Inquiring Minds at the Annual Alta Vista Science Fair
As a science-focused school, Alta Vista naturally has an annual (non-competitive) Science Fair that allows students to explore and seek to answer an individual "Why?" or "How?" question through their own scientific efforts. Each child selects a topic and comes up with a Testable Question, a Hypothesis, the Materials, the Procedure, a Chart of Data, Observations, a Conclusion, Areas for Further Experimentation. At the fair, they present their experiments and findings to the inquiring minds of other students and parents and answer their questions.
Here are just a few of the things we learned about from our 1st and 2nd graders this year:
- Can you create a floating city?
- Which foods grow mold the fastest?
- Does chewing gum for a longer period make a larger bubble?
- Which liquids clean pennies best?
- Do hamsters learn through memory?
- Does smell affect taste?
- Does aspirin or sugar help to extend the life of flowers?
- What shape of paper airplane flies farthest? Longest?