March 2004 - Above & Beyond

This article offers some guidelines for you and your high-potential child to follow, in order to promote a positive science experience for both of you. Your child can participate in science fairs at a number of levels. Your school may organize and run its own fair, setting its own criteria for project format and judging. This is particularly true for the fairs offered at the elementary level. Once your child enters middle school and high school, schools are increasingly organizing their fairs according to the criteria for national and international fairs. At the middle school level, the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge (DYSC) is the major primary-grade science fair competition in the country. At the high school level, the best-known program is the Intel Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). These fairs have fairly strict criteria for the format of the project, and many schools run their fairs according to these criteria and timelines, so that the best entries from their school are eligible for the other fairs. Whichever level your child is participating in, be sure to find out from your school what the criteria are for your child’s project. (Read more about these national-level fairs at http://school.discovery.com/sciencefaircentral/dysc/ and http://www.sciserv.org/isef/.)

Types Of ScienceFair Projects
One tends to see two sorts of projects at science fairs these days. They might be called exposition projects (particularly common among younger students or first-time entrants), and inquiry projects (required by DYSC and ISEF). Exposition projects are those in which a child researches a topic or question through library or Internet resources, and presents those findings in the conventional tri-fold poster display format. Usually, the student conducts no original investigative research. These projects have a long history, and are still an important means of science communication at the college and professional levels (although these days, we often dress them up and call them PowerPoint presentations). However, exposition projects are increasingly out of fashion at the middle and high school levels. Inquiry projects, in which the child designs and conducts an experimental investigation, are now the norm. Many children begin to lose interest in science fair projects if they do expositions year after year. Therefore, this article describes ways in which you can work with your child to take a hands-on exposition project and turn it into a true inquiry project. I have some examples from my own son’s experience, as well as from my work at DragonflyTV.

The InquiryProject Approach
Let me start with a time-tested, and possibly time-worn, example from my own parenting experience. When my older son was in fourth grade, he asked me for help with his science fair project. His school runs its own fair and sets its own project criteria. The theme that year was water, so any project relating to water was a legitimate entry. My son told me that his teacher introduced the concept of surface tension in class (via the classic problem, “How many drops of water can fit on a penny?” [See insert at the endof the article for a description.] He said he wanted to do a project about surface tension. I offered him another wellknown demonstration about surface tension, namely, breaking the surface tension of water with a drop of soap. You may know the one: sprinkle pepper flakes on the surface of a water in a pie pan, then touch a drop of soap in the middle and watch the pepper flakes zip out to the edge of the pan.   

Every time I’ve seen this project in a science fair, it has been in the style of an exposition project; that is, the child simply demonstrates that soap breaks the surface tension of water, but does not investigate the phenomenon. I wanted a more thoughtful experience for my son, one that both challenged him and garnered his interest. Here’s how we re-worked it.

Pose The Question
The key to any science inquiry project begins with the question the project addresses. If you pose an exposition question, you are going to get an exposition project. What’s the difference between an exposition question and an inquiry question? One way to judge this is to listen to the answer to the question. If the answer is “yes,” “no,” or any other definite response, you probably have an exposition question. If the answer you think of expresses a relationship between two things, or simply causes you to think, “I’m really not sure!” then you probably have an inquiry question. Consider examples from the surface tension activity. Read the phrasing of these versions of the question, and see if each feels like an exposition question, or an inquiry question.

Version 1: “Does soap break the surface tension of water?”

Version 2: “Is the slipperiness of a liquid related to its ability to break the surface tension of water?”

Version 3: “Which of these substances breaks the surface tension of water, and which do not?” [List of household substances might accompany the question.]

Version 1 is definitely an exposition question; it’s in a yes-no format. In many cases, the student knows the answer (“yes”) even without doing the activity. Version 2 is a more sophisticated question, one that relates the property of slipperiness to breaking surface tension. In order to answer this question, one needs to investigate this relationship. Therefore, I consider it an inquiry question. What about Version 3? It seems like a good one at first blush, but in the end it really is just an expanded form of Version 1. For each of the substances a student might come up with, you can just ask the Version 1 repeatedly. (“Does vinegar break the surface tension? Does syrup? Does oil?”)

