Dear Students and Parents:

We are pleased to announce the Highland Ranch Science Fair and Exhibition, to be held on Friday, January 29th, 2010, the MPR. Student participants will check-in and setup up at 5:30 and the event will take place between 6:00 and 8:00.

All students are invited to participate and all families are invited to attend the event! Students may work on an individual project, or work with a partner or small group (for younger students) to plan, conduct, and present the findings of a science investigation and/or experiment. Students may also choose to exhibit a science collection (e.g. rocks) or other project that communicates what they know about their subject to the audience.

We will also have Class Projects on exhibit (e.g. Mrs. Rasmussen's Third Grade Bird Study) as well as community participants such as I Love A Clean San Diego, UC San Diego, Southwest Fisheries, County Office of Education. Dr. Zoolittle will also be attending!!! Please plan on participating and enjoying!

How to Get Started: Don’t wait! Start now by reading all required documents (retrieve from "Important Links"), getting teacher and parent approval, and taking advantage of resources such as the school library, your teachers, and your Science Coordinator, Shelley Glenn Lee, to help brainstorm project ideas. Grade specific suggestions, helpful web-links, suggestions for parent support and other important information available here on the HRES Science Fair blog

Students: Choose a topic that is truly interesting to you! The work must be SAFE, so parents are required to supervise and monitor any safety hazards. Parents are encouraged to help you, but you should be doing most of the work. Just do your best and have fun.

Parents: Please download the following forms (see "Important Links" or HRES Website)
1) STUDENT ENTRY FORM
2) SCIENCE FAIR RULES
3) SCIENCE FAIR HOW-TO

GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN! Remember, Approval and Entry Form Deadline:
NO LATER THAN JANUARY 15th, 2009

Sincerely,

Shelley Glenn Lee (Science Fair Chair) and your PTA Science Fair Committee
shelleyglennlee@gmail.com

Parents as Mentors

Parents are critical to student success, especially when it comes to Science Fair (which is done mostly out-of-school and at home)! Students need an adult mentor to guide and support their investigations, without doing the work for them. Stay tuned here for sugestions on effectively mentoring your child through the process of developing, proposing, conducting, and exhibiting their science fair project!

Are you a parent that is a science or engineering professional? If so, it would be great to have parents either participate in Science Fair by hosting a acience interactive or demonstration or as a resource/consultant for student projects. If you can lend support, please comment here about what you have to offer!

Another way to participate is getting your HRES club, scout troop, or other group that engages in science activities outside of the classroom to showcase a project by demonstrating or exhibiting the project at Science Fair. So far, we have the HRES FIRST Lego League Robotics Teams on board to show off their creative engineering skills with a robotics demonstration! Please let me know if you would like to participate.

EXTRA TIPS FOR PARENTS:

* Always stay positive and encouraging!

* Ask your child (especially the younger ones) guiding quesitons so they can come up with the information themselves. Try not to give them the answers. Listen to and praise your child. Let them know ou are interested in their ideas. (e.g. "What do you think? Why do you think that?)

* Help them to brainstorm before they determine their final projet. Encourage them to do a project they will enjoy. Discourage them from doing a project just because it is easy.

* Provide a space at home where your child can work without worrying about making a mess

* Help your child acquire the materials needed for the project.

* Offer to provide transportatio to places such as libraries, museums, nature centers, etc. that can help your child with information about their topic.

*Take your child out in nature to inspire a project or to conduct an investigation (we have great natural resources in San Diego! The desert! mountains! beaches! bays! canyons! parks and trails!

*For k-3, parents may help write or type the reports for their children. Please let them dictate to you. Fourth and Fifth graders are expected to write/type their own reports.

*Allow the children to do as much of the display as possible.* Proofread their spelling, but do not change their words.

* You may help with the display, but remember it is the student's work. You may help ensure that the display is well organized, easy to understand, and as neat as possible for their grade level.

*Attend the entire Science Fair and Exhibition. Encourage your child to interact with the visitors and other students by explaining their project. Encourage them to visit all the projects and exhibits and ask lots of questions! They should learn about other topics as well as be the experts on their own!

*Please remove your child's project from the MPR after 8pm on Friday, January 29th, 2010.

* THANK YOU for encouraging and supporting enthusiasm for science!