Third Grade Science Fair

At our elementary school all third graders participate in the science fair.  They have judges from Purdue come in and the kids present to them.  It's little odd how they do it - last week I got to go in and see Spencer present to his class.  But then Tuesday (ear exploding day) was the day that the judges actually came in.  I don't understand why they don't have the parents and judges at the same time. 

Anywho, Spencer was really into science fair.  He knew he really wanted to do something with growing plants.  (I suspect this desire came from watching the wheat grass I had been growing for Easter.)  So after a little research online Spencer decided he wanted to test how nitrogen fertilizer affects the growth of plants.  And, because we live in Indiana, he chose to grow corn.

I was proud of him for taking such an interest and such initiative in the project.  But not so excited that the project would be so long-term.  (I much prefer the one-time-do-it-in-an-evening projects!)

So during Spring Break we bought the things we needed and got to work.  First, we carefully measured the amount of soil in each cup.

Then we planted two seeds in each cup.

Then we waited.  And waited.  And finally the corn sprouted!  There were three groups: 1) the plants received no extra fertilizer, 2) the plants received the normal amount of fertilizer, and 3) the plants received 15 times the normal amount of fertilizer.   Every day we had to water and measure and observe the plants.  Every day.  You can imagine how much fun that was for me.  But Spencer lurved it, so I guess it was worth it.  (I'm a terrible mother...)

You can also imagine how the corn did.  The first two groups did fine, but the 15x fertilizer group was pretty unhappy.  Burnt to a crisp, really.  (This picture doesn't do it justice - you should see those poor plants now!)  (Yes, we still have them.  I'm not sure what to do with them; it's too early to put them in the garden, but they're getting too big for their pots!)

Spencer came home on Tuesday super excited - his project won second place in the science fair!

He even got a medal.  I know he doesn't look too excited here, but trust me, he was.

And how about that poster, huh?  I made Spencer do all the typing and showed him how to use Excel to make the graphs and such.  But I put it on the poster, mainly because Spencer HATES that sort of thing and because it would've looked terrible if I had left it to his devices.  (He's a put-squish-it-all-together-who-cares-what-it-looks-like kind of guy.  And I can't handle that.)  And do you like the title?  That was Lance's idea while we were brainstorming titles.

Good job, Spencer!  We're very proud of you!