It may help you guide your child in this phase of the project if you consider two formulas for writing an inquiry question. The first formula is for an observationalinquiry. The simplest version of the formula is: “How does A compare to B?” DragonflyTV featured a number of excellent observational inquiries for children at the middle school level; here are some examples.

• How does the grooming behavior of otters in the zoo compare to that of otters in the wild?

• How does the number of creatures living at the top of a kelp forest compare to the number living at the bottom?

• How does the moisture level in a sand dune with lots of plants growing on it compare to a dune that doesn’t?

The second formula represents an experimentalinquiry. The formula is: “How does A relate to B?” A variation is: “If I make a change in A, what happens to B?” Here are some more examples from DragonflyTV.

• How do the side winds and updraft winds in a storm relate to the strength of an emerging tornado?

• How does the flex rating of my hockey stick relate to my shooting accuracy and speed?

• If I change the kind of food a zoo animal receives (live vs. frozen), how does that affect its activity level? [Be certain to be aware of any school policies regarding studies with animals.]

Whether your child selects an observational or experimental inquiry, phrasing the question properly really does set the tone for the rest of the investigation. Both types of inquiry allow the child to formulate meaningful hypotheses. Consider these two examples, derived from my son’s experiment. The first is a typical student hypothesis from an exposition question and the second from an inquiry question. Notice how weak the former hypothesis is compared to the latter.

Exposition: My hypothesis is that soap will break the surface tension of water, but vinegar will not. Inquiry: My hypothesis is that slipperiness is the property of liquids that breaks the surface tension of water.

Perform The Experiment
With a well-formulated question in hand, selecting an experimental procedure becomes quite straightforward.Work with your child to keep the question in mind, and to focus on a procedure that sticks to the question. Continuing with the surface tension example, since my son’s hypothesis was that slipperiness of a substance is the property that breaks the surface tension of water, he understood that he should test the hypothesis by trying the pepper flake activity with a number of slippery substances. He collected liquid soap, bar soap, vegetable oil, shortening, and lotion. With some coaching, he also collected some non-slippery substances to test the negative hypothesis (i.e., nonslippery things will not break the surface tension of water). He came up with things like milk, vinegar, glass cleaner, and maple syrup.

Next, it was a matter of testing each substance separately, and being careful not to cross-contaminate things. it was time consuming, but he rinsed out the pie plate after each test, putting in fresh water and pepper each time. I also encouraged him to state out loud what he thought would happen in each case, based on his overall hypothesis. (“Vegetable oil is slippery, so I think this will break the surface tension”). This is an important exercise because it solidi- fies the experience in the child’s mind, and gives him practice talking about his work. This kind of guidance is an appropriate way for you to be involved, without actually doing your child’s project for him or her.

In this experiment, my son’s hypothesis was supported by some of the substances (slippery bar and liquid soap broke the surface tension), and refuted by others (slippery oil and shortening did not break the surface tension). Moreover, the negative tests provided some interesting results. (Non-slippery milk and vinegar did not break the surface tension; however, non-slippery window cleaner did!) I noted with some pleasure that he was genuinely taken aback by some of these unexpected findings. Many children throw in the towel here if they don’t get a clear unambiguous answer. My experience tells me that this is a place where a little positive parental intervention can make all the difference. Your child may be looking for clues from you as to whether he or she has permission to be frustrated and quit at this point. This is a great time for you to chime in: “Hey, what’s going on? This is really interesting!” Your child will take the cue from you about what to do next.

Having collected all his data, and having made the requisite table and chart, my son returned to his original hypothesis. Obviously, his hypothesis found only partial support from his data. Children often think they did something wrong if their experiment doesn’t fully support their hypothesis, and think they did a poor project. On the contrary, this is the heart of scientific investigation, a tough lesson for youngsters to accept. You can be helpful here, encouraging your child to stand by his or her work. It’s more important, and interesting, to explore a difficult question with a possibly unclear answer than to demonstrate a well-established fact.

