Day 6: I wish we had a way to cool off!

The second Monday of camp started out with a focus for how to do research. One major aspect of a valid hypothesis is the justification of that hypothesis. In order to do that, it requires RESEARCH! To me, this is the most important aspect of the project. However, it is oftentimes the most overlooked. Students need to be mini-experts on the topic they choose, and they will get to that point by doing the appropriate amount of research. (NOTE: the "appropriate " implies that you can never know too much about the topic you choose)

To begin camp, we had the students look through some science magazines to try and develop a valid hypothesis.




When they had a hard time doing this, we then brought them down to the media center to show them all of the various electronic resources and journals the school has access to online. We then had the students do an online scavenger hunt to answer some science related questions.



It was really hot in the media center computer labs today. Who would've thought that having 30 kids in one space with running computers would make the temperature of the room go up?

So we then went back to the classroom and Mr. Tower went over how to use the circuit boards and multimeters to measure electric current. Some students decide to work with circuits on their projects, and knowing how to use the multimeters is crucial to these projects.







After lunch, we then worked on t-tests. We had students use the student data they entered into the computer last week to see if there were significant different in grades from term 1 to term 2 etc. I was quite pleased with how they remembered to conduct the tests even though we did them last week!






We then needed to cool off, so we did a fun exercise in how to write reproducible instructions. We had the campers write out detailed instruction for an ice cream sundae, and the CITs made their sundaes to the exact specifications outlined by the campers. If they didn't say to put in a a bowl, they got it on a paper towel. If they didn't say they wanted a spoon, they had to eat it with their hands. Everyone always has a smile (and some sticky hands) during this activity!


After we cleaned up, we then talked about display boards and how important the board is. Once again these get overlooked and oftentimes hastily thrown together. We spent some time talking about what makes a good board, and how much time it really takes to put a good display together. Then the campers were free to walk around and see various examples of student boards from previous years.