(upbeat music) - Welcome friends to this episode of the "Everyday Educator" podcast. I'm your host, Lisa Bailey, and I'm excited to spend some time with you today as we encourage one another, learn together, and ponder the delights and challenges that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime. Whether you're just considering this homeschooling possibility or deep into the daily delight of family learning, I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.

But don't forget, although this online community is awesome, you'll find even closer support in a local CC community. So go to classicalconversations.com and find a community near you today. Well, listeners, I'm excited to talk to you today about a topic that grew dearer to my heart as my years of tutoring went on.

We're gonna talk about the science fair project today, and I can remember when that was not my favorite topic of discussion. And I can remember the years of shepherding my own students through the process and sometimes loving it and sometimes ruining the day we ever got started with it.

But I have a very encouraging guest, one who has lots of answers to share, and Emily Martin has come to be the guest today. Emily is the academic advisor who gives all manner of good counsel and advice to parents and directors for challenges A, B, and 1. And Emily is gonna help walk us through the beauties and delights of the science fair project.

Emily, thank you so much for agreeing to come on today. - Well, thank you for having me. - I think that this is gonna be a lot of fun. Let me ask you this. Were you a science-loving kid growing up? - So I would say I've always had an interest in science.

- Oh, cool. - But I can't say that I've always understood science. - Okay, now see, that is a really great distinction. So you as a child were interested in science things or in asking questions maybe and knowing why, but you didn't always feel like you totally got it?

- Right, yeah. So I enjoyed always watching "The Magic School Bus" or I would always be interested in science in school, but it was the why things are the way they are were always difficult for me to fully understand. - Right, right. I remember that I loved to read.

And so I like to read all kinds of stuff and I liked to read science books and I liked to think about experiments and I liked to know why things happened. But you know what? I think as a child, it was for a very narrow spectrum of things. Like I was really interested in the things I was interested in and not so much about the things that had never dawned on me or had never piqued my interest.

So I don't know if I would say that I myself was a big science person, but I do remember my kids really loving to experiment, especially when they were little, they were always asking me, "What would happen if we did this?" And I would say, "Well, I mean, I don't know." "Well, can we try it?" You know, and my knee-jerk reaction was, "No, of course not, that's gonna make a mess or it's gonna use up something in my kitchen or we're gonna spill something or you're gonna get dirty or that's gonna take a long time or I have to go buy something." But then I would stop myself.

As a homeschooling mom, I would stop and say, "Okay, let's see how far we can chase their curiosity." And so I can remember doing experiments on buoyancy when my daughter was five and it all started because she wanted to know, will this rock float in my bathtub and what about my Polly Pocket?

And so I let them chase their curiosity. Were your kids curious when they were little? - Yes, they were. I remember doing a lot of experiments during the winter time. - Oh. - If I put a cup of water outside, will it freeze? - Yeah. - Yeah, a lot of that.

Yeah, especially my boys. My boys were always very, very curious. Got all sorts of things, especially space. And we got my son a telescope at the age of six. So, and we stayed up late one night so he can look at the moon through the telescope. And my daughter just the other day found a bunch of beakers that we have.

And I currently direct Challenge One and we have to have those for a lot of the Challenge One experiments. - Right. - And so I'd taken them home and had to wash them out. They were all over the counter. Well, she decided, she's 10. She's like, "I'm going to grab these beakers and I'm going to do a space project." And they were all over the floor.

And she was checking the temperature of water and mixing things up in these beakers. And there were probably six of them all over my kitchen floor. - Oh my word. - And that was one of those moments I had to hold back and say, "Don't worry about the mess.

It's about the curiosity." - Yeah. Well, and she was learning to use some of the tools that a scientist uses. That's what I was going to ask you. How is it, how can we help our children, even our little kids, our younger kids, think like a scientist? And what is it that we can do at home without a curriculum or without a textbook necessarily to help our kids think like a scientist?

- I love this question because I found myself, even as a young mom, before we started CEC, instead of giving my children the answers, I asked them more questions. So for example, they would say, "Mom, what would happen if I picked this flower?" And so, "Well, okay, let's think about it.

