Down and Dirty Science Project

Joshua has been working hard on his Science Share project. He has been very focused and independent throughout this process and it's so fun for me to see. Early on, he decided on a topic, made his shopping list, requested help purchasing items, and selected the materials he would need. Later, he set up the experiment, conducted it three different times, and planned his presentation board. When it was time to assemble the board, he opened up a Word document, typed up all the information, printed it out, and prepared to paste it onto the board. He had a vision for how he wanted it to look and how he wanted it presented. I think it turned out great and I'm so proud of his work ethic and independence.

As a mom, I have to make sure I am not too involved in projects. I don't want to be the hover mom who does all the work for my kids but I also don't want to appear disinterested, not knowing what is due until it's too late. On this project, I think I struck a good balance. My contributions to the project included buying the materials and taking photos of Joshua while he conducted the experiments. When it came time to assemble the presentation board, I helped Joshua by showing him how to insert a graph into a Word document and I proofread his work. When working on the layout of the presentation board, I shared a tip on how to make the work stand out more by adding colored paper behind the information pages, helped him go through the photos to decide which ones would best tell his story (although he chose all the photos that were used), and helped glue down the corners of the pages and letters after he had it arranged. In all, Joshua did the work on this project and I love what he came up with!

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