Science Fair 2020

Yesterday was the science fair at the kids' school.  But as science fair projects go, we have been working on this for months.  It kinda makes a homeschool mom want to re-think taking a science class with a real science teacher.  On the one hand, I don't have to teach science, which is a class I don't really enjoy teaching.  But on the other hand, their teacher (on the right in the above photo) expects a whole lot more out of them than I probably would.  And consequently, I have to push them a lot more to get their work done.  Seems like either way I lose (AS IF it's all about me....)

However, for the boys, it is an amazing experience to use the scientific method in real life.  And if I ponder that for a moment, it is really the same type of thinking we use every day in making decisions.  What is the question you're trying to solve?  What do you think will happen?  What if you do this or that?  What does research say is the predicted outcome (or what has happened historically when you made this decision)?  And then, what's your final result and how did it work out?  Maybe I'm reading too much into it.  But overall, yes, there are valuable lessons to be learned in the science experiment that go beyond getting a good grade.

Keaton gives his oral presentation

Cole gives his oral presentation

Despite Keaton's inability to look the judges in the eye when he gave his oral presentation, they apparently felt like he knew his stuff.  He was super nervous going into it.  And maybe a little unprepared.  But he did place 3rd in the 8th and 9th grade division.

So this brings me to the next "lesson learned."  Cole did not place.  And he fought back tears.  He has a tendency to feel as if he never measures up to his older brother.  Don't bother with logic here.  Yes, Keaton is a year older.  Yes, they are both good at some things and not good at some things.  Believe me, I've tried the logic.  Thing is, I'm pretty sure Eric felt the same way about HIS older brother.  Consequently, this was ANOTHER one of those moments that I wish their dad was here.  He would have been so proud of their progress!  But he could also speak to this angst of feeling less than.  And the way THEY see it (and have been verbalizing to me a lot in the last few months) their dad did a LOT of things better than I do.

What I ended up telling Cole was that I often battle the same feelings of rejection he's feeling.  I may seem all confident on the outside, then there are moments when I don't get the lead part in a song that I love to sing or I don't get chosen to sing on a worship night or I see some other middle-aged single woman I know getting married. Those are the times when that feeling of "not being chosen" is a hard one to push through. Oh, I have come to recognize the devil and his schemes.  But that doesn't mean I'm unaffected.  Cole did work hard on his project, just like Keaton.  Just like every other kid in the 8th and 9th grade.  I told him that sometimes we just need to learn to lose well.  Is that the right mom thing to say??  I don't know.  But he eventually came around and vowed to work harder to win the Writer's Conference coming up in February (which he did win in a previous year.)

Here are some other pictures of the experiments, if you are interested.  Keaton's was on ants, and what would happen if he fed them different things.  He thought if he fed these western harvester ants sugar they would die the soonest, because sugar is unhealthy.  Turns out basil-fed ants died out first.

 

Cole wanted to know if there was any substance he could use to make a thermometer besides mercury.  He thought syrup would work well, because it is thick.  He tried milk and alcohol as well.  It was a fun experiment to do, but honestly an "accurate" thermometer was really not achieved.  Syrup did the best in allowing us to mark the temperature, but I think I'll stick to digital measuring devices.

 

1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of a darkness into his marvelous light."