it will be too much.

Materials: 3 aloe plants, measuring cup

Procedure:
Step 1: gather 3 aloe plants of the same size in the same size plant pots.
Step 2: place plants in window to receive the same amount of sunshine.
Step 3: label the plants 1, 2, and 3.
Step 4: Water plant 1 once a day, water plant 2 every two days and water plant 3 every 4 days. I will water them 1 cup full.
Step 5: record observations and daily watering on a chart
Step 6: take photographs before, during, and after 2 months

Results:
A written summary of what happened. Example: plant 1 did not grow very well or as big as plant 2 or 3. Plant 3 grew the largest. My prediction was correct. I based it on that aloes are a desert type plant and do not need an enormous amount of water. Too much water may ruin the roots.

Include charts and graphs with explainations.


References:
World Book Encyclopedia, 2003
www. Aloesrus.com
Lowes garden clerk

Rain Rain Go Away!

Today we had an enormous amount of rain. It caused much local flooding and some students to not be able to come to school. We plugged on with our science courses. Sixth grade discovered the differences between cinder, shield, and composite volcanoes. While in fifth grade we weighed objects in and out of water. This was helping us figure out buoyant force. Fifth grade created some nice graphs with the information obtained.

Science Fair Winners!

We are so proud of our winners who were able to proceed onto the County Science Fair at McDonald County High School.

Science Fair Photos

We are very greatful to our judges and thank them for their many hours of volunteer work!

Science Fair!!

We had our annual Science Fair on February 26th! All students worked very hard and had great displays. We had three judges rate all fifth and sixth grade projects. After the scores were tallied our top five were as follows:

5th grade:
First: Adam Gregory
Second: Kyla Buchanan
Third: Josh Ross
Fourth: Mechelle Smith and Victoria Fredrickson

6th grade:
First: Kylee Farnum
Second: Jason Cote
Third: Devon Beck
Fourth: Tara Nodine and Juanda Limore

Congratulations!

Science Fair Help

If you are needing help with your child's science fair project help is on the way. During the last week of January and first week of February the afterschool program will be having workshops that will help your child set up, work on and complete their project. Students will have to remember that they need to do the work for the project. They need to come motivated and ready to work!

Tornado Warning

Students learned what temperature and atmospheric conditions were needed to create tornadoes. With the use of convection tubes, ice, hot water and some smoke from a punk we witnessed what happened when two different temperature weather fronts collide. The smoked swirled with the colder air sinking and the warm air rising. Students discussed the current weather conditions and the possibility of tornadic like weather occurring locally. That night Jane was hit with several tornadoes and massive amounts of rain. Our students were able to recognize the current conditions and knew to take precautions. I am happy to see all our students back safely!

AG Day

We had wonderful weather for our annual Agricultural Day. The displays and lectures were all given by 8th grade students. Many of the students in our class were equally knowledgeable in agriculturally techniques. Everyone had a great time learning new things.

Flower Dissection

The sixth grade dissected flowers to see the actually reproductive parts of plants. They read articles on plant reproduction and watched a short video on plant reproduction. All students enjoyed this lab. Being a quick thinker John suggested that we take a picture of this interesting lab. Enjoy the great photos of the students doing the plant dissections as well as playing with the left over flowers!

Euglena, Stentor Mix, Paramecium

Among all the microscopic creatures we have looked at the stentor mix is by far the classes favorite! They love watching the creatures move and eat. Some look so sluggish that students thought they were worms. They loved being able to identify the internal structures!! The illustrations are from Tara and Kylee of microscopic life.

Amoeba

Today we looked at amoeba under the microscopes. Meanong drew a great illustration of an amoeba. Students were able to see amoeba eating and moving around. Many thought they looked gross when they ate.

Tarantula Update

The previous post of tarantula death is now wrong. The tarantula was disposed of this morning in a remote location only to be found later in the day alive! It was brought back to the aquarium and treated to a feast of crickets. Many students are happy to see him back and greeted him with joy.

Tarantula Obituary

The spider, that Riley was so nice enough to bring in, has died. He lived a short but active life in our aquarium. Many students enjoyed he/she's presence in the classroom. He/she was a comfort to many arachnid lovers. Our night custodian was not a fan but non the less upset that we lost a member of our classroom. We hope that wherever our dear tarantula is now that he/she is in a better world.
Please remember that bringing in a new tarantula will not fill the void. We will just live with the memories of our dearly departed spider....and our night custodian will not be frightened to enter our room.

Elodea

Our lab on elodea was a great success. Many students created great illustrations of the individual cells of an elodea leaf. Bonnie drew an exceptional illustration of a leaf showing the 'blocks' of cells.

Microscopes and Plant Cells

After reading about the differences between animal and plant cells we gathered our microscopes. We found some great mossy greens growing in a fish pond. After discovering cell walls and chloroplasts we found some cool organisms crawling around eating the plants! One look similar to a water flea. How interesting to see how small life can be! We placed a bit of the green on a microscope attached to the computer and took this photo!

Planarian Fever

Today in Science we looked at the wonderful life of planarians!! Many students created awesome illustrations of planarians. Jason created a nice sketch and interesting observation.