Thursday, December 8, 2011

Science Fair

I know a lot of parents hate the science fair, but I love it!

A few months ago when Ryan’s science teacher mentioned the science fair to the students, Ryan knew exactly what he wanted to do. I had told him about a couple of my science fair projects – one when I swabbed different areas of the school to see which one had the most bacteria, and one when I used different kinds of mouthwash to see which killed the most bacteria. Ryan was enthralled! He knew he wanted to do something similar.

We started collecting his specimens early in November, as I mentioned in this post. We put them in a box lid, covered them with a thick, folded towel, and put them on Ryan’s desk, just above the heat vent in his room. (I know – yuck to have all of those things growing in his room. We were extremely careful in our handling of them.) We then met with a microbiologist that helped us identify each of the different types of bacteria.

The week of the storm, as well as the following week, the kids had different elements of their science fair projects due every day. Ryan was so good to work on each thing, regardless of where we were. I am also proud to say that he did the entire project himself. I know that’s not always the case with science fair projects. His poster turned out great. He organized the layout and did all of the charts, headings, and other information himself.

Thursday, December 8 was the judging and then the open house for parents to come and view all of the projects. Rara, Papa, Claire, Alice & I went to the school to see how Ryan did. As soon as we walked in, his teacher said, “You need to walk that direction,” and pointed toward the stage. The eight kids who had won the school fair (and who would be going to the district fair) had their projects displayed on the stage. And Ryan was there! He did a great job explaining his project to everyone that came by, and Alice & Claire loved seeing Ryan at school!



We enjoyed walking through and looking at all of the projects. And I told as many people as I could that he had done it all by himself!

He goes to the district science fair on February 22. Watch for my report at that time.

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