Butt Out

Science Exhibit

Science Exhibit

Science Fairs are a great idea! They force young student to really buckle down and stretch their brain past what they thought was capable. It is also a place where creativity can meet science in an otherwise stuffy atmosphere. But, at a science fair, you also run the risk of running into the dreaded over the shoulder parent.


Let us take a look at the science experiments we have for the fifth grade class. Mr. Jenkins has a mobile of the planets. Mrs. Stevens has a volcano. What's this, Mr. Riley has a display that demonstrates what happens in a nuclear reactor. Hmm, who had the most help?

My experience during the science fair was great. I thought I had a really original exhibit. I demonstrated how the shape of a container dictated how fast hot water would cool when it was placed in it. Not the "sexiest" display in the cafeteria, but I found it interesting. Needless to say, the students discussing cellphones and the internet won. But I still like to think I held my own in my own low-tech way.

Barry's Response - This brings up the question of what judging criteria are used in the competitions. Do they prefer popular/sexy ones, hi-tech ones or ones where the student demonstrates a good deal of effort (especially in the research, principle formulation or data acquisition areas), regardless of whether (s)he obtained help from parents, teachers or otherwise? It should be about the spirit of learning.

My $0.02. Thanks for your concerns.

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Comments for Butt Out

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Butt Out
by: Anonymous

it was an interesting article. The experiment is an unique one. The image is also well suited for this topic.

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science
by: Anonymous

Realiy an interesting article. The experiment is such a different one. The image is well suited for this topic.

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My comment
by: Merri Frisbie

I'm guessing this article was written by a fairly young student, but the minor grammatical errors should probably be edited out... if not edited, then at least acknowledged, I suppose. The quality of the writing is excellent for a child of that age... if in fact the author is a child. It wasn't very clear, in my opinion.
I had a hard time figuring out what this had to do with the rest of the site, as well.

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My Comment
by: Anonymous

I thought this was an awesome article. I thought this article was very interesting. I would like to explore more of this site thanks.

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Thank you to my research and writing assistants, ChatGPT and WordTune, as well as Wombo and others for the images.

GPT-4, OpenAI's large-scale language generation model (and others provided by Google and Meta), helped generate this text.  As soon as draft language is generated, the author reviews, edits, and revises it to their own liking and is responsible for the content.