Proper way to help 3rd grader with Science Fair

In My Humble Opinion
1

So my daughter has signed up to be in the science fair at her school. She is in 3rd grade. Her information says they MAY do an experiment and must put together a poster board with the results, analysis etc… for display. They expect a fair amount of parental assistance.

Now, I’m an engineer so this is right up my alley. Maybe TOO much up my alley. I don’t want my kid to be THAT kid that shows up with a project that was clearly done by their parents. You know the ones…

So I need to know HOW to help WITHOUT doing it for her but still ensuring that she has a successful experiment and results. I could also use some suggestions for topic areas for that age.

How involved in experiment development should I be at this age (9)? How about experiment construction?

I don’t want to inadvertently take this thing over and take the experience away from her. FYI at her level they get participation ribbons and don’t get judged.

Understand what I’m saying here?

2

Having run and judged the Science fair for my kids school for seven years, helped both my kids put together projects and being a scientist myself, I’ll share my perspective.

Kids need help with their projects. That’s ok- in fact I always billed our Science Fair as a way to get the whole family thinking and talking about science. So, the role of the adult should be to guide the child in thinking and talking about science, and then implementing their ideas.

So, I saw myself in the role of “sous chef”- asking questions, taking directions, providing suggestions but in the end letting the child make their own decisions. I might go through a science fair book or website, pick three of four experiments and let the child choose. Or talk about his/her interests and find out what they want to explore and then look through a book together. They do not need to reinvent the wheel- whatever they do will be new to them.

Decide what the goal of the project is- I mean the big goal: Perhaps they’ll they learn one new concept, fact or vocab word- that is success at that age. Perhaps they learn scientific method- form a hypothesis and test it.

Here’s and example using paper airplanes: let them form a hypothesis- for example, design different paper airplanes and have them make an educated guess (based on reading about how gliders work) which will fly farther- do three trials each, measure the distance using a ruler, average the distances and graph it. A perfect third grade project using age appropriate math concepts and learning new science concepts. You can help at every stage as long as the child can talk about what they did and can point to their part.

Does that help?

3

I think when I was in third grade, I did my science fair project on simple machines and how they’re used in everyday life. We had to have both posters and a demo, and my demo was a playground with each piece of equipment illustrating one of the machines. (A slide is an inclined plane, a seesaw is a lever, a merry-go-round is a wheel and axle, etc.)

My mom came up with the idea and explained what simple machines were and how they worked, and she helped me figure out what equipment illustrated which concept. Oh, and she typed up the things I wrote explaining things. But I made the playground and wrote up the explanations and drew the pictures of the simple machines.

4

I totally agree with IvoryTowerDenizen, having judged many a science fair myself.
The most obvious give-away that the project is really Dad’s and not the students (beyond the ones where the student says, “My Dad told me to do a project on X, then he decided what we should do, and he did it.”) is when the student hasn’t thought about what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. They don’t know what the test has to do with the hypothesis, or what the results mean. They just generate data and stick it on a board.

The best projects start with something the student has been wondering about or has a lot of direct experience with. The kid who helps out in Grandpa’s garden decides to compare growing conditions for potatoes, the bike enthusiast tests the effect of tire inflation, the kid that likes to help bake cookies tests the effect of varying levels of leavening agents, etc.

At the 9 year old level, I wouldn’t expect to see a lot of rigorous testing in the form of a high number of repeat trials or statistical analysis. For a first time project, the process of coming up with a question/hypothesis and a reasonable way of testing it, then interpreting the results is a great learning experience in itself.

5

OH, do I know what you’re talking about here! It’s hard for any good parent, but even harder to walk that line when it’s in an area you love.

My best advice is to ask more questions than you make declarative statements, even if those questions are highly leading ones.

Don’t tell her, “Well, you’ll need a second plant for your control.” Ask her, “If you give this plant fertilizer, how to you know it’s made any difference in its growth?”

Don’t tell her, “Remember to change only one variable,” instead ask, “Hmmm…how do you know if it’s the brand or the *age *of the orange juice that affects how much Vitamin C is in the OJ? Could a different storage material make an impact? I see juices are available in paper boxes, in clear glass and in plastic… Can light get through all of these the same?”

Instead of, “This website says we can bake soil to kill all the microorganisms in it and see how that affects plant growth,” try, “What things kill microorganisms?” (Heat, soap, etc.) “What do we have that makes a lot of heat that won’t damage dirt?” (oven) “How hot and how long does something have to be heated to kill microorganisms on it?” (google is your friend!) “What’s that called, anyway?” (sterilization) Bonus nerd points if she thinks of the pressure cooker and invents autoclaving on her own!

When it comes time to present the data, teach her how to set up a table, graph or chart of the type she’ll need, but do it with different data on a different topic, and then see if she can apply that knowledge to her own data set. So show her how to chart using, say, the number of pets she and her friends own, or what percentage of her stuffed animals are bears. Then see if she can figure out how to make a chart for her actual project. That way you don’t run the risk of charting her data for her, and she learns how to chart.

The visual presentation can be done very well by her with the aid of a computer and word processor, although she might need some help with layout ideas. Making a small scale sketch and outlining some boxes in light pencil on her poster board can help her get an idea of how big to make words and pictures and graphs to best use the space she has. Lots of unaided projects end up with 12 words squished in the upper left hand corner and vast deserts of white space in the lower right.

If you google third grade science fair experiments, you’ll get literally more than a quarter million hits. Lots and lots of ideas out there! Good luck, and have fun!