Just Blogging

Garry L. Neale asked:




It’s important for kids to get involved in science from an early age, as exposure to scientific ideas and the world of exploration as soon as possible is the best way to foster a love for learning in your children that will last a lifetime. At the same time, scientific knowledge is cumulative, so kids have to start with a solid foundation if they are to develop the necessary scientific skills to succeed in school, and perhaps in a future career. Of course, when doing science projects with kids the most important thing to remember is to have fun! Youth science fair projects aren’t meant to transform your child into a scientist - they are meant to get the creative juices flowing within your child and help him or her continue to explore the natural world and make use of the imagination.

So where do you find ideas for science projects, if you want to get your child started on something at home? Luckily, these days you don’t have to look far to find science projects for your children - simply do an online search and you should be able to find tons of websites containing information and ideas pertaining to science fair projects and science for children in general. These websites list science projects and tell you exactly how to do them and what to do, so the process of helping your child discover science or prepare science fair projects for school is made easy.

In the past, it was easy for parents to become frustrated when helping kids with homework and coming up with ideas for science fair projects - now it’s easy to help them out and you don’t have to be a science whiz yourself! And if your child demonstrates a natural interest in science, it’s even more important that you encourage it from an early age. Whether or not you have to do a project for school, or complete a homework assignment, kids getting involved in science at home is a great idea!

In fact, doing their own science experiments at home is a great way to supplement the regular educational exposure your kids get during the day in the classroom. And if you home school your children coming up with fun and educational science experiments that are easy to recreate at home is the perfect way to help your kids exercise their minds and learn about science while having a lot of fun at the same time.

When you set up science projects for your kids to do at home, it makes learning fun - this will carry over to the child’s classroom experience and may even improve their grades overall. Of course, that is not the main goal of doing science experiments at home. Again, do these projects with your children as a fun activity and the learning will spring from that organically. Specifically, when searching for science projects for your kids to do at home it’s a good idea to find something your children, and maybe even their friends, will enjoy. Figure out what interests your child and go from there. Involving them in the process will help them naturally discover where their interests are and what type of experiments they’ll gain the most from.

You can find the instructions for these experiments for free, although you will have to purchase some basic supplies in most cases. At the same time, materials used in most of these projects are relatively inexpensive and not difficult to find.

Dee Schrock asked:




Good science fair projects are all around us. Anything can be turned into a science fair project. Any question you have ever asked about anything can be turned into a science project. No science fair project is “bad” unless you haven’t put the effort into it. As long as you pick a topic that interest you, use the scientific method to come up with your answer, make a hypothesis, present your project in a nice organized fashion, and completely understand your project and are able to explain it to the judges, you will have a good science fair project.

If you are having trouble getting started, just think of a topic that interests you. Do you like animals? Do you like looking at the stars and wonder what the universe has in store? Do you like studying plants? Does machinery interest you? Or maybe you would like to do an experiment on something that’s in the media these days, such as global warming or the economy? The possibilities are endless. Would you like to find out how a specific animal behaves in the wild as opposed to the way it behaves in captivity?

Would you like to find out about ways you and your family can help out the Earth, such as through recycling, composting or being aware of the affects of pollution? Or maybe you would like to conduct a simple experiment such as finding out what type of treat your cat or dogs prefers. Whatever you choose, as long as you put the effort into it, it will be a great project.

Dee Schrock asked:




Kids science fair projects are quite simple to come up with. Kids are constantly asking questions like “What happens if” or “How does this work?” The next time they ask a question, instead of just telling them the answer, help them find the answer out on their own. They’ll feel great about themselves when they’ve accomplished the experiment and found out the answer by themselves. One experiment for kids to try would be to see if water proof mascara is really water proof. All you need for this experiment is a few different brands of mascara, some paper and running water from a tap. Brush the mascara on to the paper and after allowing it time to dry, place it under the running water and see which brands are really waterproof.

Other Kids science fair projects are to see whether cockroaches have a sense of direction. Others such as how much food a caterpillar can consume in one day, or how about seeing which kind of surface snails can move faster on, gravel, sand or cement can also be fun ideas. You could also try running a mouse through a maze and seeing how long it takes them to get to the end, or drawing a line from beginning to end and seeing if the mouse is able to follow it. This can be a great project if you know someone with a pet mouse you can borrow, because if you borrow one from the pet store, chances are your child won’t want to return it afterwards and you may end up with a new family pet!

Dee Schrock asked:




Electricity science projects can great fun for both the students and teachers involved. There are so many wonderful things being done with electricity these days. There are electric lights, electric stoves and even electric cars! What’s next? You never know, but it is a very interesting topic to choose for your science project. There are countless electricity science fair projects to choose from. If you use your imagination, you should have no problem coming up with a great project.

One interesting project is to see if lemons can produce electricity. This can be accomplished with minimal materials; all you need is a lemon, a paperclip, some copper wire and sand paper. Once you have both the wire and the paperclip in the lemon, gently squeeze the lemon with your hand. Once the lemon is ready, you can moisten your tongue and touch it to the ends of the two wires. You should be able to feel a slight tingle on the tip of your tongue and taste something metallic.

Another great project is to build your own generator, or to research how electricity is created. You could also research how they make the electric car. You could even make a little model of an electric car yourself, depending on your time frame and your skill level on this topic. Electricity is a fascinating topic and there is still so much of it that people do not understand about it. Wouldn’t you like to know how your light turns on when you flip a switch? Or how you can have two lights switches at the top and bottom of the stairs that control the same light?