Dear Homeschool Parents and Students:

Attached you will find the rubric for our science fair project. This rubric will help you and your students understand how science fair projects will be judged. Projects should explore a scientific question that the student can prove or disprove. (If you need help thinking of questions, we have included some below.) Students should develop a hypothesis (their educated guess to answer the scientific question) and use experimentation to see if the hypothesis was right or wrong.

During the experiments, students should collect data. Data can include simple measurements. For example, if a student’s project hypothesis is “Plants grow taller when music is played near them”, data would include the number of hours music was played, and the number of centimeters the plants grew. Good experiments also include a control – a “base line” that can lead to comparison. For example, in the plant example, the control would be plants that were not played music, and the dependent variable would be the plants that were played music.

When students have finished their experiment, they should review the data to make a conclusion – basically, a statement about whether the hypothesis was right or wrong.

There are no specific requirements for presentation. Neatness and creativity count! Judges will award prizes in several age groups, so student involvement is key!

If you have any questions about the project, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Ben Baker, Education Coordinator

bbaker@cmoekids.org

(812) 464-2663, ext. 233

Ideas for Scientific Questions:

Does plant growth respond to doses of music and literature?

Does mold grow faster in sunlight?

Can grass/plants clean water of pollution?

If you are wanting to create something (magnetic motor etc) it is important to still have a question, hypothesis, and conclusion, such as, “Can motors run solely through magnets?”

Project Number _____________________    Judge Name/Initials: _________________________      

	1	3	5	List Score Here
Question Hypothesis and Variables	§  Question/Problem is not clear §  Hypothesis/Prediction is not present or doesn’t address the question at all §  Variable(s) are not included	§  Question/Problem is somewhat clear §  Hypothesis/Prediction  somewhat addresses the question §  Some variable(s) are included but are not complete or are not clearly identified	§  Question/Problem is specific and very clear and can be answered by doing an experiment §  Hypothesis/Prediction addresses the question very clearly  § Variables are clearly identified and included
Experimental Procedure	§  Materials list is not detailed and complete and clear §  Experimental procedure is not clear §  Includes no repetitions	§  Materials list is somewhat detailed and complete and clear §  Experimental procedure is very clear §  Includes only 2 repetitions	§  Materials list is very detailed and complete and clear §  Experimental procedure is very clear §  Includes at least 3 repetitions §
Data	§  Data is not clear §  Poor or No use of photos/charts/graphs to display data.	§  Data is somewhat clear §  Good use of photos/charts/graphs to display data	§  Data is very clear §  Excellent use of photos/charts/graphs to display data
Conclusions	§  Conclusions are        not supported        by the data.	§  Conclusions are       not clearly  supported        by the data.	§  Conclusions are       clearly supported       by the data.
Display	§  Display is neither neat, creative, nor organized §  No attention to detail	§  Display is somewhat neat, creative and organized §  Minor attention to detail	§  Display is very neat, creative and organized §  Significant attention to detail
Level of Student Involvement	§  Display shows a low amount or no involvement by the students in the procedure.	§  Display shows a medium amount of involvement by the students in the procedure.	§  Display shows a high amount of involvement by the students in the procedure.
Creativity	§  Project shows a low amount of creativity.	§  Project shows a medium amount of creativity.	§  Project shows a high amount of creativity.

 

           Project Score

      Subtotal

Two amazing books...

Some of you may know Susan Fowler, a colorful and energetic local storyteller. Susan has been collaborating with us to create a cMoe coloring book. The book should be released soon and we think you'll LOVE it!

Speaking of books, we thought our readers might find this interesting. Susan was here today for a meeting, and she brought with her an interesting book. Believe it or not, her friend retrieved this from a recycling bin! On the outside, it looks like a pretty average vintage book: (A little research revealed that it is a collection of poetry about animals. Used copies are still available for sale on Amazon!)

But when you open it up ...

 

Wow! Someone took the time to out every single picture, making a beautiful 3D creation! 

 

"In the grass a thousand little people pass." 

 A boy riding a lion ... don't try this at home! 

 

"The wind cracked his whip/The storm flashed a gun/And the animal-clouds marched one by one/Under the tent of the sky." - Rowena Bastin Bennett

A little lemur...

The book is signed by Mary Scruggs and says May 1938. If anyone knows who this might be, or who might have created the book, let us know! 

What a fun and interesting discovery. We thought you'd enjoy seeing it.

Why can I flick an ant off my kitchen counter and it doesn't sustain any (visible) injuries?

   

Say you have an ant that weighs 1 milligram and has an approximate belly-surface area of 1 square mm. When it does a belly flop on your kitchen floor from the counter top, its 1 mm square belly has to support 1 mg of mass landing on it. Well.. what if the ant was the size of a horse? Let's increase the dimensions of the ant by 1000. This would put the weight of the ant at the weight of a horse. Now it weighs 1000x1000X1000 milligrams, and its belly surface area is 1000x1000 mm. It's mass has gone up 1,000,000,000 times, but its surface area has only increased 1,000,000 times, so now, every square mm of its belly has to support 1000 milligrams landing on it.  The weight will be far too much to handle for the giant ant. Normal sized ants can fall from great distances because the material that their exoskeleton is made of can support the weight of a tiny ant.

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