science fair fun

Last year, we participated in the science fair for the first time.  Apparently, it was so much fun that everyone had to do it again.  Fortunately, each of the girls had an idea in mind weeks before, and so we were a bit more prepared this year.  I have to say that although I am pretty much a science fair scrooge, I think the girls worked pretty hard and did a really good job.  I have this silly little notion about not doing my kids school work for them, and so with a little help from mom and dad, they did most of the work themselves.  Well. . .good brains, girls!

Ryenne wanted to learn about lava lamps.  She found a recipe to build her own and experimented with different ingredients and amounts.  It turned to be a pretty fun experiment and she was thrilled.  She and the other girls asked her Aunt Andrea to help her cut out the letters for her poster with her handy cricut machine, and boy, were we thankful for her!  Ryenne was also excited because all of the students were so intrigued by her display that she had a busy showing all day at the fair. 

Kate named her experiment "Tooth Attack".  She had wanted to do this experiment last year, but we didn't get around to it in time.  For her research, she collected teeth from Uncle AJ (she didn't make him pull his own-he is an oral surgeon so he donated a few

cast-offs. . .yuck!).  Then she put them into different liquids (juice, soda, and sports drinks) for three weeks, weighing them each week to see how much decay each liquid caused.  You just can't know how much fun it is to have some stranger's teeth sitting in bottles on your kitchen counter for nearly a month- really, you should give it a whirl.  

Emmy wanted to see which bubble gum makes the biggest bubbles.  We all sat around one night blowing and measuring bubbles until I nearly threw up.  (There's only so much Hubba Bubba I can take.)  She was a little bit nervous for her interview with the judges but ended up thinking it was all pretty neat.  

Kate and Emmy were pleasantly surprised when they won first and second place, respectively, for their grades.  Most importantly, they all had a grand time and felt like quite the little scientists.  And me?  Being the obviously scholastically-minded mom that I am, I'm just a little bit afraid that we've got a long career of science fairs ahead of us. 

Ba-Hum-Bug.