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Keeping Science Fair Projects Fair
Help Your Child Without Exhausting Yourself
By Julia Rosien
"When a parent shows interest in his child's work, the child will be motivated to do his or her best," says neurophysiologist Eric Chudler, research associate at the University of Washington. "This kind of parent/child interaction strengthens family bonds and opens opportunities for communication on many topics."
Evelyn Raab of Millbrook, Ontario, says her two sons loved science and didn't need encouragement to get started. What they did need was someone to help them organize their plans and gather materials.
"I borrowed thermometers and asked a friend to donate some baby trees," she says. "I schlepped the kids around town to find materials and helped design a spreadsheet on the computer."
Raab spent more time than money, and found that great projects come from ingenuity. "In every case, my kids did projects cheaply, with as much free, recycled or borrowed material as possible," she says.
Her son Dustin once decided to do an electric potato assignment. They bought the wires and pieces of metal to stick into the potatoes, the light bulb and the socket. But after the project was assembled, it didn't work.
He tried switching to lemons and then smaller bulbs, but nothing worked.
"Dustin diligently wrote up the entire process and recorded every attempt, every change of material, every failure," Raab says. "He presented the project in its original form, with the unelectrical potatoes and the depressingly unlit light bulb. He recorded his results, and presented his outcome."
Dustin won the prize, and learned that science fair projects aren' always about making a project work.