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Below is a sample letter that you may copy to send to your students’ parents or guardians. Congratulations! Your child has decided to participate in this year’s science fair. This experience will greatly enhance your child’s learning experience. The science fair provides a great opportunity for kids to explore a science topic in a way that develops creativity, problem-solving skills, organizational abilities, public speech, and confidence. Every participant will have the opportunity to discuss his or her project with scientists working in the community. Each year, some students are selected to advance to district and state levels. Awards and scholarships based on these projects can greatly enhance a family’s ability to pay for college, as well as boosting a child’s resume for selective colleges. Below is a list of strategies that have helped other parents ensure that their child has a positive experience at a fair that he or she can build upon. They may be of help to you. Things a parent may do: · Be positive! Give encouragement, support, and guidance. · Let your child develop his or her own project. · Realize that your child will be developing challenging investigate skills by applying the scientific method of problem solving. This may be the first time your child has applied these skills. · Realize that the teacher works with many students making it hard to give a large amount of individual attention to each student. · Volunteer your time! Contact your child’s teacher to determine what you can do to assist with the fair. · Help your child plan a schedule, to prevent a last minute project and disrupted household. Include the following steps on your schedule: ¨ Find a topic. ¨ Narrow the topic to a specific problem that is interesting to your child. ¨ Research what is known about the problem. ¨ Develop a hypothesis. ¨ Develop a procedure/investigation to test the hypothesis. ¨ Make observations and collect data. ¨ Interpret the data and observations. ¨ State and display the results. ¨ Draw appropriate conclusions. ¨ Create the exhibit. ¨ Write the research paper and abstract. ¨ Present the project. · Provide transportation to such places as libraries, nature centers, universities, etc that can help the child find project information. Although having your child involved in a science fair may require some extra effort on your side, we truly believe that the reward, a prod, encouraged child, outweighs the sacrifice. Once again, congratulations on your child’s decision to participate. We look forward to seeing your child’s project, and hope to see you at the fair! |
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Science Fairs Made Easy!! |