What are the parts of the flower?" And they might say, "Well, petals and leaves and a stem and roots." Like, "Yep, that's right." "Okay, so now what happens when you pick that flower? What parts of the flower do you have now?" And they might say, "The petals and the leaves and the stem." "Okay, so what do we know about the roots?" "Oh, the roots help give it water.

It helps suck up the water and it gives it its food, right?" And, "Okay, so if you pick a flower and the roots are not on it anymore, then what do you think might happen to the flower?" And they'd say, "Oh, it can't get the food anymore and it might die." "Well, there you go.

So what happens when you pick a flower?" "Oh, well, it'll eventually die." And so, it's asking more questions instead of giving the answers. You help them think through that whole process. - That's great. I mean, and that is so easy. And people are gonna listen to this podcast, Emily, and think, "Oh, well, that is so obvious." You just keep asking them questions and you just keep going deeper and deeper and deeper.

And it is so obvious, but we don't do it sometimes. Or we think that we really need a science book or a science unit study or some kind of curriculum in order to help our children think like a scientist. But your example is perfect. And it reminds me of a story that I heard one time of a really famous scientist, and I can't remember who it was, who was going around, he was visiting some factories in England.

And this was like, I think back in the '40s and the '50s. And so he was visiting and he was going through just the assembly line, just the "regular people." So he was a high-muckety-muck scientist and he was coming to look at their production line. And he stopped to talk to a lady who just looked so bored by what she was doing.

And he was always so interested, he said, in everything around him that he didn't understand how anybody could be so bored. And so he stopped to talk to her and he said, "Well, are you not interested in what you're doing?" And she said, "Well, no." And he said, "Well, why not?

You should always be interested in what you're doing." And she said something to the effect that all I do all day is stand on this brick floor and make my part of this product. That's all I do. And he said, "Well..." And she said, "And my feet hurt." And he said, "Well, why do you think your feet hurt?" And she said, "Because I stand on bricks all day." And so he said, "Well, what kind of brick?" And she looked at him funny and she's like, "Well, I don't know, it's just brick." And so he said, "Well, why don't you find out about the brick?" And he went on down the line and she was just left standing there thinking about the brick.

But when she went home, she discovered she was still thinking about the brick. So she went to the library and read about brick and found out that there are lots of different kinds of brick and the amount of support it gives to your feet and the porousness of the brick, it's all related to what the brick is made of.

So she kept studying, what is the brick made of? And he came back through the factory and said, "Well, what..." She looked a little more interested and she said, "I found out all about brick and now I guess I've gone as far as I can go." And he said, "No, what's under the brick?" And she's like, "Oh my word." But she dug out the brick and she found this certain kind of dirt and there were ants under it.

Long story short, she continued to ask questions and continued to study. And in 15 years, she had become the foremost expert on some certain kind of ant in the entire country of England. - Oh, wow. - All from just asking a question and going deeper and staying curious. And so I love what you said.

We just ask our kids questions and that helps them to think like a scientist, exploring and reading and even what you said, using tools. Get your kids some beakers and some eyedroppers and maybe some calipers and some simple machines and some thermometers. Just give them the tools of a scientist and let them play.

I love that. - Yeah, and like I said, my kids love doing the wintertime experiments. And so it's, okay, well, what's the temperature outside? What's the low tonight? And all right, if you wanna see when, if the water freezes, go for it. Then the next morning, well, oh, it didn't freeze.

Okay, well, what's the freezing temperature of water? And asking them, oh, well, it's 32 degrees. Okay, what was the low last night? Well, it was only 43. So do you think we have a reason? No, things like that, asking the questions. - I love it, I love it. Now, lots of families jumped on this podcast because they're challenge A families and they are jumping into the science fair now.

So for those families who are dipping their toes into the science fair, can the science fair become a family affair? I know we talk a lot about the one room schoolhouse and moms trying to educate all of their children, even though they're doing different things at the same time.

How can families pull all of their kids into the science fair, even if only one of the students is a challenge A student? - Yeah, so I will use my son for an example. He went through challenge A a few years ago and his experiment was to see what type of bridge can hold the most weight.

And so we researched the different designs of bridges and you built these bridges out of popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue. It was really basic. And so in that case, we ended up, I think, using somewhere around 900 popsicle sticks for this experiment. - Wow. - Because you have to test it more than once.