If your child arrives at a result that contradicts the hypothesis, you want to help your child find the language to express that. This was the challenge my son faced in his project. He came up with: “Even though I did find some slippery things that broke the surface tension of water, not all slippery things do, so that must not be the property of substances that breaks it.”

The beauty of this experience was what came next. I asked him to look again at the list of substances that did break the surface tension. What do they have in common? He thought about things like whether they were thin and runny, or thick and syrupy. He thought about whether they were smelly, colored, or anything else. What he finally tripped upon was this: they are all cleaning products. That allowed us to have a little chat about what makes a cleaning product a cleaning product, namely, that cleaners break the surface tension of water!

When a parent is also a scientist, there is a temptation to provide the child with big fancy words to make the project appear sophisticated. I discourage this. Regarding my son’s finding, it was enough to discover that cleaning products demonstrate the surface tension effect. Chemists use the word surfactant to describe a substance with this property.

I am a chemist, but didn’t bring that word to my son’s attention, and I frankly didn’t want him to even bother with the word. In his own language, my son can tell you that cleaning products break the surface tension of water, and maybe that’s what makes them good cleaners.

Persuasively ReportThe Results
If your child works through an inquiry project, even a rather simple one such as the surface tension example, and really invests some time and thought in it, then he or she really has all the tools to make a persuasive presentation. However, there are still some ways you can work with your child. The two major components to the presentation are the poster and the oral presentation. Both of these are primarily language skills, and rehearsal is essential.

In the science fair circuit, we have become a community of poster makers. Personally, I have mixed feelings about this, as I don’t believe a tri-fold poster board is necessarily the best medium for children to speak persuasively about their science project. I have found that youngsters often speak more eloquently when they can use artifacts from their project as speaking props. In any case, the standard components of a high-caliber poster board presentation are well known: a) statement of the question; b) statement of hypothesis; c) outline of procedure; d) tabular or graphic presentation of data and/or analysis; e) statement of conclusion. Paying attention to the language issues I addressed above will enhance the persuasiveness of a poster display. To reiterate, make sure the question and hypothesis are both written according to the inquiry formula. Let the conclusion reveal any surprising results, and reveal that your child gained a new insight as a result of doing the experiment.

The presentation of the project at the fair will be strengthened when your child can speak knowingly and confidently about the work she or he did. One of the most persuasive events in a judge’s mind is when the student can talk about an experience where an unexpected finding led to a new or different understanding. Watch for these moments as your child works on the project, and bring positive attention to them. Then, take some time to rehearse with your child. Pretend you are a judge, and ask questions that are specifically directed at your child’s experience of the project, more than at their understanding of it. Here are sample questions and conversation starters you can use for rehearsal.

• I see that you’ve written out your procedure, but go ahead and tell me how you did your experiment.

• How did you decide what materials to use?

• When you were doing your tests, did anything happen that caught you by surprise?

• What was the most challenging part of doing your experiment?

• What did your results tell you about your first hypothesis?

• If you had the chance to do more experimenting, what things would you try?

• Would you encourage your friends to try this experiment? Why?

Selecting A Topic
One important question that must be addressed, of course, is: “How do I help my child select a science fair topic?”

You may feel that if you are not a scientistyourself, you aren’t in a position to be helpful to your child. Here are some pointers on selecting a topic, or turning a science demonstration into an inquiry. As a scientist-parent, I’ve learned that your child can craft a meaningful and credible science inquiry in just about any subject in which he or she is interested. DragonflyTV has produced stories on topics as diverse as worm composting, hip hop dance, winter survival techniques, skateboarding, making yourself dizzy, and martial arts. It does take more effort to do a scientific inquiry in a nontraditional science topic area, but it usually can be done. Your child has plenty of interests and talents; if you are stuck for suggestions for a science fair topic, look no farther than those interests.

If helping your child create an original investigation feels a little daunting, then you may want to consider re-shaping an exposition topic into an inquiry. There are numerous resources in print and on the Internet about science fair topics; the sidebar lists several of those resources, which offer exposition project ideas, and might provide the core of an idea for an inquiry project.

