Young scientists plan and prepare projects, proving that hands-on learning makes science fun
“The science fair is fun when you’re a kid because you get to learn about something you’re interested in,” said Dusty Friesen Peak, a fourth-grader at Our Lady of Malibu School.
“The students planned and prepared more than 40 science projects in biology, biochemistry, botany, chemistry, physics, zoology, medicine and health, engineering, environmental studies, animal behavior, and social sciences for the Annual OLM Science Fair,” said OLM Principal Elisa Zimmerman. “Hypothesis centered around centrifugal force, magnetism, and the study of bacteria were among the innovative science experiments at this fair.”
Candy Wallace, OLM’s Science Fair coordinator, watched judges view projects and explained, “There are really two purposes for the Science Fair: to teach the scientific method and to instill confidence in the students as they explain their efforts in trying to prove their hypothesis.”
Little Georgia Mitnick, a kindergartner, learned a lot — a whole lot! “The plant without sun died,” she reported. “Plants need water and sun to live.”
Dusty’s and Georgia’s words delighted the two faculty members who coordinated the science fair curricula, Helen Litz, the Elementary STEM teacher at the school, and Dr. Larken Cumberland. Litz explained, “The science fair gave students a fun opportunity to investigate a topic of their choice more thoroughly than we’d normally get to in class, while reinforcing the scientific method.”
The subjects students explored were quite varied, Litz noted. “Topics ranged from the more fun, such as cookie making, making paper airplanes and catapults, to the more complex, like boiling point elevation, conductivity, and ocean lead levels near the Palisades and Franklin fires,” she said. “The students got experts in their chosen topic, then had to make a poster and present their findings, really giving them a chance to practice how we share information and really reinforcing the scientific method through their hands-on exploration.”
Some readers might be thinking, “Wait a minute! I didn’t do such projects until junior high — I wasn’t doing them in kindergarten or even in fourth grade!” To that, Litz stated, “Often the scientific method isn’t presented until students are a little older, so it was really cool to see even our kindergartners really understanding the process of our class experiment, proving that plants need water and sunshine.”
Georgia’s older sister, Michelle Mitnick, a fourth-grader, enjoyed the science report process because she could research the amount of lead in ocean water after the Palisades Fire. She took samples of ocean water in front of La Costa Beach in Malibu and in an area that was not within the burn scar and then compared the amount of lead present in water samples in and out of the burn area.
“It was Michelle’s first time putting together this type of presentation and she had to write the question she was exploring, develop a hypothesis, discuss the materials that she would need to conduct her experiment, collect data, explain the procedure she used to study her hypothesis, and then explain her conclusion which discussed the results of her testing and whether her hypothesis was correct or not and why,” Michelle’s mother, Jennifer Mitnick explained, noting that the hands-on learning process taught her daughters a lot.
“I researched the effects of lead on people and too much lead can lower our IQ and can cause kidney damage,” Michelle explained. “I liked the hands-on learning process and also that we got to go somewhere for the project.”
For all her hard work, Michelle won first place for her grade. But, more importantly, as Dusty said, all the students learned that the science fair — and by extension science itself — is fun when you’re a kid because you get to learn about something you’re interested in.