- Oh, that's true, that is very true. - And so we built three different bridges twice. So we went up six bridges. And so during that process, my other two younger children got in on helping us glue the popsicle sticks together. We kind of had an assembly line situation set up.

And then when it came to testing, we had to put weight on these bridges to see how much weight they could hold. And so my husband was in the garage with my son and they were working together to weigh all of these or put the weights on the bridges.

And we had another person who was the photographer so we could have pictures of the whole thing and video. And so in that case, our whole family got involved in this project. I know another family who, they wanted to test hand sanitizers and the ones that were most effective.

So everybody got a turn to stick their dirty hands on Petri dishes. (laughing) And especially ones where you have plants. You can always have kids go and water the plant. We need to fill the water to this line and put it on the plant. And so I think there are definitely ways to get the whole family involved.

One of my friend's daughters is going to test the fluffiness of buttercream. So I can imagine a lot of helpers eating that buttercream ice cream. - Yes, I'm sure she'll have plenty of volunteers for that. I know that when one of my daughters was doing the science fair project, she was into more of the testing and the tabulating the results.

She wasn't as into making her science fair board and the presentation aspect of that and knowing what colors and what shapes and all that. But her younger sister was really into what colors will pop and what are good combinations and what will make things stand out and what other colors or situations would make information recede.

And so that was one way that the younger sibling was able to help the older simply by virtue of what they were interested in. - Yeah, absolutely. I think it definitely can turn into a whole family affair very easily, especially when you have a project that the whole family is excited about.

- Yeah, yes. - And picking a topic, and we're gonna get to that, actually, maybe we should just go back up a little bit and actually talk about the science fair. What are the parts of the science fair project? - Yes, okay, so I have divided in true CC form our parts into three sections.

So I think you have your invention, your arrangement, and the elocution. So the invention is your ideas. You know, like what, like you need to, of course, start with a great idea, something that you are excited about, because it's a project that your student is going to be working with for, you know, two to three months.

So a good idea, and the problem. So every science, every good science fair project has a problem. Like, what is this problem that we're working with? And what question arises from this problem? So for the case of my son and what bridge can hold the most weight? I mean, that was his question.

The problem is we have bridges all over the world and what is the best design for these bridges? And then your background research, let's gather the information and figure out, what do I need to know to move forward with my project? - Right, right. - And then that brings us into the arrangement.

Okay, what are the steps of this experiment? So that's a procedure. So you're gonna, you know, work out the procedure and what is your plan of action, followed by materials and safety considerations. And so that's your whole plan. That's how you're arranging your experiment. You're gathering everything you need in order to execute the experiment.

So that'd be your elocution. It's actually doing the experiment and observing the results, writing them down in your lab journal, taking really, really good notes. And of course, keeping up with your research plan. - Yes. - So, and that's a whole other ball game that I could go into if you would like.

- Yeah, I want us to get to that because I know that, you know, there are certain things in the challenge program that give parents pause. And a lot of times it's those things that we've never done ourselves or we didn't do well ourselves, you know, like mock trial or a senior thesis or the science fair project.

And so if we never really got into science as a student or if our parents didn't push us to be involved in a local science fair, or we never had to do it for a class, then a lot of us as parents are kind of left floundering. And we want to do our best by our students, but we don't really know.

I mean, we do know that it starts with an idea, okay? And that is, you're right, Emily, that is what students have to do first is to pick a topic. So let's walk through it. We'll walk through all those pieces because some of them are more obvious than others.

So, all right, what do students do first? You said, we got to start with an idea. And I love that you remind us that it needs to be something that our student is excited about because they are going to spend a sizable amount of time on this. - Yes, yes.

So the first, yeah, of course they have their idea. And once they have that idea, they want to get their lab journal. The lab journal is such an important piece to this puzzle. I like to think of it as the place for like the brain dump. It's every idea that they have, every question they have, all needs to go into the lab journal.

And so there are, of course, questions. There's a way to set up the lab journal that their director will instruct them on how to do that. But the first thing they'll do in that lab journal is to write out their research problem. So what is the problem that they have?

And then take that and form their question. So once they get that done, they're simultaneously going to be working on their research plan. The research plan and the journal differ in that the research plan is an actual typed document that they'll keep, and that that will then later transfer into their research paper that they will present to the judges later.

