The 2011 HRES Science Fair will have a nature theme! All students are encouraged (but not required) to consider doing a project related to nature--get outside! Do some backyard science this year and get to know your true neighbors--the plants and animals! For inspiration, read this article ...

If we want children to flourish, we need to give them time to connect with nature and love the Earth before we ask them to save it--David Sobel

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

WHAT A SUCCESS!

Congratulations to all the students who worked so hard and exhibited their amazing projects! Our parents, teachers, and community organizations that attended the event were absoulutely impressed by the enthusiasm and knowledge of our students. We had close to 250 student participants, and an estimated 800-900 people in attendance! The committee is already making plans to make next year's event even more successful and enjoyable!

Thank you to our volunteers and our guests--Southwest Fisheries, I Love a Clean San Diego, County Office of Education, UC San Diego, and Dr. Zoolittle!!

-Shelley Glenn Lee
Science Fair Chair

FINAL REMINDER and SCHEDULE

Reminder—Display Boards may be dropped off BEFORE SCHOOL at the MPR, to be setup by parent volunteers and viewed during the school day by visiting classes. There will be parents in the MPR Official Check-In and Setup is happening between 5:00 and 6:00 and event will promptly begin at 6:00!

In addition to the ongoing hands-on activities provided by our Community Partners such as I Love A Clean San Diego, there will be an Oobleck Science Station outside for kids to make and take their own Oobleck, and the HRES First Lego League teams will be demonstrating their Robotics projects.

Tentative Schedule of Events:
5:00-6:00 Check-in and Setup of Student Projects
6:00-6:20 Kindergarten and First Grade Students at Projects
6:15 First Photosynthesis Puppet Show Performance
6:20-6:40 Second and Third Grade Students at Projects
6:45 Second Photosynthesis Puppet Show Performance
6:30-7:00 Fourth and Fifth Grade Students at Projects
7:00-7:15 Dr. Zoolittle Presentation on Stage
7:15 Third Photosynthesis Puppet Show Performance
7:30-7:50 Awards Presentation
8:00 Official end to Evening—Cleanup!

Science Fair and Exhibition is Fast Approaching!

Dear Students and Parents,

The deadline for Student Entry Forms has now passed. If you submitted a form, you can now move forward with your project (assume you are "approved" unless you have received a phone call or email stating otherwise.) In the "Helpful Links and Resources" section to the right, there are two HRES documents for you to download and read: "How To Do A Project" and "How To Construct Your Board." The information contained in these documents are suggested and recommended, but not required. No grades will be assigned and participation is non-competitive. However, each student (or small group) will need to purchase and construct a display board--this is the most organized and efficient way to display information.

Please plan on attending the Science Fair and Exhibition with your child. Student participants should check-in between 5:00 and 6:00 to setup their space, make nametags, and prepare for the event to begin at 6:00. There will be many interactive displays, hands-on activities, and a lot of science to be shared. Stay tuned for a schedule of events and for an assigned time for each student to be posted at their display for interaction with the audience.

Projects may not be taken down until AFTER 8:00 p.m.

We need parent volunteers, so please contact Shelley at shelleyglennlee@gmail.com if you are available and interested.

Thanks...Please read older postings for more info...

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!

Tips for...KINDERGARTEN
As a parent, you might ask “Is my Kindergartner too young to participate in science fair?” or “What kind of science can my Kindergartner really do?” As you know, they are naturally curious about the world around them. They are capable of making meaningful observations and asking meaningful questions. Therefore, they most certainly can participate in science fair by conducting their own science investigation—with your help, of course!

Where to begin? Start with your child’s own observations and curiosity. What do they NOTICE and what do they WONDER about? From backyard critters to household pets, animals can be great subjects for youngsters to begin to learn how to ‘do’ science. Living in San Diego, we have a plethora of unique habitats and hundreds of unique species of life (in fact, we are considered a world “biodiversity hotspot”). Take advantage of our natural resources—take your child on a hike or on a trip to the tidepools to inspire ideas for their project.

For more ideas, one may look to what Kindergartners are expected to learn at school this year. Both National and State Science Standards emphasize process skills and content—Kindergarten students should use their five senses to observe, measure, compare, contrast, describe, identify, and predict a variety things. These things range from living things (plants and animals) to non-living objects (physical properties) to the natural world around them (ocean, desert, mountains, weather, earth’s resources, etc.). Below is an abbreviated version of the California Science Content Standards for Kindergarten. For more full info, go to http://www.cde.ca.gov/BE/ST/SS/documents/sciencestnd.pdf

Encourage your child to make drawings to record their observations, and you may help them write to record what the observe (“I Notice”…) and what they are curious about (“I Wonder”…). When it comes time to prepare the presentation for the Science Fair, include these images and information in the poster. (More information to come!) Please post any comments/questions that you have here on the blog—your questions will be answered and will be available for others to see as well! Check out these websites for Kindergarten specific ideas:

http://www.easy-science-fair-projects.net/kindergarten-science-fair.html

http://www.kindergarten-lessons.com/science-fair-projects.html

CA SCIENCE CONTENT STANDARDS (abbreviated)

Physical Sciences: Properties of materials can be observed, measured, and predicted.

• Describe objects in terms of material they are made of (e.g., clay, cloth, paper) and their physical properties (e.g., color, size, shape, weight, texture, flexibility, attraction to magnets, floating, sinking).
• Water can be a liquid or a solid, can be made to change back and forth from one form to the other, and water left in an open container evaporates (goes into the air) but water in a closed container does not.

Life Sciences: Different types of plants and animals inhabit the earth.

• Observe and describe similarities and differences in the appearance and behavior of plants and animals (e.g., seed-bearing plants, birds, fish, insects).
• Identify major structures of common plants and animals (e.g., stems, leaves, roots, arms, wings, legs).

Earth Sciences: Earth is composed of land, air, and water.

• Characteristics of mountains, rivers, oceans, valleys, deserts, and local landforms.
• Changes in weather occur from day to day and across seasons, affecting Earth and its inhabitants.
• Identify resources from Earth that are used in everyday life and understand that many resources can be conserved.

Investigation and Experimentation: Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations.

• Develop questions and perform investigations.
• Observe common objects by using the five senses.
• Describe the properties of common objects.
• Describe the relative position of objects by using one reference (e.g., above or below).
  Compare and sort common objects by one physical attribute (e.g., color, shape, texture, size, weight).
• Communicate observations orally and through drawings.