Rundle Academy
Parent and Student Guide
Academic Fair
Rundle Academy’s Academic Fair: will be held on Friday February 25th. The Academic Fair is like a science fair, because students complete projects and present them on a tri-fold. The topics can come from a wide range of subjects such as science, history, engineering, health, architecture, language, writing, geography, etc. The only requirement is that students show what they've learned by creating a presentation for the fair.
As parents, one of your major goals for the Academic Fair is to help your child bridge the gap between the interests they pursue at home and the academic learning that engages them at school. Another goal is to limit stress on parents and kids. We urge you and your child to focus on enjoying the process of inquiry rather than refining the presentation for the fair.
Preparing a Project
To help get you started, we’ve developed a handout that gives examples of six types of projects which will give you a step-by-step process for selecting and completing a project.
Rules for this Year's Fair
Participation
1. All students in Rundle Academy Elementary and Junior High must complete a project. Any High School student may present if they wish to do so.
2. Students must work alone, NO partners.
3. No animals, fire/matches or hazardous materials.
Projects
1.All projects must be approved by their homeroom teacher.
2. Any equipment required for presentation must be arranged by the student and brought in from home.
Presentations
1. Presentations will be displayed on a table space about 4 feet wide and 31/2 feet deep.
2. All presentations must have a written report.
3. On the day of the fair, presentations must be set up and ready to go by 9:00 AM. Most participants will bring their projects to school that morning or the previous day.
4. On the morning of the fair, students will stand at their presentation (in full uniform) from 9:30 to 11:00 AM to talk with judges and visitors.
5. Students who require electrical power for their presentation must contact the organizers by February 16th to discuss their plans.
6. The presentations will be judged according to the attached judging sheet.
Types of Projects
Many types of projects can be entered in the Academic Fair, including collections, demonstrations, models, observations, experiments, and research projects.
Just to get your family thinking, here are examples of possible Academic Fair projects:
Collections of objects or old photos can show how students answered questions like, "What kind of rocks are in my neighborhood?" or "How was my great grandmother's life similar to and different from my own?"
Demonstrations can show how students answered questions like, “How do airplane wings work?" "How do crystals grow?" or "How does a colorblind person see patterns?”
Models can answer questions about how things work or how they are put together. A working model might show, "How does a car engine work?" A diorama might show, "What did a Native American village look like 200 years ago?”
Observations can answer questions about how the natural world works, such as, "How does a spider build its web?" or "What birds migrate through my neighborhood in March?" Children can observe, describe, record data, sketch, photograph, and then analyze the results.
Experiments can test a proposed answer to a question, such as “How does temperature affect the growth of mold?” Experiments can be done at the fair or completed in advance and documented with photographs and notes.
Research projects can use interviews, books, and Web searches to answer questions like, “How is global warming affecting our weather?” Students can document their research with a display at the fair.
Now that you've thought about what types of projects are possible, your child needs to choose a topic they are interested in.
Choose a Topic that Interests Your Child
Academic Fair projects can be based on the out-of-school interests of children or on reports or projects they have done for school. Children can develop projects about almost any subject that interests them, including:
Agriculture
Architecture
Art
Engineering
Geography
Health
History
Math
Poetry
Popular culture
Psychology
Science
Sports
and more!
Since you need a topic for your child's project, perhaps the easiest way to get started is to talk about things your child has been wondering about. If your child says, "I've always wondered why I sweat" or "I wonder why the ink on most newspapers doesn't transfer to Silly Putty but the ink on sales flyers does," then you can skip ahead to help them further develop their question. If your child hasn't been wondering about a particular question, try talking with them about the things that intrigue or interest them. What have they seemed curious about in the past? What do they like to do once their homework is done? What was the most fun on their last vacation? That may help them think about a topic for an investigation. Children may have problems narrowing their interests. If that's the case, try breaking their topic into smaller subtopics that they can investigate in enough depth to be satisfying. Examples might help:
"Cars" is too big a topic. However, they could do a reasonably sized project on how a speedometer works or where they make cars in Chicago.
"Sharks" is too big a topic. However, they could do a project on how sharks digest their food or on what kinds of sharks are dangerous to people.
If your child is still stuck, ask them to talk through their ideas with a teacher or another adult.
Remember, once your child has selected a subject area, the key steps will be to:
Choose a fairly narrow topic within that subject area. That's important because your child will have to complete the project in just a few weeks time.
Take that topic and develop it into an interesting question, because this fair is about both interests AND inquiries.
Develop a Question
If your child has a topic but hasn't yet chosen a question to answer, then these ideas may help. If your child already has a question they have been wondering about, this page may help them further develop their inquiry.