So as they're working through their lab journal, they're gonna end up putting those same pieces of their journal onto their Word document. But I always say it's really great for the parents to look at the lab journal and have it approved. Anything that they have in that lab journal, give it the green light before they go and type it up on their research plan, or they're just gonna have to go back and redo if the parent-- - So for instance, if it calls for, I know this has happened to me before.

We used to do Science Fair in Challenge B that I taught, tutored for years and years. And I would always have kids who wanted to design these really intricate experiments. And they called for all these hard to get ingredients. And so I always reminded my kids, look, here's the truth.

It's probably not gonna work well the first time you do it. And you're gonna have to do this probably at least twice, maybe more than that. You need to ask your mom and dad, these are expensive ingredients and you can't just get it at the neighborhood Walmart. So you need to be sure that it's okay with mom and dad that you're laying out this kind of expense and time to get this.

Is that the kind of thing that you think parents need to check behind? - Absolutely, yes. And following the parameters of no humans or pets. - Right. - So that's always a big consideration as well. So yeah, and even as they're working through the whole steps, double checking the problem.

Is this the right problem we're trying to solve? Is this the right question to ask? Yeah, I think parents need to be involved definitely in every step of the way, just to make sure that the students are staying on track because we are still dealing with 12 year olds.

- Right, right. - We think of challenges, oh, you've graduated into this upper level. But then when you really think on it, well, these guys are still 12, 13 years old. They're still in the learning process. - Yes, and there are some things they don't have a realistic idea about.

Timetables is one of those. They think that everything can be completed in one weekend, one Saturday. Oh, it's only gonna take me a week to really do this. So I can wait until a week and a half before it's done. They don't realize that, oh, you mean mom can't just drop everything at the drop of a hat and help just me finish this by tomorrow?

And so they're not realistic. - And if they are using their friends as subjects of the experiment, I mean, somebody else's mom's gonna have to bring them to your house. And it's just the kind of thing that doesn't naturally occur to Challenge A students. - Right, yep. Yeah, and so after they get that research question formulated and written correctly, then they'll start on their background research.

All their research will go in their journal. So any website they visit, any book they open, any expert they may talk to, it all gets recorded into that lab journal and making sure they have a great, their bibliography because citing those sources is a really important step to keep it ethical and professional.

- This is great. - Yeah, all that'll go in the lab journal. And then again, once that's mom-approved or dad-approved, then it gets put into that research plan that they're keeping track of. - I love, one thing that you said, I really wanna stop and camp out on because this is something that gets glossed over and our kids won't necessarily think about this.

You mentioned gathering their research and that all the notes that you take from all of your sources go in your lab journal, keep track of everything there. But one thing you said really made my ears perk up because we don't often think about interviewing people as part of the research that our student could do for their science fair project.

I mean, in my era, I looked at books, I mean, I went to the library to do almost all of my research 'cause my family was not a homeschool family and we didn't have all these resources at home. So a lot of times I went to the library and so I could look for online things, I could look for magazine or journal articles and books and all that stuff.

It never, I'm pretty sure that it never occurred to me to go and do an interview as a way to research. So talk about that, what kind of community resources might students find to interview? - Yeah, so I had a student in challenge A a few years ago who wanted to see what was the best type of manure to grow plants.

And so- - Oh my word. - Yes. - That is too fun. - He's a really great, like very agricultural minded student. And so, for example, one of his, one of his research could have been talking to maybe the local agriculture teacher at the school or college nearby. If you have a student wanting to do something with germs, they could speak to a local doctor or microbiologist if they have maybe a university in the area.

I had another student wanting to grow mold on hamburgers to see which one grew the most mold. And so, maybe speaking to somebody in the food industry might be a good start. - Right, right. It's always fun to start making a list with your student of different people that you could ask questions of or different places to go.

If you have local community college or another kind of college, if you have industries in your town, most businesses, if you approach them, I mean, ahead of time, if you don't need the interview today or tomorrow, they are way more willing to set up an interview for your student to talk to some kind of expert in the field.

It's great. Parents and students, I can remember when my girls were 12, I mean, they thought that pretty much that I didn't know as much as they had hoped that I would. And students forget that their parents have friends and that their parents have colleagues and that their parents have connections to people in the community.

