Science Fair 2015

The kids' school held science fair, and Micah's class was required to complete a project.

He had a hard time deciding on a project, but he finally chose to measure how the color and intensity of light affects photosynthesis.

 He removed disks of leaf material and placed them in a sodium bicarbonate solution.

After removing the oxygen from the leaves (which forced the disks to sink), he placed the disks under different wattages and colors of light to see which light made photosynthesis occur the fastest.

 As the disks produced oxygen, they would rise to the top.

It was interesting and he could complete the project with a minimum of assistance.

He also did all of the write up at school--bonus as well. I only bought paper and helped him lay out the pictures and text on the board.

It was a late night that night, but as he finished up, he said, "Mom, I'm really proud of this. I think I did a good job." For Micah, that is a huge step, and I fully credit his teacher, Ms. H. She has helped him learn pride in the finished product, not just finishing as fast as he can. (He still struggles with the whole finish first not best thing, but I've seen huge strides with him this year, and I'm so grateful for her!)

Eve wanted to do a science project, too. Lucky it didn't have all of the qualifications of a real to-be-judged science project.

We walked around the neighborhood and picked different leaves. As we picked them, she would tell me which were deciduous and which were evergreen.

This may sound like an easy task, but many trees in Arizona never shed their leaves. Does that mean they are evergreen? It took quite a bit of research online to discover the answers.

 In case you were wondering, palm trees are evergreen, and trees with flat leaves like a sissoo or all citrus trees, although they are never completely bare, are deciduous. These trees go through cycles where they will drop many of their leaves but never all at once. Bet you didn't know that! And from a kindergartner!

 She cut out all of the pictures and glued them to the board. She was really proud of it, and I had a hard time pulling her off the counter that morning to get ready for school!

The science fair was awesome! So many great projects and the kids were proud to show them off.

Eve's class had even prepared a few songs that help them remember science facts. Her teacher is such a great fit in a kindergarten classroom, and Eve thinks she's a rock star with that guitar!

In case you were wondering, she really is the smallest in her class. I think she may even be the smallest in the entire grade.

Science fair 2015--over and done. Micah got 2nd place in his class. I think he was a little disappointed with that, but the pride he had in his finished project is what I consider the real award.