4 Science Fair Hints & Tips
Science Fair season fast approaches and with all the intrigue and research comes an unquellable anxiety for both students and parents. Make this year's Science Fair fun and stress-free with these 4 tips.
1. Get Creative: New online platforms make searching for science fair project ideas a breeze! Pinterest boards like this one are chock full of project ideas, best practices and fun tips to take your project to the next level. Steve Spangler Science's, Susan Wells, has steps for helping you get started all the way from asking a simple question to creating your project boards.
2. Create Your Project Board: Once all the hypothesizing and research is complete, one of the seemingly hardest parts comes - putting all your information together for presentation. Check out 5 easy steps to put together a science fair project board.
3. Follow Through: Making sure your science fair project comes full circle will ensure it's success - encourage kids to step out of the box and truly challenge themselves (and their peers) with a great project that incorporates true scientific data. For example, Susan Wells says,
Building a volcano and showing the eruption that occurs from the reaction between the baking soda and vinegar is NOT a science fair project. Testing additional substances beyond vinegar that will react with baking soda IS. Or testing different amounts of baking soda that will produce the highest or longest-acting volcano is another idea.
4. Prepare: The final step before the fair is to practice and prepare to answer questions. Fair visitors will stop by your child’s board and ask questions about why they picked the topic, what they did and what they learned. Make sure they understand the topic and the project and are able to discuss it.
Science fair projects are a lot of work but come with a lot of reward. Don’t let your fears as a parent get in the way of one of the best learning opportunities for your child.
Bonus Tip: Are you coordinating the science fair volunteers? Quickly schedule and track parent volunteers with free online sign up sheets! 24/7 online access from a computer or mobile device makes helping out convenient and automated reminders make sure everyone keeps their commitment!
