Third graders are continuing to explore ScienceBuddies, and we are taking our sweet time! I want every student to thoroughly peruse his or her career options before ever narrowing down to one. I told them, "It would be tragic for you to learn about your new dream career from someone else's project if you never even clicked on it!"
That said, some students move faster than others or have a more narrow range of interests. You should begin to see Project Planners showing up at home. The planner should list information about each student's "Top 5" career and project options. The directions state this:
Parents: Please review these proposed career and project options with your child at ScienceBuddies.org. Please give careful consideration to the time and budget necessary to complete the project. Your initials in the last column of this page indicate that you approve your child's research of this career and will support the completion of [his or her] project. Please note: This will be the ONLY [individual] science fair this year for 3rd grade.
Make note that this is your chance to VETO any project or career you do not wish to support. I do not expect you to initial every project--just those those of which you decide to approve.
After students return their signed project planners, we will narrow down to our individual choices before focusing first on the career portion of the project. Students will create display boards for their careers, which will be exhibited on Career Day, April 24, as a Career Fair for the whole school to see. The Science Fair boards will be due in May, but the date has not been set yet.
Know that I am not planning to assign a project and then dump it in your laps. Although projects may require some work at home, we are going to have plenty of time and computer access here at school to do the research, compose elements for display boards, and even assemble them. We will take guided, baby steps along the way, and the vast majority of the work will take place here...preparing these students for future science fairs to come.
Baby steps. We have plenty of time. At this point, in contrast to my previous post, there are no hard deadlines. We are just going to take our sweet time.
That said, some students move faster than others or have a more narrow range of interests. You should begin to see Project Planners showing up at home. The planner should list information about each student's "Top 5" career and project options. The directions state this:
Parents: Please review these proposed career and project options with your child at ScienceBuddies.org. Please give careful consideration to the time and budget necessary to complete the project. Your initials in the last column of this page indicate that you approve your child's research of this career and will support the completion of [his or her] project. Please note: This will be the ONLY [individual] science fair this year for 3rd grade.
Make note that this is your chance to VETO any project or career you do not wish to support. I do not expect you to initial every project--just those those of which you decide to approve.
After students return their signed project planners, we will narrow down to our individual choices before focusing first on the career portion of the project. Students will create display boards for their careers, which will be exhibited on Career Day, April 24, as a Career Fair for the whole school to see. The Science Fair boards will be due in May, but the date has not been set yet.
Know that I am not planning to assign a project and then dump it in your laps. Although projects may require some work at home, we are going to have plenty of time and computer access here at school to do the research, compose elements for display boards, and even assemble them. We will take guided, baby steps along the way, and the vast majority of the work will take place here...preparing these students for future science fairs to come.
Baby steps. We have plenty of time. At this point, in contrast to my previous post, there are no hard deadlines. We are just going to take our sweet time.