This week was Science Share. Chugach doesn't do a "Science Fair" with judging, but rather a "Science Share" where you can come and share what you learned with others. Meanwhile, an adult scientist spends time for a one-on-one consult with each student scientist. I have to admit -- I don't remember EVER doing a Science Fair project. I must have done one, but maybe I just blocked it from my memory? After being the parent supervising these, I can see why I might have tried to suppress the memory. It isn't always a transparently smooth process.

Christopher did a project looking at what kind of wood burns best for a campfire. He tested 4 different wood types, built the fires in a consistent manner (same size logs, etc), and then tested how hot it could get a pot of water over the next 5 minutes. It wasn't exactly cutting edge science, but there were lots of things that were great about it. First, it was something practical that roused his interest. Second, he did a great job with working on understanding scientific process, which is really the whole point of this in my mind. He worked hard on it and although he still needed a lot of guidance, he kept a great attitude and ended up with a pretty good project. It was a positive enough experience for him that he wanted to go to the State Science Fair, which would have been fun if it had worked into the schedule.

Working with Cate was a little more difficult. Her project looked at the impact of baking soda on chocolate chip cookies. We baked three batches of cookies -- 1 with no baking soda, one with the regular amount of baking soda, and one with double the baking soda. She then measured cookies to determine the difference in size and also allowed her class to do a taste test to find out which was the best liked recipe.

I expected her to reach the age of not wanting to listen to her mother when she turned 13 or so. I really wasn't expecting it at 8. I'm working to figure out how to help instruct her in a way that won't generate rolling eyes at me. Truly, it's a bit of a marvel to me. Based on the advice of my sister, who is a pro at dealing with daughters, I am going to work on being less controlling of these situations and letting her make her own mistakes. I need to value the relationship more than the outcome of having her do something the way that I know would be the best. For Science Share, this meant that she did NOT want to have a hypothesis included, and she DID want to make her poster full of super-colorful scrawlings that sometimes made it difficult to read her data. I eventually realized I needed to let her make her scrawlings and not have a hypothesis -- the fighting was just not worth it and was ending up making the process detrimental rather than the nice learning opportunity it should be for a second grader. It's not the end of the world. Anybody with advice on mother/daughter dynamics of this sort can send their best advice at any time. I'm planning on working hard to figure this out so that by the time things get really dicey in middle school we'll be old pros with lots of tricks up my sleeve for dealing with things.