Our First Science Fair Project! #Education #STEM

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    I’ve never been very good at Science.  As a matter of fact, I had to take the Biology Regents in high school a few times before I finally passed it.  As a result, I have been dreading some of the science projects that I knew my son would have to complete now that he is in middle school.  This week, he had to submit his first science fair project and we spent a lot of time choosing just the right activity that we could do here at home.

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    We finally settled on creating a simulation of the Rock Cycle using crayons.  It might sound like this is an easy project but, in all actuality, it is quite detailed and aimed at simulating how Sedimentary, Igneous, and Metamorphic rocks are created in nature.  I actually learned a lot myself about this process as I assisted my son through all of the steps.

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    Since Sedimentary rocks are compacted and cemented together from sediments, we used crayon shavings that we pressed together in aluminum foil to create them.  We then went on to simulate Metamorphic and Igneous rocks by applying pressure and heat to the compacted crayon shavings.  The entire process was very interesting and even I was pleasantly surprised at how much the finished products looked like real rocks.

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    I took photos of my son doing the investigation throughout the entire process because I figured the pictures would be great visual aids to add to his poster board.  Tomorrow is his oral presentation and I’m confident that he will do a great job of explaining his project to his teacher and his classmates. I even had him practice reading his note cards to his brother and I this evening.  In hindsight, this was a great idea because he was able to learn how to properly pronounce some of the more difficult science vocabulary that he will have to explain.

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    This entire experience has been great!  As an educator, I cannot stress enough the importance of taking an active role in supervising your children’s homework and project assignments.  Not only is it a great way to spend quality time with them, but it is also a wonderful way to impart to your kids the importance of education and of taking pride in completing a task.  These will go a long way in instilling a sense of responsibility in getting their educations and excelling academically.

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Let’s Discuss:  What is the last school project that you helped your child complete and how important is it to you to supervise these types of assignments?

 

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Comments

  1. How cool!! What a great project…and they can learn from it…perfect! 🙂

  2. My oldest is in 5th grade and has never had a big science fair project like this. He had a big history project last month that I helped him with, but he did most of the work. It was pretty much all research.

  3. That is so awesome! My undergrad is in engineering and I can’t wait for my son to start with science projects. I made a volcano with him and a few other experiments, but he is a bit young. He still has fun, but I’m looking forward to next year where I think that he’ll be more into the projects.

  4. Katherine Bartlett says

    Oh we did this for homeschool science in December!

  5. I got stressed out reading this post. I cringe at projects. We are about to have to make a Valentine school box and I am going to call a ‘creative’ and ‘patient’ mom and ask her to help my daughter.

  6. Lois Alter Mark says

    Science was always my least favorite subject and I have suffered through many a science project with my kids. So stressful!

  7. Great work. My oldest still has yet to even decide what she’s going to do for her science fair project…

  8. Very cool! This was always the best part of science, as far as I was concerned 🙂 Still to this day my favorite experiment was the classic volcano!

  9. What a cool science experiment! I can’t wait until my daughter is old enough to participate in a science fair!

  10. Terry My Journey With Candida says

    I used to have a lot of fun doing projects with my Daughter. In fact.. One of my Daughters teachers still tells the kids about a trick she and I pulled on him.
    My Daughter is now in her 40s so it must have been good.

    The class had to gather leaves in high school and name them correctly. We went out looking every night and then would research them. I got so sick of it that I took an oak leave, got my scissors and made a design all my own. I called it the Tailored Leaf from the Tailored Tree.

    Her teacher spent hours trying to find this tree. He ended up giving her credit for it because he couldn’t find nothing on it. The credit didn’t matter because she was already over 100%

    In Class he ask her about it and she threw me under the bus. My Mother Did That… then she told him exactly what I did. They all had a good laugh and like I said… every year he tell his class room the story and … NOT to do that.

  11. Ourfamilyworld says

    What a cool science experiment. My kids are too young for science projects but I will be happy to help them. I loved science

  12. Heavens the last science project I did–heck I don’t even remember it! It has been too too many years ago. I vaguely remember doing light refraction. That was a really good topic for your son and it was very imaginative to be able to make the three different rock types out of crayons.

  13. Science fair projects were always a fun time for my kids to get some hands on experience in the STEM fields. Our favorite was a project about erosion. This project looks pretty neat too!

  14. Aww how cute! I love science projects. We are currently working on a hundred days project.

  15. It IS so important to be involved in what your kids are learning! We homeschool so I’m pretty integrally involved every day. I love seeing other parents, homeschooling or not, who hold that same value. It looks like your son had a lot of fun!

  16. Jeanine @ sixtimemommy.com says

    Science fair projects are so fun! My son did his at school with a partner. But I helped him do a bit of the writing research at home!

  17. Amber Nelson says

    Oh wow, he did just a great job! I love it!

  18. Ann Bacciaglia says

    I think it is important to help kids with their homework. I agree with you, it is a great bonding experience.

  19. mena & taty says

    I am always on them! I love doing homework, sharing and remembering my our school days. Science was one of my faves

  20. Debbie Denny says

    That is spectacular. First rate project.

  21. Yay for science fair projects! I never got to do science fairs when I was a kid, how cool!

  22. celebbabylaundry says

    I loved doing science fair projects, they are just so much fun and especially as a kid it is even more fun to do!

  23. I loved science when I was a kid. Of course you need to supervise you child particularly if fire is involved.

  24. mail4rosey says

    That turned out nice!! I hope he aces that oral presentation.

  25. I love the science fairs! So much fun for the kids, people always complain about them but I think they are great

  26. Thrill of the Chases says

    We just participated in a science fair last week. My daughter decided to build a solar oven and test its effectiveness. She did a great job and we try to help by printing pictures and making suggestions but try and let the kids do most of the work. There is something that is really confidence building about it for them.

  27. What a great job! I kind of wish that my kid’s had a science fair, I think it would be fun.

  28. Meagan Bailiff says

    my daughter is working on a science project right now. for now, i think it is important, she doesn’t really know what she’s doing, i just let her do the thinking and i help her put everything together on the board.

  29. Sandy Klocinski says

    What a great project! This really helps to keep kids interested in the sciences. Science was one of my favorite subjects

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