Science Fair Project

The Tuesday before I left for Paris Aidan came home with a very unwelcome slip of paper from school: a science fair project form.  Usually this isn't such an unwelcome sight, but when I was leaving the country in just a few days, making arrangements for friends and family to help out with the kids while I was gone, and having Dad perform double duty at night, dumping a science fair project on top of it all was NOT something I had anticipated.

But thankfully, I have in my bookshelves several science fair project books-it's what you have when you're a science teacher.  We narrowed it down to two, Aidan was able to pick one out easily (three non-Newtonian fluids would be simpler to do than a water bottle rocket).  I picked up half of the needed ingredients for the three types of "goo", and with two Saturdays I figured Eric would have this one done by the time I got back.

Um, no.  Sick kids, baptisms, family stuff, and being Mr Mom slowed him way down.  They only got one of the three done.  And by the time I got home Aidan handed me his project tri-board page, and it just didn't look like we could "make" the current project fit the criteria for the project board.  It was easier to scrap the whole thing, for Eric to run to Home Depot for connectors (we had all the PVC pipe and a bike valve), and for us to just put together the rocket launcher that night.

We spent Wednesday doing our experiments and taking pictures.  And then Thursday we put the board together.  Friday we took the whole thing in, and Monday was the science fair.  I did apologize for not clearing the last minute change with his teacher, but she was totally fine with it.  And as for Aidan, he was so animated when it came time for his oral presentation of his report (we didn't realize there was one!)  It was more of a quick run down of the project, but he was still so excited about the whole thing, it was great.

The best part is, this is a project that we can take through Jr high and even high school, with just some minor adjustments (it's a good thing I know those complex equations).  And it's just plain fun.