So, moms and dads who are listening to this podcast, remind your student that you can help them find people in the know that could be an interview resource for them. That's really good. That's just one of the ways that parents can be involved though, Emily. How can parents be involved with the science fair, but also give us some caution, how involved should parents be?

- Yeah, that is a really tricky one, right? Because we know our students are learning to be individuals and they're learning, they're taking on that ownership, right? That ownership, knowledge A. But at the same time, we also acknowledge, "Oh, but they still need my help." So, yeah, so we can offer encouraging words to them, of course, like, "Okay, well, you can do this.

You're doing a great job, keep going." But beyond that, it's, I think, I think probably the most difficult part of science fair is really that beginning stage, that invention stage, where they're still wrestling with, "What do I really wanna focus on? What is my big idea of my project?" And so the parent can say, "Okay, well, how does this relate to that?" Okay, so going back to the bridge example, "How does weight relate to structure?" And of course, most everybody, even a two-year-old knows, "If I put my foot on this, it's gonna break." So, okay, well, they got that.

Okay, so then what happens if? So what happens if there's too much weight on this bridge? And then, okay, yeah, and so they start wrestling with those ideas. And so, and if they need more motivation, you know, think through ideas, you can say, you go back to the definitions.

"Okay, well, what is the definition of weight?" Or, "What is the definition of this?" And that really helps them start thinking about the basic ideas behind their question and what do they really need to define in order to draw that question out, the big idea question for their overall science fair experiment.

- That's good. So generally, refining questions are good. The things that help students sort of put the pieces, so connecting questions that will help the student put together pieces of information that they might have or wonders that they have that will help them connect. 'Cause here's the thing, parents, you might not have studied science in a long time, and you might think you have no interest in doing a science fair project personally, but you still are a grownup and you have context.

You have way more context in the world than your 12-year-old does. And so you know how things might fit together. You are able to identify relationships that might exist, and you're not necessarily, like Emily said, telling your student what to do, but you're asking them questions that will prompt them to make the connections necessary to design, to ask a good question and design a good experiment.

- Right. And then more practically too, it comes to gluing things on the board, right? - Yes, okay. - So, all right. Well, they found this really great picture or they printed off this really great picture or whatever. So, okay, I can help cut it and glue it on the board.

- Yes, yes, yes. - You know, and learning the skills of, okay, well, you need a table to reflect your data. So let me help on the computer. Let me show you how to make a table in Microsoft Word. - Yes, yes, good. Although I will tell you, my kids could run circles around me on most of the computer stuff.

But there are gonna be things, like if your student is gonna construct something, maybe they're not used to using the power tools by themselves. And so that's the kind of help that parents can be, driving them somewhere to find supplies or helping them brainstorm an alternate supply that might not be easily procurable.

- Right, or yeah, getting on the computer. Okay, well, how much is this gonna cost? And let's set a budget. - Yes. - This might be a little more expensive. My son was looking at a project. He's like, well, mom, we're gonna need this type of thermometer and this type of heat lamps.

And, you know, it sounds like a lot of stuff to buy. I'm like, well, yeah, you're right. So we need to think about this. You know, how are we gonna, let's think about our budget and what type of experiment, how big can we go on this experiment? - That's really true.

They sometimes need help in thinking past the immediate, make this thing and ask this question, what else is involved? And so that's really good. So let me ask you this, Emily, what are some of the common pitfalls that befall our students? What are some common pitfalls to avoid? - Yes, well, so the first one that I am seeing and my family is currently struggling with it right now is coming up with the idea.

- Oh yeah. - I had, you know, my oldest was gung ho about the, yes, let's do science fair. He had, you know, five ideas. My middle is a much more relaxed kind of kid. And he's like, I don't know. I don't know what I want to do. - Yes.

- Talking your student through, okay, what are your interests? And I asked, okay, so when you're, when you watch something on YouTube and you find something really interesting, what subject matter is that? You know, let's try and narrow this down. Another pitfall would be, of course, procrastination. They, right now they're thinking it's October, November.

I don't, this isn't due until January. - Oh my word. - They forget about Christmas break in there and how they want to do nothing but sit on the couch and drink hot cocoa for two. - Yes, or go out and play or watch a movie or do anything that doesn't have anything to do with science fair.

