Science Fair

We had the science fair a couple weeks ago. Seth found out about it back in January and really wanted to do it. He loves all the hands on things, especially science. Only the 5th and 6th graders have to participate but they let all the other grades do it to if they want. I have avoided it so far and had planned on doing the same again this year until Seth came to me with his big brown eyes and asked if he could do it. I couldn't tell him no. At the time I was so busy with doing knowledge bowl with Damen, being called as the new Bear Leader in cub scouts and it felt like a hundred other things. But Seth needed some Mom time so we set to work trying to find and experiment.

After looking on line we found an experiment that involved making cookies. I figured you just couldn't go wrong with that type of experiment and Seth agreed, he was SO excited. The whole experiment was so see if letting cookies sit in the fridge for 48 hrs effected the taste or texture of the cookie. See if you were to look under a microscope the wet and dry ingredients are still separate particles for at least 24 hrs. But by letting your cookies sit in the fridge they combine and you can't see the space between particles if looking under a microscope.

So we made cookies and then made more two days later.

the two batches of cookies

Seth then cut all the cookies so that there would be plenty to sample as we went around the neighborhood.

We then picked the two coldest days of the year (literally single digits) and went around letting people decide which cookie they liked best. I think we determined that the favorite was the ones that didn't sit in the fridge. So we did all of this back in January and then figured we had time to put together the poster and everything for the project.

Fast forward a month and a half at 6:00pm. "Mom we have to turn in Science Fair tomorrow." says Seth. "What?" I knew the date was approaching but didn't realize it was the next day. My printer has no color ink, I'm not going to Wal-Mart to print of pictures I have no card board box or anything to make the display and basically said, "Oh Crap, I don't have the stuff to do it." I asked Seth what his favorite part was and he told me making the cookies and going around to ask people which they like best. We then decided that that was the fun part the other was the busy work part and we weren't going to do it. I was so relieved when he was totally fine with that. Really he was, I didn't have to convince him or anything, though I did say I would put in on the blog and he was fine with it all. I even heard him say that it didn't matter if he had a display cause he at least got to do the experiment. Oh what a good kid. He really did do a great job and I am proud of him for wanting to do it. Heck I'll do experiments all the time as long as I don't have to do the displays! Gook Job Seth!!!