There are many things out there that your children can be doing like watching T.V. or listening to music. But these things do not enhance your child’s thinking. You want to challenge your child’s mind, help them build thinking skills that they will need for there lives. Here are 4 reasons your child should do science projects all year, not just for the science fair.

The 1st reason your child should do science projects all year, not just for the science fair is because it gets your child off the couch and using their mind. Make sure to help your child find things to do that they are interested in. Make sure to act interested in science yourself. If you do not act interested there is a big chance your child won’t be interested. So find activities that you and your child can do together.

Then 2nd reason your child should do science projects all year, not just for the science fairs is because it helps your child with their problem solving skills. Problem solving skills are very important to have in their lives. Your child will learn problem solving skills through science projects because they will have to find solutions to different problems. For instance they might be curious how a current charge is made. You can help them research out what makes current charge and then using problem solving find an experiment where you can test out the theory. Problem solving can help your children in future jobs and relationships between other people. When you do science projects all year and not just for the science fair it will help increase the times your child is learning how to problem solve.

The 3rd reason your child should do science projects all year, not just for the science fair is because it will help your child to be more interested in science as a whole. Your child might just try to get through science right now by doing the bare minimum, But with your help you can do science projects all year long and get them to have a bigger interested in science. So not only does it help them to achieve more in there science class it also increases your child’s love for science.

The 4th reason your child should do science projects all year, not just for the science fair is because it will make your child more knowledgeable. You child will start to learn things from science that they did not know before. This will help them to be more interested in there surroundings. It will also help them to pay attention to things around them. For instance it might make your child more out to think on a higher level about how things work. And if they can’t figure out how they work they will be excited to go find out because they know that you will help them do a science project on the things that they are having trouble understanding.

These are all reasons to do science projects all year, not just for the science fair. Doing science projects with your child will help you to find a bond that will help your child in their future. Encourage your child to find solutions and different ways to get things to work. By doing this you are helping your child to learn and grow while having fun. So make sure to do science projects all year.

Science is a fun and interesting subject for kids because it is all around us. Some people do not realize that science is involved when in almost everything you do such as cooking, cleaning, and playing. When these people think of science they probably remember the classroom and the teachers boring lectures, but the good news is that method is becoming a thing of the past. Science is being brought onto television with police dramas such as CSI.

Most children at an elementary school age want to grow up and be a policeman because policeman help people and they always catch the bad guy. To kids this is the best thing in the world, and for us as parents we can not think of a better role model for our children than a police officer. CSI shows kids how science is used to solve crimes and catch the bad guys. While kids might not understand the exact techniques involved with DNA and others, every kid knows about fingerprints. Teachers can set up a mock crime scene and let children lift fingerprints and other crime lab techniques. At the end the children can solve the crime and write a report on who they think did it, how they figured out who did it, etc. This is a fun exercise for children to do and it is all hands on.

Another reason why kids love science is because what other subject do you get to learn about outer space. Children of all ages are fascinated with the idea about outer space and aliens. Outer space is also interesting because it involves flying in rockets and going places that nobody has gone before. The whole idea about what if lets children use their imagination and learn at the same time.

Science is also fun because you can mix stuff together and make new things. Children from a young age learn that if you take dirt and mix water to it you get mud. And the learning does not stop there, as they get older the learn more about combining ingredients to make new things. Science allows children to make play dough, cookies, slime and all sorts of other gross and fun things. Besides the fact kids can just experiment on their own to see what they can come up with.

Another part of science is animals. Almost all kids love to learn about animals. Basic science about animals involves ant farms, which kids can build themselves with a jar, some dirt and ants. The best part about ant farms is digging in the dirt and trying to find the ants. But as kids get older they can take this type of science to another level, which can include biology and anatomy.

For kids science is fun because what other subject do you get to have all of your questions answered and use your imagination to create things. Science is also filled with wonders about other worlds, such as dinosaurs and why they became extinct, outer space and walking on the moon, and solving crimes. Science involves experimenting and most kids love to try things to see if they work. For example physical science can involve dropping an egg from a roof top to see if it will break, or what will drop faster a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks. By getting hands-on kids can figure out these answers and numerous other answers, the hands-on experiments make science even more fun and exciting.

Are your children naturally curious? Do they wonder how things work? Do they marvel at the stars and moon? Are they the hands-on type that are always taking things apart and putting them back together?

To some parents, such habits may seem annoying, but kids who show a keen interest in acquiring scientific knowledge early in life eventually become intelligent, inquisitive teens and adults who don’t take a simple “yes” or “no” for an answer. Their curious minds will take them far!

Science for kids can be wonderfully fascinating! What child doesn’t love performing experiments or building models during science class or for the school science fair? Parents should remember, however, that science doesn’t have to be limited to the school classroom, and that at-home science activities can go a long way in keeping a child interested in the world around him. Truth is, kids can enjoy science just about anywhere, as long as parents are eager to guide.

Science at Home

The National Science Foundation says that parents are their kid’s first science teachers. They also point out that you don’t need to be an expert in the subject because science for kids is everywhere, including inside your home and out in your backyard. You need only point out the wonders of everyday science to your kids to keep them interested.

Remember, science is all about observing, exploring, and testing, and even the youngest children can be involved in these three tasks. Here are a few examples of everyday science-related activities you can enjoy with your child.

