I have been volunteering in my sons 3rd grade gifted science class this week. They are doing their first science fair projects. It has been very exciting for the children. Our projects are simple but full of fun! I watched skittles melt in water to see which dye pulls out the fastest (Orange was the winner at 3 minutes all of the dye was gone). One cool thing we learned was that the S on the skittle floated off into the water before dissolving all the way. I watched koolaid colored apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar and distilled vinegar fizz when baking soda is dropped in (the winner was apple cider vinegar). I watched stains be pulled out of fabric with different cleaning solutions such as shout, oxy clean and spray and wash (oxy clean was the winner). I also watched milk expire sitting out in the class room. Did you know that chocolate milk stays good longer than 2% white milk? I didn’t! It took 4 days for the chocolate milk to go bad after sitting out in the class, whereas the 2% went bad after 2 days!
There were some experiments I didn’t get to see, because I was busy helping other kids, but it was a very rewarding experience. Seeing the kids come up with a hypothesis, collect data, and share their results was awesome. Although many of the kids proved their hypothesis wrong, they were still very excited about the results and many of them asked more questions! Some even expanded on their hypotheses and did a second part for their projects! I have enjoyed this so much and can’t wait to attend the science fair to see them present their work!
picture courtesy of: http://dms.delranschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=3013537&pageId=4823087
RockScienceMoM 