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Science Fair Season

January is science fair season in the classroom and this usually means it's project time for children across the country. There's more to science fairs than just completing a project and taking it to school. The whole process is one that promotes scientific exploration and discovery, both of which can be a lot of fun! One way to make sure your child has fun while they learn is to encourage them to pick a topic they are interested in and then develop their project around that topic. 

Once your child has chosen a topic, it's time to move on to the next step, which is to think of a question. Keep in mind, this question should be something they can answer on their own by doing experiments or researching the topic. Try to keep it simple. Instead of trying to explain a complicated concept, encourage your child to pick a topic that requires exploration of basic scientific elements. Instead of trying to explain global warming, explore the water cycle.

After thinking of a question, ask your child to guess the answer to their question, or make a prediction about what will happen during experimentation. Hypothesizing is a very important part of the scientific method! This is another step where a little research on the topic can help. 

Now that your child is thinking about questions and answers, the experimentation process can begin. Develop an experiment that will help your child test their hypothesis. Collect all the materials required for their experiment. You probably already have many of these materials around the house. Don't forget to document the experiment from beginning to end by recording results in a logbook. During their experiment, it might be a good idea to take some digital photos too. Pictures are a great way to document their experiment and help children remember what they discovered. They also make presenting their scientific conclusions about their discoveries easier. 

After completing their experiment, or series of experiments children are likely to have recorded lots of discoveries in their logbook. Now it is time to take those discoveries, discuss them (or research them if necessary) and draw conclusions. It is important to remember that conclusions and discoveries are two different things. How do you make sure your child distinguishes between the two? Remind them that a discovery is an observation. After a series of observations, a conclusion can be made. Conclusions are facts based on their observations.

The last step is presenting their findings. This can be done in lots of creative ways! Children can use the pictures they took of their experiment and draw illustrations, charts or graphs. Creating a poster or display is a great way for children to present their findings, and will help them explain their project to others. 

Children tend to get discouraged if their experiment disproves their hypothesis, but remind them that it doesn't matter if their prediction was right or wrong - science is about the process! Providing your child with encouragement and support while they explore and discover is a great way to show your child you’re proud of them.