Science Fair's

We did the science fair again - Here is Miles's project - He wanted to find if a soccer ball will travel farther when kicked in warm weather or cold weather. He measured the bounce of the soccer ball at room temperature, after it had been in the fridge and freezer and after we warmed it in the oven. He got some great results, and ended up doing even more tests (he tested the air pressure also at each temperature). He found that as the ball was warmed up the air molecules got excited and actually increased the pressure in the ball, when the ball was cooled it slowed the molecules and the pressure dropped a lot. Anyway - here are the pictures!

Miles dropped the ball from against the ceiling of the carport and we measured the bounce against the ladder.





We really warmed the ball in the oven!!! It didn't seem to melt, but I could smell the rubber for a couple of hours!

He did the board himself - this school was big into the science fair project being the kids work, which Miles loved. They also had the kids talk about their projects to the judges, something that our last school didn't do.

Ethan also had to do the science fair - and he came up with his project himself. He wanted to test which color is warmer to wear when the sun is shining. To do this he got 5 of his colored t-shirts and put them outside. We then measured the temperature on top of the shirts every hour for 6 hours and found that yes, his guess was right - the black was the warmest.

Here he is reading the temperature on the shirts! We had a hard time keeping the thermometer out of the sun, but we finally figured it out!

Ethan actually won the school science fair for the kindergarten level and then went on to the regionals where he took 2nd in the kindergarten and 1st grade level. He was very excited!

Here he is with his trophy and medal. He must have done a better job explaining his project to the judges than he did with some of my friends who came by as we were setting up. They asked him to tell them about his project: his reply: "Just read the board!"