- Exactly. - Travel, travel for family. - Exactly. And they don't think about the fact that, yes, it might only take you 45 minutes to put your board together. But that's if you've done all the research and if you've typed up all the results and if you have all the supplies and if you are a fast cutter and if you have a plan, a design plan, otherwise it takes you way more than 45 minutes.

- Yeah. And something else I've seen too is they start on a project and once they get to the actual experimentation or the background research part, so we're talking a couple of weeks into the project, they realized I don't understand what is going on with this project. - Oh, yes.

- I don't understand enough to move forward. And so it's making sure at the beginning that your student has a clear understanding of the science, not and I'm not saying understand every single aspect of physics or chemistry, but enough that they can intelligently speak to a judge on the process and why that happened.

And so getting too deep into a project where they have to scrap it and start new halfway through December. So I've seen that happen. - Oh, gosh. Okay. That is really good advice. So what you're basically saying is our students can't just pick something that seems really flashy and exciting to them if they either don't understand the basic science behind it or aren't willing to dig into it to understand it.

- Yeah. In this case, it was a chemistry. It was chemistry related. And it was mixing this chemical with that chemical. And when you do this, this is the reaction that happens. And now that he's older, he probably understands it. But as a 12 year old Challenge A student, it was way too much.

And he goes, I don't understand what's happening with this. So okay, let's scrap it and try something new. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Parents are very able. Parents, your wisdom is very valuable. You're not necessarily pouring cold water on your student. You're helping your student to consider all the ramifications of their choice.

Especially if it's something that you know the student doesn't know a lot about in the beginning. That doesn't automatically disqualify that as a choice. But if your student is not a great self-starter, if they are not going to be willing to spend time delving more deeply into the subject, if you have a very busy holiday season coming up, if you don't want to dig in and go elbow deep in this knowledge yourself, those are all at least pink flags, if not red flags.

Those are pink flags to choosing a different project. - Right, yeah. And that, yeah, so we've already touched on the procrastination. And then I think another pitfall is kind of getting bogged down into the minor things. - Oh, yeah. - Like, what color am I going to do my board?

Or, you know, what's the best arrangement or setup? And so those are not really the things that you need to spend your time on, or worry about. And that, you know, while having a nice display is, it is important, it's not, you know, where you want to butt heads.

- Yes, exactly, exactly, exactly. Okay, so what do I do? I'm a parent, and my student is really not very interested in science. And, you know, they would be so thrilled if I said, "Yeah, we're just not going to do the science fair. Nobody in our family's really into science." Why is the science fair still a really important part of the Challenge A experience?

And I want you to answer that, but then also give us some good ideas about encouraging students to find something to love about the project. - Yeah, so I think, you know, if you have a student who is just not into science fair at all, there are so many really just basic experiments that could be done.

Because I think that the process is what, is the goal of science fair. It's not the actual experiment. It's the learning process is the goal that we have for our students. So they can do something as simple as, let me test to make sure water does boil at this particular degree, or water doesn't freeze at this one.

It can be as simple as that. But it teaches them to, for one thing, follow through with a project start to finish. And I think that follow through that, "Hey, I started this with an idea and now look at what I have accomplished." And that gives them such a, that sense of ownership, right?

That Challenge A, you know, theme is ownership. And so it teaches them, you know, to look at the details of something. And I think for some students, it really, it takes that one little bit of curiosity they had on that subject. And it really fans that flame. And it could turn into something a lot bigger down the road that they may not have nurtured at all until science fair.

So, you know, you might have like a budding, you know, chemist that you would never have known had they not, you know, really dug into that one little project that they did that was chemistry related, you know, when they were, you know, 12 years old. - Yeah, yeah. I just, I so much appreciate several things that you just said that I think it's really beneficial for us as parents to stop and take a deep breath and think about.

You said that the process is actually more important than the project. I think that's really important for us to hear that you are teaching your student about the scientific method. You are teaching them how to think well and how to think clearly and how to design a process to answer a question.

