Science Fair

Emma and Soren participated in the RAHA Science Fair.

Emma's project showed how electrons flow to create electrical current. She created a hands-on experiment that let kids see what sorts of substances electrons would flow through. It's a little difficult to describe - check out the link. Essentially it's a wooden board with metal, a straw, tin foil, copper wire, wood, and a rubber band attached to a computer fan and some batteries. A wire with an alligator clip was used to hook the different substances up in a circuit. I helped to design the apparatus, and Emma built it pretty much on her own, with a little direction. She did some research for the project, which included finding out how atoms are constructed and how electrons move from atom to atom to create current. There was also some terminology involved: element, nucleus, proton, neutron, electron, current, circuit, and conductor.

Soren did the classic vinegar and baking soda volcano. We used a glass bottle surrounded by plaster to make the volcano, and Soren made a poster to show how it worked. She loved doing the experiment for people, and had quite an audience for each performance. She used an entire bottle of vinegar! Soren was catching some of what Emma was learning about atoms and elements, and I thought it would be fun to show her how the chemical reaction between sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid produced water and carbon dioxide bubbles (among other things). I used a diagram to show how the different atoms re-combined with other ones. She was only able to grasp this at a basic level, of course, but she got the idea, and learned a little about how the universe is constructed.

We had a good time at the fair. There were some great projects, including a wonderful display about captive birds, and a model that showed how the phases of the moon are actually produced. Next time, we're going to produce more professional-looking posters using the computer.