Your Child’s School Projects: Oh, The Headaches, but the Learning & Family Time Begins!

 

I know, I know, it takes lots of time and family effort to pull school projects together, but we did it! I am happy to report that my daughter, Kelly, earned 1st place in the 5th grade Science project last week, February 18, 2013.

 

The title of her project was “Can Spices Keep Cucumbers Fresh?”  Kelly wanted to find out which ingredient mixed with water would render cucumbers edible after being put in Mason/Ball jars and then placed in a windowsill for six (6) days.

 

My daughter and husband went to the local Farmer’s Market in Houston and chose four (4) cucumbers approximately the same size and length.

 

I had the challenge of finding the right size Mason/Ball jars to use as containers and retrieving the tri-fold board.

 

Kelly filled the Mason/Ball jars with 300 ml of water and put one cucumber in each jar. Each container would have its own separate ingredient. The ingredients that she chose to use are as follows: 3 tablespoons of (1) sugar, (2) salt, (3) real lemon juice extract and (4) non alcoholic white grape juice.  Kelly closed the jars, my husband sealed them tightly and shook each for about 2 seconds, and then Kelly placed the four jars on a windowsill for six (6) days.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kelly was charged with writing daily observations of how each cucumber looked over the six day period. It wasn’t until day 4 that she began to see visible changes.

 

Of course, Kelly had to finalize her project by writing a research paper including her purpose, hypothesis, procedures, materials used, results (charts) and conclusions. She also included her daily logs, photos and an abstract. My husband created a board for her to showcase her Mason/Ball jars and glued each to the board for ease of carrying to school. She could not put her name on the project, or show any pictures of herself.

 

On the day of judging, Kelly was called to the school’s Multi-purpose room to explain her project to the judges. The judges seemingly were very impressed with Kelly’s ability to explain her scientific process. They were especially impressed with her bibliography and how well she followed their instructions as she put her project together.

 

I can tell you that the conclusion of the project revealed a null hypothesis. There is no way that the researcher would advise eating any of the four cucumbers, although the one in salt was the closest. Since salt is a preservative, it smelled like a pickle, but Kelly still would not advise eating it.

 

From this family project, came lots of togetherness, cooperation, headaches, toggling back in forth with each other’s ideas, but the best of all was the togetherness and the great learning experience that my daughter gained from this – not to mention the 1st Place certificate.

 

Although the pictures were taken a few days later, Kelly is seen standing near her tri-fold board holding her 1st place 5th grade Science Fair Certificate.  

 

Now, we are on to our next family project. Kelly is entering the G.T. Expo Contest. The theme is: Living Museum of Scientific Inventors. This time Kelly has to decide on a famous environmental scientist and/or inventor to research and bring to life. I believe that she’s decided on Alexander Fleming. You know the guy who received credit for inventing penicillin. I can’t wait to share photos and the results of this project with you.

 

Kelly wants to present the facts about her inventor using another tri-fold board, but I’m trying to get her to do this in the form of a creative book with a bookmark (to give to visitors). Perhaps we can do all three!

 

Kelly will actually have to wear a costume that represents how her inventor would have dressed, and she will have to bring a coin receptacle of some sort for visitors to deposit small change which will bring (the inventor) to life. This one will prove to be such fun!

 

I promise to take lots of pictures and perhaps include a video next time, okay?