The science fair is a yearly tradition at our school. Third and fourth grade students are required to participate and the first and second graders all do a class project.
This year Josh and his dad came up with the idea to make homemade weather instruments to see if you could predict the weather without professional equipment. I reserve the right as blog author to comment that people have, for centuries, predicted weather without professional equipment simply by walking outside, looking at the sky, smelling the air and saying, "I think it's going to rain." However, apparently that does not qualify as meeting the standards of the "scientific method" so more effort was required at our house.
Kevin and Josh looked on the internet to find out how to make a barometer and an anemometer. For those, like me, who are scientifically challenged, a barometer measures atmospheric pressure and an anemometer measures wind speed. Here are their homemade versions of these pieces of equipment. (I will admit that I don't have a clue what the professional versions would look like -- you'll have to research that on your own). Also included are some "Photoshopped" versions that include what the used to make them.
Data was gathered each morning and each evening and entered into Joshua's "log book" (to make it more cool for him, Kevin brought one home like he uses in the field).
At the end of their data gathering period, they compiled their information and Joshua typed it up on the computer, emailed it to me for formatting and we printed it, he cut it out, matted it using construction paper and we all helped him tape it down on the board.
VIOLA -- finished project. How come it sounds so much more simple in words than it really was? How come we felt like we were nailing jello to the wall trying to get Joshua to finish this project? Anyway... here's what it looked like before it got sent to school.
He was unable to attend the judging this evening as we were unloading and delivering pizzas (it WAS his choice to stay there instead of going to the fair), but I called another mom and found out that he won 2nd place in his Earth Sciences division. He came in behind his friend, Kaitlin. Ironically, when they were about six months old, they were both in a baby pageant. Kaitlin won first place and Joshua won second. When I told him about getting second and Kaitlin getting first, he said, "I'm always coming in second place to her!" *smile*
1 comment:
Congrats, Joshua, that's a really cool project! Glad your pizza sale went well. That does look like a LOT of work, but well worth it :)
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