3rd Grade Science Project... HELP...

[lizdotcom99]

My niece needs help figuring out what to do for a 3rd Grade science fair project. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Are there any ideas for a girlie girl science project? I can't imagine her doing a "boy" project at all, and I am sure her mother will make sure of that. So far all of our suggestions have been too boyish!!! Argghhhhhh!!! Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
Liz

 

[kapica3]

Here is a great website to go to for ideas.http://school.discovery.com/sciencefaircentral/ when you get to this page just click on "project ideas". Maybe she could do something with which lipstick lasts longest, or which brand of nailpolish dries fastest. But check out the site, its seems to be one of the most popular.

 

[RUDisney]

Last year, my sister did a project that rated the effectiveness of various detergents on various stains. She used the same type of material, cut into blocks, and stained them using various items like ink, lipstick, iodine, blood, etc. She used Tide, Oxyclean, Gain, etc., and washed the items separately. She took first prize in her age group (6th grade) but then again, her school tends to favor projects that compare similar items.

 

[tiggerlover]

Hey there Liz! I don't really have any suggstions for you (unless you want a recipe to make bubble bath), but I wanted to bump this back up to the first page for you.

Talk to you later.

 

[Talking Hands]

There is no such thing as a girlish or boyish science project. Science is science. To allow an attitude of anything else is putting women scientists down. Have her choose a project she is interested in and do it.
My daughters' have done one of water purity, the effectiveness of mouthwashes, the composition of different soils, affect of different coloured lights on plant growth, made and tuned a box violin and many more.

 

[KarenC]

Originally posted by lizdotcom99
Are there any ideas for a girlie girl science project? I can't imagine her doing a "boy" project at all, and I am sure her mother will make sure of that. So far all of our suggestions have been too boyish!!! Argghhhhhh!!! Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
Liz

I don't mean to be rude, but I had to respond to this. What the heck is a girlie girl science project? It's 2003 and science still has a gender? I have a DD who's 18 now and was the kind of kid who always wore dresses--she was in grammar school before she had a pair of jeans. She dressed up like a princess to go to all the school dances. She's all girl. She's also majoring in engineering.

My "girlie girl" has a gift for Math. She just got a 94% on a Calc 2 test where the class average was 61%. I worked real hard to make her understand that it was "okay" for her to choose a major that would allow her to make use of her gift. She's finally meeting other girlie girls who are good in math and finding out that you can be a princess and an engineer!

The problem with teaching eight-year-old girls that science is a boy thing is that they will develop an aversion to math and science. As our economy changes, more and more of the "good jobs" are going to require a grasp of both math and science. I don't know about everyone else, but my DD has been raised to be able to take care of herself. If she doesn't have to, and that's okay with her, that's great, as long as if something happens she has skills and experiences to keep her going.

Off my soap box now...the best science fair project my kids did was a demonstration project of how polar bears keep warm in cold water. We got it out of Family Fun magazine. Here's the ingredients:

Bucket of ice water
Tub of Crisco
Zip Lock Bag
Latex Gloves

1. Fill the zip lock bag with Crisco (i.e., blubber)
2. Have subject put on latex gloves and put gloved hand in cold water. Have them count to see how long they can stand to keep their hand in the water.
3. Have them dry off and insert gloved hand into zip lock bag filled with Crisco. Mold the Crisco so it covers the hand.
4. Have them put the Crisco-covered hand in the bucket of ice water. Have them count how long they can stand to keep it in the water.

Another one my niece did was to grow plants and water some of them with water and others with ginger ale or something like that. It was amazing the difference in the plants...

 

[tar heel]

My son did a cola taste test. He had about 50 "subjects" (kids in his class, family members and neighbors). He had four kinds of cola -- Coke, Pepsi, RC and store brand in small unmarked cups. The subjects rated which they liked the best and also told which brand they usually liked best. The interesting findings were that several people chose brands different from one they said they liked and also that RC got lots of votes. Showed pretty clearly that we are influenced by advertising and packaging.

This year, my son tested the effects of lightness/darkness on anoles' (lizards that change colors) eating habits. Had three tanks, each with one anole. One went to the coat closet for two days in total darkness, one had the light on 24 hours a day and the other had regular day and night. Repeated twice so that each lizard had each of the conditions. Findings were that they didn't eat much in the dark and preferred normal day and night.

 

[battricia]

Originally posted by Talking Hands
There is no such thing as a girlish or boyish science project. Science is science. To allow an attitude of anything else is putting women scientists down. Have her choose a project she is interested in and do it.

I'm so glad someone else said this, I wanted to comment, but sometimes I feel as if people around here think I'm too liberal. Unfortunately there are many studies that show that girls in grade school/highschool are STILL to this day intimidated by math and science (as taught in school), and THIS is the exact attitude that cultivates that intimidation.


Tricia.

 

[Deb in IA]

Originally posted by lizdotcom99
Are there any ideas for a girlie girl science project? I can't imagine her doing a "boy" project at all, and I am sure her mother will make sure of that.

Appalling.

