SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FAIR:

No doubt you will have heard about the Science Fair. It is a school wide event that has been happening at Balmacewen Intermediate for a number of years now. We are always very successful and make up the majority of the award winners at the Otago Science fair each year. We have also had a number of overall winners during our years of entering in the science and technology fair. WHO: All Balmacewen Intermediate students will individually complete a science fair project. WHEN: Science fair takes place over the course of term two. All students complete a project which is due into their classroom teacher for presentation in week 9, Monday 1st July. From here all projects will be exhibited in the hall for a week and judged. They best entries will be taken to the Otago Museum to be judged amongst the best in Otago at the Otago Science and technology fair. WHERE: Students will carry out science investigations and learn how to put their project together, create graphs and learn procedural writing techniques in class. They will get some class time to work on their projects and the rest will be made up of homework time for the term. WHAT: IS A SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT? A science fair project can be an invention, investigation or experimental research. HOLIDAYS WEEK 1: It will start with a big question, idea or aim that the student wants to explore. For example: How can I keep the fizz in my fizzy for longer? Why is the sea salty? How can I make myself safe on my skateboard coming to school in the mornings? WEEKS 1-3: Next the students will need to research and gather background information around this big idea. They will use this information to make a hypothesis or (in the case of an invention) come up with a prototype or plan. WEEKS 3 7: From here the students need to come up with a plan for how they are going to carry out their experiment, invention or investigation. They need to remember to use a fair test etc (these things will be covered at school.) The students carry this plan out over the next few weeks and keep a log book and take photos of the process along the way. WEEK 8: Next the students put together their results using graphs etc WEEK 8-9: They then summarise their results, making reference to their hypothesis. The summarised most important parts of the project get presented nicely on a display board (pictures of these are on class blog pages.) The display boards are available from the school library for $10. The rest of the information goes into a log book/clearfile which will be kept with the displayboard for judges reference.

The DATES used here are approximate and may change from class to class depending on programmes etc. We will have a lot of discussion and sharing of ideas in class and there will be notices coming home with additional information. But this is a basic run down to help you get your head around it all. I hope this is useful. If you have further questions please see your childs teacher. GOOD LUCK, Balmacewen Intermediate teaching staff.