Science Fair Palooza

Oh, Science Fair, two words that can make any mother run screaming from a room.  Why do they have to make it sound so appealing to kids.  Especially, my kids who are so motivated by winning something (anything).  And when you are in first grade, chances are you are going to need a lot of parental guidance to complete your project, and when you are a twin, times that parental guidance by 2.  But we did it and the kids loved it AND Ashlyn won first place for the whole first grade at her school and Tanner won third place.

THEN we got to take it to the district level.

 Ashlyn won second place and Tanner got a participant ribbon.  I was more proud about how Tanner acted when he didn't win a medal than I was of any science fair project in the whole room.  He did not cry, whine, complain, or make anything but congratulatory comments to Ashlyn and I know how important winning is to him.  I love my kiddos!

 Here is Tanner with his project, I know he is blinking, but he wasn't feeling good that night and this is about the best picture I could get with him and his project.

 His project was called "Speedy Sleds" and we tested four different materials (cardboard, plastic, metal, and wood) to see which made the fastest sled.  We even e-mailed an olympic medalist in the luge and he e-mailed Tanner back with his predictions about which sled would be the fastest.

 Of course, Ashlyn chose a project about fish.  She is in love with goldfish.  She didn't care if she won or lost, but was just happy to have new pet goldfish!

Her project was called, "Dirty Jobs: Fish Tank Cleaner".  We bought four fish bowls (tupperwares) and put a goldfish in each.  Then we tried 3 different products from the pet store to see which would keep a fish bowl cleanest as compared to the one fish that we didn't put anything in.

The results?  Nothing.  Nothing keeps a fish tank clean for very long and after two weeks, our house reaked with stinky dirty fish tanks AND 3 of the 4 fish died and had to be replaced (shhhh, don't tell the judges). 

So, though I didn't learn how to keep a fish tank clean, per se, I did learn effective methods for killing goldfish, and after the experiment was over, I moved them all into the same bowl, which coincidentally killed every last one of them within the week.

Good job Tanner and Ashlyn, I am so proud of you!