Very few science fairs allow entries from students in Kindergarten through 3rd grades. But kids are often excited about science at an early age, and the Collegium Charter School Science Fair wants to include them so they can learn the basics of the scientific method. For students this young, it is more important to focus on doing and completing the project than on ground-breaking science or winning the competition.

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We expect parents to help these young children with their science fair project. This may be the student's first time participating in an event like this. Try your best to guide your child through the process while still having him/her perform experiments (under your supervision), record the data, and think for himself/herself about what the data mean. You may create the graphs, charts or figures and help them type the results. But the ideas and words should come from your child.

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Developmental Issues: Children at this age are challenged by projects that take time to plan and carry out. Their shorter attention spans make it necessary to start early so that it can be broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks of time. Nobody knows your child better than you do. Think about how long he/she can sit and attend to something before his/her focus changes. Keep an eye on the clock and your child's interest level. As his/her interest and mind wanders, think about wrapping things up and plan for the next time that you and your child will work on the project.

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Teach the Scientific Method: Help your child learn about what makes a good experiment. Teach words like hypothesis and procedures. Make sure he/she understands that a science fair experiment is not just building a model of something (you cannot just build an airplane!) but actually testing at least two different situations and then comparing the results. Help him/her begin to learn about the idea of "controls."

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Choosing a problem: Encourage your child to think about things he/she enjoys doing or is interested in when selecting a topic. Put your child in charge of choosing what he/she wants to do but also guide him/her through turning the idea into a simple science project that he/she can complete easily. When kids get excited about the Science Fair, they can have an explosion of ideas about all of the things they want to do.

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Some ideas may not be true science experiments. Building a wheelbarrow or a volcano or watching plants grow are not experiments because they don’t test anything. Help your child turn that interest into an experiment. If your child is set on building a wheelbarrow, you might suggest an experiment about leverage. Make two or three simple wheelbarrow models each with different length handles and measure the force needed to lift an object in the three different models. What would happen? Would it get easier or harder to lift an object as the handles became longer? If your child wants to grow pea plants, you might guide him/her to test what happens when he/she varies the amount of sunlight or add different types of plant food. Would a plant grow faster on a window sill or at the dark end of a room? Does plant food really help a plant grow faster? Does a certain kind of plant food work better than another for a specific plant? See how a simple idea your child may have can turn into one (or many) science fair projects.

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Try to limit the number of conditions (tests) that are going to be tested without discouraging your child’s interest in the project. Testing a lot of different things could:

1) Make the project take longer

2) Result in more data than your child can analyze

3) Just be too hard for your child to keep track of.

 

If your child decided to test 10 different types of inflatable balls at 20 different air pressures, that would mean 200 different tests! No matter what hypothesis the child has made, the real question would be how many times will your child bounce balls before getting bored and whining about wanting to go and play? You might suggest fewer types of balls (2 or 3?) and fewer different air pressures (2 or 3?) for a total of 4, 6, or 9 tests. Then, your child will be able to follow the procedure each time, and be able to deal with the data afterwards.

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Research: Help your child learn how to research a subject for their project. This may be his/her first time looking up information. Bring your child to the library and teach him/her about the card catalogue or the computer to find books on the chosen subject. Encourage your child to speak with a librarian and ask for help so he/she will feel comfortable doing this in the future. You will probably need to help your child search through the books to find the sections that directly apply to his/her project. Help him/her to understand that he/she does not need to know everything in that big book! Help him/her understand what he/she is reading and how it applies to the chosen idea of an experiment. Your child may also use the internet to find information. Supervise your child’s time on the internet so you can help him/her use good search terms, understand what he/she found, and stay out of inappropriate websites.

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The Experiment or Study: Supervise and support your child when he/she executes the experiments or gathers data. Make sure your child is not in danger of hurting himself/herself or anyone else. Remind him/her to always record the date, data and any observations. Be enthusiastic and encourage when things do not go as planned. Things break, tests fail, or the whole project may suddenly seem confusing and that it is OK. We, adults, may understand this but your child might not. Encourage your child to try again. Be there to enjoy your child's blossoming scientific mind!

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The Results and the Display: Teach your child what to put in the display. Also teach him/her what makes a display look nice (neat, organized, colorful, and creative). Teach your child about different ways to display the collected data by using graphs, tables, and charts. You probably already know what parts of the display will be hard for your child. Most first-through-third graders don’t print quickly or neatly, and don’t type well. They haven’t learned about averages. They don’t know much about charts and graphs, and would have a hard time making one neatly. Avoid a stressful math and handwriting challenge. Help your child analyze or understand collected data. Help him/her make charts and tables. Guide your child through describing what he/she did, what he/she observed, and what it means. Type for him/her – but use his/her words. What children do, they understand. It is obvious to the judges which students understand their projects. If you have any questions about helping your child with his/her project display, please contact at http://ccssciencefair.com

Sit back and bask in the glory of your child's success! After you have helped your child prepare his/her display, enjoy what you and your child have just accomplished! The fact that your child has just made it through a science fair project from start to finish is fantastic! Students that are new to the science fair are often very excited at the end to see that all of their work has actually created something. They also enjoy seeing all the other displays and get ideas for next year’s project. Take lots of pictures and pile on the praise for all of your child’s hard work. Focus on his/her success in finishing the project. Remind your child that he/she is now a scientist. Remind your child that while winning is nice, just completing his/her science fair project is a success because he/she did what it took to learn something new.