Need help with Science Fair Ideas

[TeddyB1967]

Re: Need help with Science Fair Idea's ~ Update

If they had treated MY kid like that (I don't have any), the second half of the experiment would have been:

"Ballistic Effects of Trajectorally Accelerated Oological Organic Compounds on the Fecal-containment Brain Casing of Discourteous Homo Sapiens"

Sorry to hear how she was treated. Don't let her get discouraged by the experience, but instead use the opportunity to teach about rising above the pettiness of others. She'll run into a lot of people like that throughout life.

LoL You can take over for me anytime

I have talked to her about how she was treated and that it was very unfair of them to do that. I guess they had done this to another student also, and said they had seen multiple projects that were the "same thing" and they seen enough. How cruel is that
Anyway's, she was told that regardless of what they did and said, she did an awesome job and deserved to be treated better. But even tho she didnt get to finish, that doesnt mean she did anything wrong or her project wasn't good enough, that maybe the teachers were having a long day or something. I dont want her to think bad of the teachers (even tho I do lol) I don't want her to think that way.

No she did not get a 1st place ribbon, she got 3rd place and that's ok. I'm not upset at how she scored or the color of ribbon she received. To me, she got First Place with an A+ just for the fact she she finished something she started and learned something new, she didnt quit. I wasn't there when she had to present it, so I don't know how it went. But what I do know is, had she been able to complete the entire thing, she would have scored higher. It wasn't fair of them to not give her that opportunity or the other student they did this too. She was scored low on the fact the experiment didnt work!!!

As I said before, I don't think the judges scored all the students fairly. The links I posted, Samantha's was number 5. She worked really hard on putting that board together, getting everything posted and keeping everything neat and clean (wish she would do that with her bedroom lol). She had everything on there that was required and then some. She was the only one out of all 3 grades to have a short essay written and having references listed and she scored low on her board presentation. For a 3rd grader, Sami did a great job on her board! You can see which ones in the pics got which color ribbon. I wouldn't have given the board in pic 2 a first place ribbon, but thats just my opinion. There were several students with boards that were very neat, colorful and eye catching that scored low against ones that were messy and looked like they were just thrown together in a few minutes. I don't get it

 

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[G.I.B.]

Re: Need help with Science Fair Idea's

Yea I know, I'm late with the answer....

But hey! Your kid was late with the assignment!

Anyhow~

http://dangerouslyfun.com/

 

[Bridge End Farm]

Re: Need help with Science Fair Idea's

Just wanted to update on the science fair. It was held yesterday during school hours and the projects were on display lastnight for the parents.

The fair was for students in 3rd, 4th & 5th grades. Out of all the students that particpated, there were 5 that did basically the same project as my daughter.... (Making an Egg Float) with slight variations. They were all different in one way or another.

Before going into how my daughter (Samantha) did, I have to say one of the teachers that did the judging has me really upset for her comments she made to my daughter. She said it didn't work and to stop her demo. (well no s*** if you can't complete it, it's not gonna work) then she told Sami "it didn't look like a science project". The other teacher (judge) said that maybe Sami got the warm water and cold water mixed up and that's why it didnt work. Sami told them both it wasn't working because she didnt add enough salt (she only got to 3 teaspoons of salt with the egg only going about half way to the top, and from our practice tests it took 4 to get the egg to go all the way to the top) but they said that was ok, she could stop anyway's.
Sami packed up her items and returned to class, never completing the whole project demo. Sami never got to do the second half of the project, where adding fresh water to the salt water will drop the egg back down and float between the layer of salt water and fresh water. The judges didnt know there was a second part because they never read her info on her display board and didnt give her the opportunity to finish the demostration.

To me, my opinion, this was WRONG! I don't care if there were 50 kids that did the exact same project, they ALL should have been allowed to fully complete their project steps whether it was working or not.

Aside from that, I don't think a lot of the projects were judged fairly. There were some that were really super cool, with great displays but scored low while other projects were cool but the display boards were not the greatest with missing information and a few steps not listed scored really high.

For example, I took a few pics of the 5 projects similar to Sami's. Just looking at the pics, which one would you vote for as being the better display? Take into account, they were all judged on the same requirements.
(Name on the display, title, materials listed, all the scientific steps shown, neatness, uncluttered looking, pics/graphs showing the project steps. etc.)
Here are the pics of the display boards, Sami's being one of the 5 (not numbered in any particular order, Names & faces blacked out)
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l194/KaMeSa_2006/Science Project/Image1.jpg
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l194/KaMeSa_2006/Science Project/Image2.jpg
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l194/KaMeSa_2006/Science Project/Image3.jpg
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l194/KaMeSa_2006/Science Project/Image4.jpg
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l194/KaMeSa_2006/Science Project/Image5.jpg

I'll letcha know later which one was Sami's and how she scored. The projects were scored "supposedly" the same way from a Scoresheet. The sheet listed the requirements with the possible number of points to earn and then all the points added up at the end.
0 to 39 points received a green ribbon for participating
40 to 42 received a white ribbon for 3rd place
43 to 46 points received a red ribbon for 2nd place
47 to 50 points got a blue ribbon for first place

Everyone that participated received a ribbon​

Teachers should always encourage and never discourage, regardless and let each student always hit the finish line my 2 cents

 

[TeddyB1967]

Re: Need help with Science Fair Idea's

Thanks for the link GuyInBack, it will come in handy for next years project

I agree with you Bridge, that was the upsetting part for me. Not that she only received a 3rd place ribbon but how the teachers handled these kids. I guess a few parents (not me) had called the school and had a chat with the principle about that issue. I thought it only happened to my daughter and another student but guess it was more than those two. My daughter's teacher called and talked to me today after school because Samantha told her in class today she deserved a blue ribbon and the judge was mean to her lol We, or rather I accept the white ribbon and not complaining about that. I did however let the teacher know that it was unfair regardless of what the explaination was that was given and she agreed.

The whole school will now be treated to an ice cream cone on Tuesday when they go back after Memorial Day break

There was a "substitute" teacher filling in that day, and she was the one "more out spoken" to the kids. She said she did not judge them on not finishing, but on over-all requirements and provided her documents to show how they were judged with the other teacher backing her up and agreeing with everything. They say it was done fairly but I still have doubts.