Science Fair time!

For my Science Methods Course at FHSU I was assigned with the task of creating a science fair project. I was incredibly excited about this project and put hours and hours into the planning and execution. My hard work paid off with an "A" on the project. But even more encouraging, my professor suggested that I share the project with a group of students.

I presented the project to 3 classes of fifth graders yesterday (all at once! Yikes!). They were immediately interested thanks to their teachers hyping up the event (thank you teachers!). We began the presentation by watching a video made by a group of students in Monteray Bay about oil spills. These students, working with the Monteray Bay National Marine Sanctuary, did a great job making a video that really shows the NGSS's at work. 

Next, we went into the classroom pod and I gave some background information on why I had selected this project. I told the students how upsetting oil spill images were to me and that I read some articles about oil spill clean up projects. My research led me to asking the question, "What natural resources absorb the most oil?" as I thought about the impact of using toxic clean-up materials on eco-systems.

The students were eager to replicate my experiments. I briefly covered the scientific method, my variables and controls and my hypothesis. I gave each student a data gathering worksheet and they used their calculators to compute results as select students performed the experiments. I was worried that with such a large group some students may get bored but that was not the case at all. While the math was challenging for some students, overall the group was engaged and responsive.

In my original experiment, I tested mushrooms, peat moss, unrefined cotton, human hair and beeswax for oil absorbancy. With the students, we just did peat moss, cotton and beeswax. 

The students were in awe of how much oil the cotton absorbed and how it repelled water. Once we gathered our data, we discussed how data should be presented in a compelling way through charts and graphs. Next, we talked about how we draw conclusions and the importance of not making sweeping assumptions.

If you would like to view my complete Power Point for this project, you can do so here:
Oil Spill Science Fair Project

We only had about 45 minutes for the presentation - which flew by fast! In retrospect, I could have divided the presentation over several class periods so we could have gotten more detailed with our experiments, data and the math. But, I got wonderful feedback from the 5th grade teachers. One said about my teaching, "You're a natural." This is probably the highest compliment anyone could ever give me. I was on Cloud 9!