That is an awesome ability to inculcate in a child from the time they're 12. That's a skill that's gonna pay dividends forever in life. - Yeah, and I think that's so important that they, and it teaches them also that time management, that that's a really important skill, that this is a project that goes on for a couple of months and learning how to take a big picture idea and break it into bite-sized pieces is a life skill.

- Yes. - And they get to do it under the guidance of their parents and with the help of their peers along the way that, you know, they're all working in it together. They're all going through the same process. And so it really teaches them that, okay, this big picture can be broken up into small pieces and let me figure out how to manage my time appropriately.

- Yeah, that's great. That is great. That's a good encouragement for us reluctant science fair parents as well. So let me ask you one more really practical question and then I wanna ask you one big, let's go out thinking about this kind of question. Here's the practical question. Where can parents and students go to find ideas for science fair projects?

- Yeah, so there's a great website called Science Buddies. - Oh, yes. - And they have a lot of good ideas and they break it up into a category or like area of science whether it's chemistry, physics, culinary sciences, all sorts of, they break it down into sciences I didn't know were a thing.

- What? - And also age, grade level and addition to a difficulty level as well. So if you have one of those kids that are just like, "Meh, I don't wanna do this, mom, why are you making me?" Maybe click on one of the easier ones. - Yes, yes.

- So a student who is like, "Okay, I plan on graduating high school at 15 "and starting college at 15 and a half." Then maybe the hard one. - Right, right. - So that's a really great website. But in addition to, I mean, we have such wonderful technology these days.

I think even if you just Google search seventh grade science project ideas, you can get tons of results. But I think asking your student the questions, okay, what do you find interesting? If you were to maybe watch an episode of the Mythbusters, talk about a great show to watch about scientific method, by the way, it's amazing.

My children have learned a lot watching that. - Yeah. - But it's like, which experiments do they do that you would like to find something similar? Is it more of their chemistry related things or more of their physics related things? Do they have a wide variety? So I've asked my student that, the one who's just hasn't quite settled on an idea yet.

So we're still on that journey. - Yeah, yeah, well, see, that's good to know. So everybody, we're all feeling the same pain. We all are searching for the project that will pique our students' interest, that won't break our family bank, that will keep us all sane. I know my daughter did a science fair project about plants and music, and we got really tired of the musical selections.

She was playing to these two sets of plants. You have to count the cost as a family. But that's great. Thank you for that practical advice. And here's my big philosophical, leave us thinking today. How does the science fair help us as families incorporate wonder into our homeschooling? - I think it sparks the curiosity.

It leaves your whole family, if you're discussing, okay, what science fair topic am I going to do this year? Or even my daughter, who was still in her second year of essential, she's already thinking ahead to her challenge A year. So as we're sitting around the dinner table thinking about science fair ideas, it's giving us all, hey, I wonder what would happen if.

- I love that. - And it's a great discussion for the whole family and to get the bells turning, the wheels turning in our heads and the questions that we're asking. And it's a great way to leave us all feeling a little more curious. - Yes. - I think it's our students have the availability to research far more than I think future or past generations ever have because of the internet and the technology.

So I think they have the ability to have their questions answered. But the science fair really, I think just sparks that curiosity. - That's really good. That is really good. And I did see that. And so I can attest you are right about that. It will start your family on the journey of asking questions together and encourage them to explore together.

That's really good, Emily. Well, listeners, if you are exploring more than just the science fair, if you are a listener who wonders about classical education or families, if you have neighbors or relatives or church friends who are wondering what it is that you do when you homeschool your kids and what is classical conversations anyway, you might be a candidate or know a candidate for a community day.

You might have somebody who would like to come to an open house. You can observe a classical conversations community day in action when you come and visit. And during that open house, parents and children alike will get some hands-on experience with homeschooling and community. Who knows, you may even visit a community who is in the midst of the science fair project and you will get to hear some of the ways that students encourage and refine one another's ideas on community day.

You can see firsthand what CC Community Day is all about. If you wanna find an open house near you, go to classicalconversations.com/events/ That's classicalconversations.com/events/ Families, I hope that you have been as blessed by the conversation today as I have. Emily, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your experience about the science fair with us.

I really appreciate it. - Well, thank you for having me. I had a great time. - So go, families, go and ask good questions and do good experiments and don't blow up the kitchen. And I'll see you next week. Bye-bye. (upbeat music) (music fades)