Involved Parents
Parents play a vital role in their children's science education. If you think you need to know a lot about science to help your children with their science fair project, relax, because you don't! Offering support and encouragement, proofreading research papers, and attending the science fair are just a few ways you can make a difference.
To make science a part of your family's everyday life:
- Don't start with science. Start with your child's personal interests. (Our Topic Selection Wizard can help!)
- Tie science into what they know—a new movie, a favorite book, a hobby.
- Motivate your child by making science fun.
- Discuss science news and issues at dinner or breakfast.
Science Buddies strongly believes parents play a critical role in fostering science literacy. In 2010, Science Buddies launched its Parents Science Initiative, a campaign to encourage parents to take an active role in encouraging their children's interest in science and to support them in developing science literacy.
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Our Very Own Science Mom
Science Buddies vice president Courtney Corda has two children of her own and knows the value of talking about and exploring science with her kids. As she said in a recent appearance on the popular San Francisco-based TV show View from the Bay, doing science at home is as important as reading with your kids and emphasizing good nutrition. In her TV appearances, Courtney demonstrates engaging, simple, educational Science Buddies projects, as well as tips for how to inspire children's interest in science. Get started with these recently featured projects, which also include the video clips of Courtney's appearances.
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Why are Science Fairs Important?
Are your students asking "why" it matters? Understanding "why" science fairs are important and being able to talk with your child about the value of science projects will make you more comfortable talking about science in everyday life with your family.
A science fair project can give your child the first chance to design his or her own learning experience, one that allows him or her to innovate, just as scientists do in the real world. Students will be able to explore personal interests to select an area for his or her science fair project, as well as learn the scientific method to answer a question. Each student will also develop skills above and beyond science proficiency, such as:
- Reading Comprehension and Writing: Doing background research and writing a research paper
- Math: Creating graphs and performing data analysis
- Time Management: Planning a multi-step project
- Communication: Presenting and explaining the science fair project
- Ethics Understanding: Learning about plagiarism and the importance of credit and citations
For additional information about the value of science fairs, view these insightful Science Buddies webpages:
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Science Fairs: Student Perspectives
In the
Straight Talk for Parents & Teachers video from the Archimedes Initiative, science fair students talk about the ways parents can be involved and supportive during a science project.
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Resources to Prepare You and Your Child for Science Fair Success
At Science Buddies, we have resources designed to help your child at every step of the science fair project. The following resources can help your student select an appropriate and exciting project and can help ensure he or she gets off to a good start. If a problem arises, Science Buddies has answers in our online Project Guide and via our Ask an Expert online advice forums, where questions are answered by a team of volunteer experts. Click any of the items below to learn more about the resources we offer.
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How to Help with Your Child's Science Project
It can be challenging as a parent to find the balance between being involved with and supportive of a child's science fair project and helping too much. Our information on appropriate parent involvement makes it easy to be involved at the right level. Letting your child explore, observe, make mistakes, ask questions—and seek the answers—is at the heart of the science fair process.
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Science at Home
Science Buddies isn't just for science fairs! Many of our science Project Ideas are perfect for a rainy day, a vacation from school, or family science exploration. With the right science activities, you will all have fun, and everyone will be learning more about science! The Project Ideas below are low-cost, require readily available and/or household materials, and take only a few hours, start to finish.
If you try one of these with your family, let us know what you think—and what fun you had!
New Science Activities
Science Buddies is now adapting some of our more popular project ideas into at-home, in-class, or
after-school activities. Each activity comes with student instructions and a facilitator guide with just enough
information to help anyone lead a good discussion on the science behind the activity.
- Discovering the Colors Behind Afterimages
Difficulty =
5
- Measuring Heart Rate with Your Own Stethoscope
Difficulty =
1
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Science in the Summer
Does science come to mind when you think about summer camp? We hope so! Summer science camp offers students exciting and innovative ways to
get hands-on experience with important science, technology, and engineering (STEM) concepts. Thanks to a grant from the Motorola Solutions Foundation, we've created a new Summer Science Camp resource to help you better understand the value of summer science camps—and to help you easily locate quality science-related programs in your area!
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Science Buddies for Scouting and 4-H
Many of our Project Ideas satisfy requirements for Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and 4-H activities. We've pulled together lists of projects, below, designed for use in earning club-related badges, patches, pins, belt loops, and more.
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Science Fair Documentary
Hailed as "An unabashed celebration of geekitude, idealism, and the will to win," by the New York Times and "Gripping," by the Washington Post, WhizKids brings science to the big screen. An inside look at the world of advanced science competitions, the WhizKids documentary follows three high school students as they prepare for and compete in the Intel Science Talent Search. The documentary will be shown on PBS beginning in April 2011. Visit the WhizKids website for more information (and check your local PBS listings).
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Internet Safety
The Internet can be an excellent resource as your children perform research for their science fair projects; however, there are also risks you might not have considered. Educate yourself and your children about the importance of safe online practices by viewing our Internet Safety materials.
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Science Buddies: A Name You can Trust
Science Buddies has been honored with the following awards and recognition:
- 2009 Gold Award, National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA)
- 2008 Parents' Choice Recommended Award in the website category. Parents' Choice is the nation's oldest nonprofit guide to quality children's media and toys.
- Reviewed and selected for SciLinks, a service of the National Science Teachers Association
- American Library Association Great Websites for Kids
To learn more about Science Buddies, please view our About Us and Staff & Advisory Boards pages.
Science Buddies is in compliance with the COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act). To understand how Science Buddies responsibly collects and safely uses your child's information, we invite you to review our Privacy Policy.
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