Scientific Method Project Notebook question

devinsmom · Post by **devinsmom** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:26 am

Hi all,

My son (5 years old in Kindergarten) is doing a Science Fair Project titled "Which makes an egg float faster, salt or sugar?"

We read online about a project using salt but he wanted to use sugar and salt and see which one made it floater faster.

He's 5, how crazy does he need to get with this project notebook?

Also, his school is not allowing 3-d items the board has to be flat with drawings and photos only. Should be taking tons of photos and gluing them to the board? Which photos do you think would be the most important?

Sorry to be flustered! Thanks for any help anyone can give.

MelissaB · Post by **MelissaB** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:40 am

I would think that pictures of eggs floating, with a caption underneath saying how much salt or sugar was in the water (I assume that that's the method--start with an equal amount of water and an egg in a container and add measured amounts of salt or sugar until the egg floats) would be most important. You may also want to show what you were using to measure the salt and/or sugar with for the methods section.

I'm a scientist, and I haven't been to a science fair in years so someone may want to correct this next statement...but I would think that for a kindergartener the important things to go into the notebook would be the methods and the data (i.e. what they did and what they found). Anything that could potentially affect the results--for example, if some sugar got spilled before it was put into the container--should also be noted. I'm not sure what your son's writing skill level is, though, so I'm not sure exactly what they'd want. Is a notebook required? Is it okay if you (the parent) writes down something like 'How many spoonfuls of sugar did you put in before the egg floated?' and the child writes the number? You may want to talk to your son's teacher about it; the more I think about it the more I wonder how many kindergarteners actually have the skills to write up a proper notebook without any help from their parents.

It sounds like fun project! I hope he has fun doing it.

devinsmom · Post by **devinsmom** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:46 am

MelissaB wrote:I would think that pictures of eggs floating, with a caption underneath saying how much salt or sugar was in the water (I assume that that's the method--start with an equal amount of water and an egg in a container and add measured amounts of salt or sugar until the egg floats) would be most important. You may also want to show what you were using to measure the salt and/or sugar with for the methods section.

I'm a scientist, and I haven't been to a science fair in years so someone may want to correct this next statement...but I would think that for a kindergartener the important things to go into the notebook would be the methods and the data (i.e. what they did and what they found). Anything that could potentially affect the results--for example, if some sugar got spilled before it was put into the container--should also be noted. I'm not sure what your son's writing skill level is, though, so I'm not sure exactly what they'd want. Is a notebook required? Is it okay if you (the parent) writes down something like 'How many spoonfuls of sugar did you put in before the egg floated?' and the child writes the number? You may want to talk to your son's teacher about it; the more I think about it the more I wonder how many kindergarteners actually have the skills to write up a proper notebook without any help from their parents.

It sounds like fun project! I hope he has fun doing it.

Thank you so much MelissaB!!!

We just did the experiment and I took one photo of all the materials. He put in one tablespoon of each and nothing happened. He put in 2 of each and the salt made the egg float halfway so I took a photo of them side by side. After he put in the 3rd spoonful, the salt side floated to the top and the sugar side floated halfway so I took a photo of that too.

The paper says this about what is required:
The Science Fair project must include a purpose, hypothesis, procedure, materials, data display, title and conclusion. Each part must appear on the project board and be clearly labeled.
_____________________

His teacher has been out alot lately so I haven't been able to talk to her. I'll attempt the project book with him and see how it goes, if it's a nightmare, I will not include it.

I am going to type a separate post asking about something else....

Thank you!

devinsmom · Post by **devinsmom** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:59 am

Ugh, now I am on to a new question.

I'm lost with the manipulated, responding and controlled variables.

The paper says "have only one manipulated variable (one thing you changed intentionally)

Repeat the experiment for a minimum of three trials to verify your results (You must do the entire experiment three different times)

Identify one or more controlled variables.
______________________________

What? Three times? Does that mean I need to do the same exact thing again and change something?