To generate questions about a topic, try going through this list of question words with your child:
Who? "Who" questions may lead to investigations about people and the things they did. Who did it first, or last? Who did it best, or most often?
When? "When" questions may lead to historical (or pre-historical) investigations. When was this invented or discovered? When did it live and die?
Where? "Where" questions may be about geography, or about how things are put together. Where are these things made? Where did it come from? Where did this part fit within the whole?
Why? "Why" questions are often about cause-and-effect. Why did this happen (or not happen)? Why is it made this way?
How? "How" questions can be about process. How is it put together?
How does it work?
If those words don't help, try some other question words:
Which? Which is biggest or best? Which do people prefer?
Will? What will happen in the future? What will happen if something else happens first?
How much or how many? Because some children love numbers....
Remember, questions need to be narrow enough that they can be answered with a week or two of investigation.
Answer the Question
Finding an answer to most research questions will begin with research at the library and on the Web. Some questions can also be investigated though interviews with knowledgeable adults. For many questions, children may pursue their own hands-on investigations. Many questions will combine two or more of types of research, often starting at the library or on the Web and then moving to other forms of investigation.
Here are ways to answer research questions for the six types of projects:
Collections: Some questions can be answered by making a collection or by studying the objects in an existing collection. Other questions may be answered by doing library, Web or interview research about the objects in a collection.
Demonstrations: Questions that lead to demonstrations usually begin with research in the library or on the Web -- but they don't stop there.
Through their initial research, children get ideas for demonstrations that can help them better understand the process they are investigating.
Models: Children can build models to illustrate their investigations. A model turns research into a hands-on experience and helps children focus their research.
Observations: Observations start in the natural world as children watch, write, sketch, and record data in their notebooks, and analyze their results.
Children may also do research in the library and on the Web to help them understand what they've observed.
Experiments: Experimental projects begin with potential answers to a question and continue by testing those answers. That's why experimental projects also start in the library or on the Web.
Research projects: Some projects may start and end at the library or on the Web, because some questions are too big or too difficult for children to answer through their own investigations. However, interviews, original documents, and demonstrations can help children create more interesting research projects.
Once children have answered their research questions, they need to develop a presentation for the fair.
Present Your Project
Now that you've chosen a topic and developed and answered a research question, it's time to decide exactly what type of presentation you want to do.
Every presentation will be built around a display board.
Types of Presentations
There's a pretty close match between the type of project your child did and the type of presentation that will be most appropriate for the fair:
Students who used a collection to answer their research question will want to display part of their collection at the fair and to document why and how they made it on their display board.
Students who demonstrated a process may want to repeat the demonstration at the fair and document why they did it on their display board.
Students who made a model should display it at the fair and document why and how they made it on their display board. If it's a working model, they can demonstrate how it works during the fair.
Students who did an observation can explain and illustrate their findings on their display board and show their project notebook at the fair.
Students who did an experiment can explain and document it on their display board and show or demonstrate parts of it at the fair.
Students who answered their question with research at the library or on the Web can document it on their display board.
Hints for Creating a Display Board
Display boards can be purchased from Staples at a cost of about $15.00.
Most display boards are divided into three parts or "panels." One way to set up a display board for the Academic Fair is as follows:
Introduce your topic and research question on the left panel.
Show how you answered your question in the center panel. Also, the title usually goes on the center panel
Summarize your answer on the right panel.
Left Panel
Introduce your research question, and tell why it's interesting to you.
Center Panel
Title
Use words, illustrations, photos, and/or graphs to show how you answered your question and to support your proposed answer.
Right Panel
Summarize your answer, and tell how you know it's correct.
Experimental science projects usually follow a somewhat different format.
Here's one approach:
Left Panel
Purpose
Problem
Hypothesis
Procedure
Center Panel
Title
Illustrations/Photos
Graphs/Charts
Right Panel
Results
Conclusion
There are several ways to make the large letters for the title by hand or by computer, or you can purchase them at an art supply, craft, or office supply store.
The other labels may also be printed by hand or printed out on the computer.
If you don't want your labels to wrinkle, then print them on stiff paper, and then glue them down with a glue stick. On the day of the fair, your child's display board will be placed towards the back of a table. Collections, models, demonstrations, and so forth may be placed on the table in front of the display board.
Schedule for the Day of the Fair (Friday, February 25th, 2011)
Our preliminary plans for the day of the fair are as follows:
Set up displays in the elementary gym until 9:00. Students will then be in their first period class. Students will be at their projects from 9:30 to 11:00 A.M. Parents are welcome to view the Academic Fair from 9:30 to 11:00. Please do not arrive early as the judges would like a half an hour to go through the displays without students or guests in the room. The displays will be in the main gym and the awards ceremony will take place in the elementary gym. At the conclusion of the assembly, students will be asked to take down their displays.
