Science Projects For 7th Graders

Students don't learn as much from their science projects when their parents do most or all the work, says a Union Intermediate High School science teacher.

Rebecca Morales said from looking over projects her students are putting final touches on for this week's science fair, which she hopes will lead to an annual district-wide event, her students did their own work.

The second-year Union teacher speaks about learning from science projects from experience.

"My father did my 7th grade science projects when I was a student here at Union. It demonstrated how to figure out cryptoquotes, where one letter stands for another based on a mathematical formula. My dad's brilliant. He has a PhD in statistics and mathematics and works for the government, creating software to break codes. So my project was great, and I received an A. But he did it. I didn't," Morales said.

Union has not had a science fair for several years. "I don't know for sure, but I believe and have been told more than once that in the past it was a competition between parents, not students," Morales said.

This year's fair includes seventh-, ninth- and 10th-grade students.

Sophomore Kensey King, the intermediate high math club president, said she had a little help from her sister, a Rice University chemical engineering student, in understanding the concepts she'd use in her project, but created her 7th grade science projects and did the research on her own.

King said she learned from her thermo-dynamics project because she did her own work in determining which metal -- aluminum, tin or zinc -- is the best conductor of heat. She chose her project because she wanted to combine two of her favorite subjects, physics and chemistry.

When Morales began teaching science last year at Union, she was surprised there was no science fair. "We did science research, but there was no competition. Since I initiated and coordinated science fairs at Oologah four years and know the kinks and pitfalls, I wanted to start one up again here at Union," she said.

Morales sought the assistance of district science curriculum specialist Richard Day and other science teachers. Day said, "One of the best ways for students to understand and learn about science and the way science works is by participating in a science fair. Students follow the same scientific method that all scientists follow when doing investigative research.

A deeper level of teaching and making learning fun is what Morales is looking for in rekindling Union's science fair competition. "It allows students to apply scientific methods to something that interests them. It doesn't have to be complex. It can be as simple as researching which fishing lure works best.

"Learning occurs when it is something that applies to their lives," Morales said. Again, she speaks from experience. "I may have known at the time how my father demonstrated cryptoquotes deciphering in my seventh-grade science project. But I don't remember.

Two decades later, Morales remembers the best and worst of the mouthwashes she tested.