I just don't understand why the projects I am seeing online don't mention all of these things, is his school doing something different than the norm? I thought once we did the experiment that was it?

devinsmom · Post by **devinsmom** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:15 am

Ok, so he did the experiment 2 more times. This is what has happened:

Trial 1

Cold water

1 Spoonful - No floating
2 Spoonfuls - Salt water floated halfway Sugar water no floating
3 Spoonfuls - Salt water floated to the top Sugar water floated halfway

The salt made the water cloudy but the sugar did not.

Trial 2

Cold water

1 Spoonful - No floating
2 Spoonfuls - Salt water floated halfway Sugar water no floating
3 Spoonfuls - Salt water floated to the top Sugar water floated halfway

Trial 3

Hot water

1 Spoonful - No floating
2 Spoonfuls - No floating
3 Spoonfuls - Salt water floated halfway Sugar water no floating

Louise · Post by **Louise** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:18 am

devinsmom wrote:Ugh, now I am on to a new question.

I'm lost with the manipulated, responding and controlled variables.

The paper says "have only one manipulated variable (one thing you changed intentionally)

Repeat the experiment for a minimum of three trials to verify your results (You must do the entire experiment three different times)

Identify one or more controlled variables.
______________________________

What? Three times? Does that mean I need to do the same exact thing again and change something?

So, usually you do the same experiment three times to show that the result is real. So, you could do this experiment again, and make sure that the egg always floats at 3 spoons of sugar/salt.

The manipulated variable is the nature of the stuff you add- salt vs. sugar.

I just don't understand why the projects I am seeing online don't mention all of these things, is his school doing something different than the norm? I thought once we did the experiment that was it?

Well, this is common. It is part of the scientific method. Usually the project descriptions don't include this stuff, since they figure the student will have guidelines from the teacher about the number of independ. variables, no. of trials, etc

Look at this page:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... bles.shtml

in your case the teacher is calling the independent variable= manuipulated variable, and dependent var= responding var.

Hope this helps.
Louise

devinsmom · Post by **devinsmom** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:29 am

Hi Louise,

Thank you! I have read your other posts, you rock!

devinsmom · Post by **devinsmom** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:42 am

Hi Louise,

If you come back around, what do you think of the project book?

Thanks!

Louise · Post by **Louise** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:22 pm

devinsmom wrote:Hi Louise,

If you come back around, what do you think of the project book?

Thanks!

I agree with Melissa, it is difficult to guess what a teacher expects for a 5 year old. Maybe your son could draw the experimental setup in his notebook as well. If he likes drawing, he might be very enthusiastic about that part.

There are guidelines for a science fair notebook on this page:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... ndex.shtml

The link is on the right hand side under "Science Fair Project Additional Resources" and is called lab notebook. It opens up a pdf file with instructions. Most of this seems much too advanced for a younger student.

Thanks for the "you rock"!

Louise

MelissaB · Post by **MelissaB** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:50 pm

Louise does rock. Here it's my day to answer questions and not hers, and she's already answered twice as many as I have in this thread alone!

Is the notebook something you saw on this site, or is it something in the actual assignment? It sounds like your assignment just requires the experiment and the display board--if so, I wouldn't worry about making a notebook given your son's age.

Also, the reason it's important to do multiple trials in science is because sometimes things happen by chance, and doing multiple trials and getting the same result means that it's less likely to be the result of random chance. If you flip a coin twice, you may well get heads both times. If you flip a coin 1000 times and it lands on heads every time, chances are very very good it's a loaded coin!

Anyway, let us know if you have any other questions.

Louise · Post by **Louise** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:29 pm

MelissaB wrote:Louise does rock. Here it's my day to answer questions and not hers, and she's already answered twice as many as I have in this thread alone!

Sorry! Louise is trying to avoid writing a paper and compulsively checking sciencebuddies.com seems like "work" and not like "slacking off"

Louise

MelissaB · Post by **MelissaB** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 4:30 pm

Haha--I just turned in my thesis, so I know how /that/ goes...

Louise · Post by **Louise** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 4:51 pm

MelissaB wrote:Haha--I just turned in my thesis, so I know how /that/ goes...

Congrats!

Louise