Science Fair Season

Posted by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick Feb 28, 2008

If you're at your child's school and there are ultraviolet lights beaming from the classroom, dry ice smoke filtering out from under doorways, and eggs being dropped off of rooftops, you can draw one conclusion: It's science fair season.

January through March is traditionally the time of year for science fairs. Some science teachers require that their students participate in a school-level science competition. Your child may not be at all interested in doing a science project, but it really is a great opportunity.

Science is such a broad subject, there's got to be at least one aspect of it that will interest your child. Animal life, plants and nature, health issues, gravity and physical science, astronomy, human behavior, energy, rocks and geology, chemistry, computers and engineering . . . the list goes on and on.

Help your child find a branch of science that interests him and you may just spark an interest that he'll carry with him through adulthood.

Don't be too helpful, however! A science experiment or display that's had too much parent input can be spotted a mile away by a sharp science teacher. You want your child to learn and experience this field, so let him do a science project on his own.

If you need some ideas for some quick and easy science experiments, check out Simple Science Experiments for some projects that you can do on the fly with little equipment.