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Keeping Science Fair Projects Fair
Help Your Child Without Exhausting Yourself
By Julia Rosien
Science fair projects give children a chance to study topics that interest them, while exercising their research skills. Your involvement in your child's project can turn a potentially stressful experience into an exciting learning adventure.
But how do you help without taking over, encourage without pushing and allow for stumbling without abandoning your child?
The following guidance will help both you and your child to explore the joy that comes from scientific discovery, without the pressure of winning a competition.
Science fair projects teach children how to structure an experiment, gather material, collect data and present it in an organized form. It gives them an opportunity to study subjects such as sports, music, art, rocketry or computers, and to discover that science exists in every niche of the universe.
"Science fairs provide a learning/teaching experience for students," says Margaret Hamill, a retired teacher from New Era, Mich. "A lot of learning and togetherness takes place when children and adults work together."
Working at home gives children a chance to have a hands-on, one-on-one experience with a parent or caregiver, she says.
Find something that sparks your child's imagination.
Jenny Rackley's son Jordan had a keen interest in Mount St. Helen's. So she brainstormed with her son in their Woodinville, Wash. home, offering suggestions without taking over the project.
"He listened to tapes, read books and studied maps," Rackley says. "We used a large box, he crumpled newspaper in it and we made a paper mache model." For the Toutle River mud flow, Jordan mixed grits, cocoa powder and glue, and stuck his old toy cars, animals and action figures in it. He then created the signs and delivered a short presentation to explain what he had made.
