Final Thoughts on the Science Fair

Awhile back I posted a blog on the science fair, and about my history with science fairs which was none.  That was also before my project was finished, and before I saw the results on what I had gotten.  So, for the final time I will go into the depths of the science fair; the experience, the process, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

First, my project:

My project was the self-inflating balloon project, which came with the following hypothesis: The mixing of vinegar and baking soda will cause a chemical reaction that will cause the balloon to inflate.

It took me two days to make this project and if you couldn't come down the science fair to show your support, I have my full project on display in the picture above.  When the baking soda, mixes with the vinegar, the balloon inflates on its own, as you can see in the pictures attached to my project.  

Overall my project went over well, however there were area's where I could have easily improved the experience.  First, I could have offered a variable as in when telling the user to add more or less baking soda/vinegar to the project to see if the results will be the same.  Second, better questions for the reader to look at and answer probably also would have help me out.  Finally, the pictures weren't the best either, I should have taken some better pictures, or better yet, filmed myself doing the experiment and shown it during the science fair so the kids/parents could have done the experiment themselves.  

Through it all though, I accept the work I did for this project as it was my first ever experience with the science fair.  I explained in a previous blog post that I had never done a science fair before and that this was my first time.  Overall I found the experience to be rewarding, but also kept me wondering.  Prior to this, I understood how the science fair worked, I'd seen enough about them, yet never actually participated in one before, but still understood the overall process.  As someone looking to teach science to young kids, I question how this activity helped me out in furthering that goal.  Judging the actual science fair was something I really enjoyed, and as a teacher that is what you will be doing for the most part, judging the science fair, not participating in one.  

However, who am I to judge, I did get a half way decent grade and as I said before the experience was worth it.  Plus I can finally say I competed in a science fair, something I couldnt't say when I was a kid.  Although, the ironic part about all of this is that kids had way better experiments than I did, and when you really boil it down, that's the important aspect. 

It's to late for me to launch a love for science, but it's not to late for some of these kids, who have a bright future ahead of them.