There is another category.  I'm not sure what the right term is.  How about
"just having fun"?

I think it's neat to see an experiment or demo that is well done.  I expect a
kid will have fun and learn a lot setting one up.  With luck, some of both
the fun and learning will rub off on other kids.

I use demo to refer to an experiment that doesn't involve taking data.  You
just observe that if I do X, Y happens.  Or if I make X bigger, Y gets bigger.

I'm probably biased.  A friend works at the Exploratorium.  For those of you
who don't know about it, it's the great grandaddy of the hands-on science
museums.  They have hundreds of exhibits.  It's highly recommended if you
ever get to San Francisco.

Paul teaches science to high-school science teachers.  A lot of that involves
showing them low cost experiments/demos.  The teachers are always finding
new/neat ways to do things.

--
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's.  I hate spam.

Thanks Hal,

Will have to visit next time I am in San Fran sounds interesting

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces@febo.com] On
Behalf Of Hal Murray
Sent: Friday, 10 February 2012 8:38 PM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] science projects

There is another category.  I'm not sure what the right term is.  How
about "just having fun"?

I think it's neat to see an experiment or demo that is well done.  I
expect a
kid will have fun and learn a lot setting one up.  With luck, some of
both
the fun and learning will rub off on other kids.

I use demo to refer to an experiment that doesn't involve taking data.
You
just observe that if I do X, Y happens.  Or if I make X bigger, Y gets
bigger.

I'm probably biased.  A friend works at the Exploratorium.  For those of
you
who don't know about it, it's the great grandaddy of the hands-on
science
museums.  They have hundreds of exhibits.  It's highly recommended if
you
ever get to San Francisco.

Paul teaches science to high-school science teachers.  A lot of that
involves
showing them low cost experiments/demos.  The teachers are always
finding
new/neat ways to do things.

--
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's.  I hate spam.

time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.

On 2/10/12 1:37 AM, Hal Murray wrote:

Most definitely..

yes, and that is something to be encouraged.  However, science fairs ARE
competitive, so what you want is "original" and "fun".  Entrants who had
fun working on their project ALWAYS place better than those slogging it
out because they think it will burnish their college app or because it's
an assignment.  (My worst performance in 6 years of competition was when
the other ideas for that year didn't pan out, and I had to put something
together in a hurry.)

The best entrants are the ones who are curious about everything, found
something they wanted to investigate, know an amazing amount of obscure
background information, and went about it in a competent way.

It's the classic "that's funny" or "I wish it would do X" thing.

Or qualitative vs quantitative.

this is a good distinction.  What wins (leaving aside the pedagogical
value aspect) is quantitative.  "Are redheads taller than blondes?" can
be done both ways. If the question is reformulated as "Are redheads
significantly taller than blondes? and is my school different from the
population at large?" you've got the beginnings of a good project.

Frank Oppenheimer had a real vision to get that going.  It's a wonderful
place.

Yes.. and that's ever more important.  My daughter's 8th grade physical
sciences teacher was far better at imparting the fundamentals of
chemistry than her 10th grade Chemistry teacher. That's something that
comes with experience and enthusiasm and confidence, I think.

On 2/10/12 2:05 AM, Chris Dawes wrote:

Makes a nice, but busy, day to do the Exploratorium and the California
Academy of Sciences/Steinhart Aquarium.  They're pretty close to each
other, so it's not like you have to drive across town.