Fourth and fifth grade students at Hebrew Academy of Tidewater spent myriad hours of study and planning to prepare for the school’s recent Science Fair, the capstone of weeks of hard work.
Almost 100 visitors attended this year, along with HAT’s familiar and dedicated NASA scientist judges, Tyler Hudson and Frank Palmieri.
Student research and experiments included the three strands of science: Life science, such as determining what kind of light is best for growing seedlings; earth science, such as measuring the different size of craters created on different surfaces; and physics, such as testing whether fruits or vegetables can create enough electricity to power an LED light.
HAT alumni served as hosts and hostesses, greeting guests and distributing People’s Choice ballots. