Posts Tagged ‘Middle school’
In elementary school they often become family projects with everyone pitching in. The parents may do a lot of the computer work, and help if the home workshop is needed to build something as they are too young to use power tools.
In the normal scheme of things, each year a little more is required, and the standards are raised, so that a sixth grader for the most part will slide into these experiments for middle school with few problems.
One good thing is that most science fairs are in the second semester, some even as late as May, so the initial adjustment to the work load that 6th graders go through has already happened. If they had to do a project in the fall, then it would add to the stress many kids feel in those first months of middle school.
Many elementary school districts sponsor a 5th grade science fair, that is held locally so that all the fifth graders in the district can participate. They literally teach step-by-step how to do a science fair project independently.
Science fair experiments for middle school are often open-ended when it comes to the topic. This differs from most elementary projects where there are guidelines given for the topic. The youngest kids often are sent home the exact experiment to do. But if the fifth grade units is electricity, rocks, cells and trees, then they want the science project to be on those same topics. The last project my kid had. In middle school it can go both ways, they could give general topics, but usually they want the students to look around in their environment and ask a question, so they can learn to design a project that answers one specific question.