- Go for a walk and take along a magnifying glass. Stop to pick up some interesting natural objects along the way such as flowers, a few blades of grass, rocks or stones, and even insects. Look at them with the magnifying glass and allow your child to tell you what they see. This teaches them to be good observers. If you find an object or creature that really intrigues your child, look it up on the internet or in a book when you return home and gather more information. Or better yet, look at the object under a microscope.

- Let your child help you cook. All sorts of wonderful scientific processes happen at the stove! Talk about boiling water, melting butter, caramelization, or how mixtures change when they are baked. These things may be commonplace to you, but to a child, they’re fascinating!

- Track the phases of the moon. Look for the constellations that appear during various seasons. Viewing the sky is an easy way to introduce the study of astronomy. A simple, inexpensive telescope further enhances this type of science for kids.

- Does your child have a favorite sport or activity? If it’s baseball, talk about pitching and speed. If it’s cycling, skateboarding, or roller blading, explore how the wheels on their vehicle turn. If it’s football, find out why the ball is shaped that way. How about dancing? Dancers can learn about why stretching is important before dancing and about keeping their body conditioned. The possibilities are endless!

- Build something! Science for kids should involve creativity. Consider making silly putty or play dough, build a periscope, construct a model of the solar system.

You don’t need to wait until the annual school science fair to have fun with science. Just a few spare minutes can keep your child interested for a lifetime.

When looking for cool science fair projects, one popular category is to show how science can help solve the problems that we are facing globally today. There are several experiments that you can do to suggest solutions that we as individuals can effect by making changes on a personal basis.

• Experts are saying that the amount of food and items that can be recycled going to landfills are at an all-time high. To promote composting and recycling you can do the following:

(1) Find a home that does not currently recycle or compost and count the number of garbage bags that are put out each week for pick up.
(2) Learn about what items can be composted or recycled and educate the owner as to what food items and recyclables can be taken out of the garbage instead of going into the landfill.
(3) Get the owner to agree to compost food items and recycle things rather than throwing them out. Provide a small garbage can to put the items to be composted into and show them how to compost properly. Wash and recycle those items that can be.
(4) After three weeks’ time, count the number of garbage bags going out for garbage pickup. Quantify the savings and multiply that by the number of households in your community to show how much can be saved on a yearly basis.

• The use of disposable diapers is clogging modern landfills at an alarming rate. Experts are estimating that it will take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to decompose.

(1) Research the alternatives that there are to the use of disposable diapers.
(2) Compare the savings to the environment if the use of disposable diapers are reduced significantly (like only using them at night rather than all of the time.
(3) One area not traditionally addressed is the use of adult briefs by those who are disabled or in places such as nursing homes. Are there alternatives available for this segment of the population? If not, why not?

• In June of 2009, President Obama signed into law legislation to promote the use of renewable energy sources like the wind and sun by offering financial incentives to homeowners and businesses that install individual generators and hook into a local power grid to sell any overage in wattage that they produce.

(1) Find out which generation is more effective in each part of the country based on the average wind or sunshine amounts received,
(2) Learn about what things are needed to have either a wind or solar power generation system. Explain in detail what each system does to generate electrical power.
(3) How can the use of these renewable energy sources prove to be a help to conserving the environment (for example, the vast majority of electricity generated in the US comes through burning coal at commercial utility plants, rather than through hydro sources as some may think)?

As you can see, there are a great number of cool science fair projects that you can come up with. All you need is a little imagination, and you could have yourself a real winner.

Science Projects were easier in elementary school. Back then, you could submit a model rocket, an egg sucked into a bottle, or a simple science report on electricity. It’s different in middle school. Middle School science teachers want creative ideas, specific elements, in depth research, and detailed logs of the whole science fair process.

Finding a middle school science project that meets all these criteria has always been a challenge for our family. Our teachers wanted an experiment based, investigative project for the science fair. There are five different types of science projects, but most of the books in the library had projects that were actually demonstrations or models. It’s very important that you read the directions from your teacher and/or the science fair, and make sure that the project your child chooses fits into the right category – especially in middle school.

Here are the five types of projects.

1. Investigative projects – Most science fairs require students to submit an investigative science project. This type of project has an experiment that tests an hypothesis. The experiment will follow the scientific method, and may require a control group. (If you’re unfamiliar with this vocabulary, check out the free resource below!)

An example of an investigative project would be “How does salt affect the boiling point of water?” This can easily be tested by our experiment which adds different amounts of salt to water and recording the temperature at which it boils.

If you see the words experiment, scientific method, control and/or variable on the project instructions, you’ll probably need an investigative project. As mentioned before, they’re not easy to find.

2. Demonstration projects – In this type of project a student demonstrate a scientific principle, and lots of time the teacher wants it presented in front of the class as an oral report. There is no true experiment performed, because there won’t be a control or different variables.

3. Research project – Basically this is a science report. Students research a topic, and write what they discovered. Any type of science topic can be used for a research project.

4. Models – For a model project, models are built to explain a scientific principle or structure.

5. Collections - In this type of project a collection of objects is displayed to give an overview of a topic. An example would be a rock collection or a display showing pictures of various animals in a specific family.

Every middle school science fair will have slightly different criteria for projects. As you search for a project, make sure it’s the type of project your school requires. If you need help, check out “The Non-Scientist Parent’s Guide to Science Fair Projects”, which has guides for all the different types of science projects – including the experiment based ones! There is a vocabulary list that gives simple definitions to those vocabulary words you learned in middle school, but promptly forgot.

Believe it or not, science projects are designed to help students learn about science. Figure out which type of project your school requires, and you’ll be one step closer to showing your child how much fun science can be!