Our Science Fair Winners!

Last week was the science fair at the boys' school. It was our first year participating and I am not a fan of all the work parents have to put into it, but I do love the fact that the boys wanted to be a part of it and learn more about an aspect of science. How can I say "no" to that? The school only gave us less than a month's notice, which I think was the most stressful, especially since we had to do two projects, but obviously it's possible!

Cruise came home from school one day and said he learned about the science fair from his science class and that he really wanted to do it. When I asked him what he wanted to do it on, he wasn't sure at first, but then said he learned about Galileo in science and that he didn't agree with his theory of falling objects, so he chose to do his project on that.

Jett learned about the science fair from Cruise and of course had to be like his big brother and get in on that action. Jett, being six, still has a habit of questioning literally everything, so we weren't lacking in ideas. He finally decided on how tornados work.

I started out with the boys finding their topics, doing a little research, and helping them come up with their hypotheses. Dave took it from there and helped them come up with experiments, helped them build and run them, record data, and decide upon a conclusion. So really, he did the bulk of the work. Once that was all figured out, Dave and I spent two separate evenings up until 1 AM typing out everything and preparing all the stuff to put on their posters. I spent two other evenings up until about 11 or 12 cutting, rearranging, and gluing everything onto their boards. The boys helped as much as they could until they had to go to bed, but then I did the rest.

Cruise's project tested falling objects, so he did marble vs. marble, marble vs. steel ball bearing, and marble vs. feather. Dave and Cruise made a dropper out of Legos so they were sure the objects would drop from the same height at the same time. I was able to capture the falling objects on my camera and then they also recorded them with another camera. Cruise, despite all the evidence, refused to believe the marbles and ball bearing hit the ground at the same time. But after reminding him about the scientific method and stating observations vs. opinions, he had to conclude that they did, in fact, fall at the same rate. But if you ask him today, he will still tell you that they really don't. Maybe he will prove Galileo, Newton and Einstein all wrong some day.

Jett's project seemed simple at first, but then we realized how on earth we were going to do an experiment that reproduces a tornado! We looked on-line, saw a few versions, and then came up with our own with the help of my brother-in-law's fog machine. Dave designed the fog machine to fog up into a cardboard box, and had a small fan attached to the top. From there they were able to come up with some tests about sheer wind and updraft. We also made one of those water tornado things and they timed how fast it takes for water to go from one side to the other with and without the vortex. Jett really got into it and enjoyed doing all the tests with his dad.

The day finally came and we all showed up to the school to set up their projects. I was so nervous that one of the boys would get a ribbon and another wouldn't. I'm pretty sure I was stressed over it all morning.

That same day, I was to go help in Jett's class in the afternoon, so I showed up a few minutes early so I could check out if the judging was done. I snuck into the gym and saw immediately that Jett had gotten 2nd place in the Kindergarten (I still think he should've gotten 1st)! Then I walked over to the 3rd grade table and I walked past the first side, each display had a ribbon of a different placement. I made my way over to the other side: 5th place, 2nd place, 1st place and then...nothing. Cruise's was the only one that didn't have a ribbon or a certificate. Not even a participation ribbon! I immediately went into panic mode. I went from confused, to angry, to panic, wondering how I was going to get to the store to buy a ribbon before school got out!

I had all of this going through my mind as I walked (and texted Dave) down the hall to the front office to sign in. As I entered the office, I noticed Cruise's teacher, Mr. Middleton, going through some papers and I couldn't keep my mouth shut: "So, I went and peeked at the science projects and Cruise is the ONLY one in the 3rd grade who did not get ANYTHING. I don't know what I'm going to do. I feel so bad!" He quickly stopped me and said, "Yes! There is a reason for that! It's because he's getting an even BIGGER prize! I was notified that they were really impressed with Cruise's project so he will be getting his ribbon tomorrow morning." Talk about relief! After that, I, of course, had to text Dave again and tell him everything was going to be fine. And then I was on to my volunteer commitments without concern.

I kept it a secret from Cruise so he could find out the next day at school. They awarded him 1st Place of all K-4th graders! His teacher told me that on that same day after getting the award, he walked into his mainstream science class and the whole class started clapping for him! He replied with his eyes wide open, "Ummm...so do you guys know I won the science fair?" Ha ha! Too cute.

Jett was really proud of himself but a little bummed that he didn't get 1st place, but I told him 2nd place is still super awesome and that everyone loved his science project. It really as pretty cool and he put a lot of work into it.

With all the positive reinforcement, the boys, of course, want to do it again next year, so I decided from now on we're doing science projects in the summer and saving them until next January.