Tag - science for kids

Rural Teacher Turned Rockstar!

Pam Bishop is an amazing elementary teacher from a rural town in Northwest Georgia. With 28 years of teaching under her belt, she’s at the “expert” stage of the education profession. We recently met up at a workshop in Atlanta and she shared this story…

>I am an elementary science lab teacher in Chatsworth, Georgia. For several years I approached my ever-changing county Superintendent with the request to let me start an elementary science lab. And, every year I was told that there was no funds available. So, I continued to find the time to teach science daily to my third graders. Then, in the spring of 2003 I was fortunate enough to be chosen as the Northwest Georgia Youth Science and Technology Teacher of the Year. With this recognition came a little $, plaque, and a luncheon. My new Curriculum Director, and new Superintendent was invited to attend. Again, I presented my request to start an elementary lab. No Funds! However, one of the gentlemen at the luncheon was on the board at a local college and overheard my request. He suggested that I come by and talk to the president of the college. Surprise! I received a call from
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My Kids Wants to be in the Science Fair!

My 5 year old son, Jack, jumped into the car last week after school with all of his usual stuff – backpack, coat, lunch box… and an invitation to participate in the science fair. “Hey, Dad”¦ can you help me think of something to do for a science fair project?”? It hit me like a ton of bricks: I’ve been coaching parents on helping their children do a science fair project for 15 years, but now it’s my turn! “Jack, I think I might be able to help you come up with a good idea.”?

Children, especially younger ones, learn science best and understand scientific ideas better if they can experiment and explore on their own. That’s the key to HELPING your child with their science project. It’s not YOUR project, so you can’t do it for them. If you find the urge to do the activities yourself, STOP! Your job is to be the young scientist’s helper”¦ not the doer! Let your young scientist experiment, explore, ask questions, change the variables, make mistakes and eventually stumble upon that BIG DISCOVERY. When children own the discovery they tend to care even more.

Where does all of the energy go?

I get lots of emails and questions as science fair projects near their deadline. Here’s a great question:

>Dear Steve, I am the mother of a 4th grader who has a science project due (just around the corner). She wants to know, “When an electrical appliance is unplug, what happens to the energy in the cord?” How can I help her to find her answer? She has been searching for two weeks and has not found an answer. I’ve tried to encourage her to pick another project and then to maybe continue working on this one (after the project is done) for next year. But she seems to think their is something to this one. Can you point me in the right direction????

Dear Lilly – Your daughter came up with an interesting question that only a kid would think about. The simple answer is that there is no “store” electricity in the cord once it’s unplugged. If an appliance has a “capacitor” in the circuit, there might be some residual electricity in the circuit but probably nothing that would easy for a young scientist to test. There really is no safe way for a child to test this other than to
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