scott and patsy

Friday, July 04, 2008

Meet our MAD SCIENTISTS...

I never did imagine myself as a homeschooling mother, never mind running a science fair in my own home. Yes, it has come to that! There were definitely challenges for our young scientists, such as lack of written resources and learning to surf the web as most of their information was taken either from Encarta Encyclopedia or from the Internet. There were even greater challenges for Shannon and I as mothers and teachers. It's been a "few" years since I have participated in a Science Fair and the world has changed tremendously since then, but thanks to a fantastic website called Science Buddies, we were able to figure out what needed to get done! There were a couple of days when I thought I'd pull my hair out and I turned to Caleb one day and said, "If I EVER consider doing one of these Science Fairs again, talk me out of it!"

BUT...once the day came and I saw the hard work put in, the many hours of research, the beautiful display boards and more importantly the knowledge gained, I was proud of them and who knows, I MAY EVEN ATTEMPT IT AGAIN IN THE FUTURE!!!(The distant future that is)
Hannah's project was called Ham it up with Hamsters. She did an amazing job and is now pestering Daddy for a Hamster!
Thanks to all of you who replied to Muki's science project. He had a total of 36 responses to his experiment and was able to prove his hypothesis wrong using his data. It was a really neat experience for Muki, who had never worked with graphs before and had a hard time sitting still long enough to get them done. If any of you are interested, Muki discovered from his data and through research that age doesn't slow down reaction time at all until after 80 years or so. Gender makes no difference at all and here's the interesting part; most dominant hands have a slower reaction time than non-dominant hands!!! Thanks again to all those who participated.
Caleb is our electronic "techie" and did his project on radio wave powered Crystal Radio Receiver Sets which were used greatly during World War II by soldiers who would create them using recycled materials they found around them. Caleb learned a lot about the composition of crystals and the role they play in radio. He built a radio and was so frustrated that the day was cloudy and it didn't work, but we assured him that the effort made to build it was already impressive.

Through the whole process, I for one, learned a lot about all four topics. My nephew Jaden, who I also teach, did his project on Volconoes and so to finish off our Science Fair with a grand finale, he set off his volcano and it worked perfectly!!!

Thanks for visiting our blog...hope to see you here again soon.

3 Comments:

At 10:50 AM, Blogger Dan and Becky said...

Guys,

i finally had a little time to explore your blog.
The science projects look awesome. I am definitely impressed. Patsy... you are one heck of a teacher. wish i could have been there to attend!

Love you

 
At 10:09 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

very cool projects guys and girly! :) I wish I could have been there to see them in person, but thanks for posting them on the blog!

 
At 7:22 AM, Blogger Carla Anne Coroy said...

Patsy, this is incredible! Our kids haven't done a science fair in years... but you are making me think that I should be! :) I'm anxious to know - did you invite people to come see? Where did you have the science fair?

I hope you are seeing the fruit of your labour in the hearts of your children as you teach them at home.

 

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