I didn't know that!

It's Science Fair time! Science projects were due today so that students could present them in class and then at the Science Fair tomorrow if they chose to enter. I saw/heard many types of experiments and even some demonstrations (which are not allowed).

Some experiments remind me of information I learned when I was in school. Some experiments confuse me because they were done incorrectly. Some experiments are not really experiments. And some experiments teach me something new.

My personal favorite are the experiments that teach me something. Especially the ones that teach me one product is better than another. For example, I had a student compare the strengths of paper towels. I found out the store brand paper towel was not as strong as the one with the lumberjack on the package, or any others. I also found out that the store brand multipurpose kitchen cleaner worked much better killing bacteria than the other brands. The only product that worked better than the cleaners was Clorox diluted with water. In this same experiment category, I learned that cheese left out of the refrigerator in a dark place gets very moldy! I mean disgusting with mold. EWWWW! If skydiving is in your future, you should use the largest parachute possible. The bigger the parachute, the slower it falls.

And don't get me started on plant growing-type experiments. Don't we all know (in 4th grade) that a plant needs air, water, and nutrients (soil) to grow? Do I need multiple experiments about this every year? NO! Am I allowed to outlaw this experiment next year?

The other category is demonstrations. In our guidelines for our science projects, demonstrations are not allowed in 4th grade. I made this very clear to my students. I made this clear to my students MANY times. In the science project process, they had to turn in a proposal and sketch weeks before their project was due at school. I had to approve their proposals before they could begin. I made comments about their projects and suggestions on how to change them into true experiments...this would make one think that I would not received any demonstrations. WRONG! I now know how to make electricity with a lemon, measure my lung capacity, measure my heart rate after activity, and how to produce static electricity. I really wish these could count...but like I've repeated a thousand times...you may not turn in a demonstration!