If you read the two sets of questions to yourself, you find yourself imagining a more thoughtful answer to the second set, while all you need is a yes or no for the first set. This isn’t just word play. We are looking for a deeper experience of the investigation. Let’s look at one of the examples, and play it out in the two styles.The goldfish example works nicely.

Does the amount of light present affect the activity level of goldfish? Your child obtains a goldfish, develops a scheme for exposing it to more or less light, perhaps even finds a device (photographer’s light meter, say) to measure the amount of light, and develops a scheme for judging the fish’s activity. Your child hypothesizes that the fish will be more active in the light than in the dark. Your child collects data, and sure enough, the fish is more active in the light. Conclusion: Yes, the amount of light does affect a goldfish’s activity. That seems like a perfectly fine project, doesn’t it? It certainly is satisfactory, but there’s a level of depth that’s missing. After all, the child simply had to arrive at yes or no. No other level of investment was necessary, such as verifying that the result always holds. Let’s see what happens if we shape this to go above and beyond.

How does changing the amount of light affect the activity level of a goldfish? Again, your child obtains a goldfish, develops a scheme for exposing it to more or less light, finds a light meter to measure the amount of light, and develops a scheme for judging the fish’s activity.However, because the question specifically refers to the act of changing the light levels, now your child has to give attention to whether any changes in fish activity are attributable to the light and not to other factors. Suddenly, there’s an increased level of investment in the project.

How can your child show that it was light levels that affected the fish’s activity, and not other factors, such as how recently was the fish fed, or what time of day was the observation made, or water temperature? It would not be necessary to do tests on all these factors; however it is necessary to be aware of them and keep them constant. Your role as helpful parent can be to ask the child leading questions, such as, “Do you need to do this test several days in a row? Are you sure that the water temperature was the same each time you did the test? Can you rule out other factors that might be making the fish active?” Now you’ve appropriately challenged your child to be thoughtful about all aspects of the inquiry.

So how does the conclusion to this project come out? After collecting data for several days, the child finds that in some cases the fish was more active in the light, but in other cases it was not. This led to more questions. Conclusion: Changing the amount of light from low levels to high levels may increase goldfish activity; however, other factors may be at play, and it would take more investigation to know for sure.

You can see that the child in the second example has a lot more to talk about in his or her presentation. It will be evident to anyone listening to this child’s discussion that he or she not only put some time and effort into the project, but also used higher-order thinking skills in doing so. Specifically, the child collected data, scrutinized that data carefully, and arrived at a conclusion consistent with the data. As an acquaintance of mine is fond of saying, the worst thing scientists can do is fool themselves with their own data. Children doing lower level investigations often fool themselves with their results. High-potential children are capable of understanding the importance of doing science investigations carefully and without fooling themselves.

Conclusion
When I was a child, I grew tired of hearing adults tell me, “You only get as much out of a project as you put in to it.” Now that I’m a parent, I grow tired of saying it! Yet, it’s really true! However, it’s possible to put a lot of effort into a fruitless science fair project, and that’s when the truism breaks down. Here is a summary of the key points for science project success:

• Encourage your child through any unexpected results; that’s where some of the best science is!

• Help your child develop a project that appeals to his or her existing interests

• Help your child write a project research question in the inquiry style (Pose the Question)

• Engage your child in conversation about the project while he/she is doing it (Perform the Experiment)

• Guide your child’s rehearsal of the oral presentation of the project (Persuasively Report Results)

I hope I’ve given you some useful suggestions for working with your child and helping him or her craft an engaging and rewarding science fair experience.

Author Note. Richard Pommier Swansonis the Science Content Director for DragonflyTV(http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/),at Twin Cities Public Television in SaintPaul, MN.

How many Drops of Water Can You Fit On a Penny?
Determine the number of drops of water that can rest on the surface of a penny. Get a clean dry penny, an eye dropper, and water. Set the penny on a table, and one by one, place drops of water onto the penny. You will see the water build up and form a mound shape. How many drops can you add before the mound breaks, and the water spills of the penny surface? Water forms a mound because of a property called surface tension. What happens if you alter the water’s surface tension with soap? Start with a clean dry penny, and try dropping soapy water onto the penny. How many drops can you add this time, before the water spills off?