PLEASE do NOT let her mother stifle your niece's natural curiosity and inquisitivity. Science is the discipline of discovery, of asking questions and finding the answers through experiments, which are not gender specific. How can a project be "boy" or "girl"?

As for the project, find something that your niece is interested in. Ask her questions about this topic of interest (why? how? when? where?) Formulate a question, and figure out a way to answer that question. THAT'S how you do a science project.

 

[Planogirl]

I'm just curious as to what is considered a girly-girl project and what is a boy project. This never came up when we were helping our son find a project.

Some of these projects sound like fun by the way. Much better than ours in fact!

 

[whirlsy]

I do believe she asked for help or ideas for a third grade science projects not your views on women in science. I totally understood what she meant, she wasnt bashing female scientists or putting down women today she is mearly looking for something a third grade GIRL would be interested in. Girls are girls and some like girly girl things and others dont. Why do you feel like you have to rant about everything on here. I swear everything on here gets picked apart. LIGHTEN UP! as for the science project my friends daughter did an experiment on different chewing gums. she had four or five friends chew bubble gum and did a study on whichone lasted longer~which one blew the biggest bubbles and so on. Have fun.

 

[KarenC]

Originally posted by whirlsy
I do believe she asked for help or ideas for a third grade science projects not your views on women in science. I totally understood what she meant, she wasnt bashing female scientists or putting down women today she is mearly looking for something a third grade GIRL would be interested in.

It was the "her mother will make sure of that" that prompted my response, along with experience related to how difficult it is for girls who are happy to be girls, but who are talented in math and hard science, to reconcile the two. I think it's unfair to the niece for mom to be classifying projects as too boyish.

There are some trends that are not good for our economy if they keep going the way they are.

--Good paying jobs depending more and more on knowledge of math and science.
--The percentage of college students who are boys declining (been to a high school awards assembly lately? The girl to boy ratio is astounding.)
--The continued reluctance of girls to pursue degrees in math and science.

If the people we're educating aren't learning the skills necessary to compete in a post-industrial economy, we'll all be in trouble, particularly as the average age of our population is getting older and older.

None of us can change these trends by ourselves. But we can challenge stereotypes. So I did.

 

[lizdotcom99]

That was her mother's comment not mine!! Her mother does not encourage "boy" things. So trust me, every opportunity I get I "allow" both girls to feel or hold a slimy worm, play in the dirt, go fishing or whatever it may be that sounds fun at the time. Thanks Whirlsy for clarifing...that was exactly the intention of this post....and thank you all for the great ideas. I appreciate your help in this!!!

Liz

 

[JetMom]

I guess my all time favorite science project -- building a volcano-- is out?

Another project that we have done is growing plants under different color lights. We cut holes in shoeboxes and put different color Christmas lights (old-fashioned large bulbs) through the holes. We planted identical seeds in identical soil in identical pots and measured the water to make sure that they were watered in identical amounts. Every other day, we measured the plants and charted their growth.

Believe it or not, the plants with the white light grew the best.

 

[lizdotcom99]

the Brady Bunch episode when Peter builds his volcano and it erupts on all of the girls.....I think Ashley would have much of the same reaction!!!!! The plant idea is very cool too!! I will definately suggest these to her!!

 

[lizdotcom99]

Thanks to everyone for their great ideas!!!! The polar bear project won...and her mom is quite dissapointed about "getting dirty hands" and I of course am the "one who persueded her" according to her mother, but gladly she picked it out all by herself. Second choice was a microwave popcorn comparison, followed by some expirment with cats eyes. Thanks again for all the replys, I appreciate your help!!!!

 

[KarenC]

I'm glad your niece picked the project she wanted to do! I hope it works for her--my son won 2nd prize for his entire (gifted) school with that project. He did a nice display board to go along with it (using the criteria supplied by his teacher). It's not just polar bears that have a layer of fat to keep them warm, so he listed a bunch and put up pictures.

Hands shouldn't get too dirty if you use clean ice water and put on the latex gloves before sticking your hands in the Crisco. You can use a spatula to get the Crisco into the zip lock bag.

Good luck to your niece. Let me know how it goes.

 

[lizdotcom99]

and Ashley got an A+ on her project. I in return got the biggest hug and a very heartfelt thank you!!! (My favorite part of the project!!)

Ashley's mom also got a note about how this was a great project idea (remember Michele had not wanted anything to do with this idea as it was not "feminie"). So I also got a great big laugh out of that too!!! Ha!! See science does not HAVE to be gender specific!!!! If course I knew that all along, Michele has just been enlightend!!!!

KarenC, thank you for the great idea!!! It was definately fun, educational, fresh and a great lesson learned!!!

Just wanted to let you all know how this turned out!!!

Thanks again for all the great ideas and help!!! This was great fun!!!!!

 

[Pooh93]

I love these ideas and the polar bears one! I may have to file that for future reference. What was they hypothesis? Something like a layer of fat keeps animals warm? Just curious.

 

[lizdotcom99]

Blubber helps polar stay warm.

Very simple and to the point as it was a third grade project!!!

But vey fun!!!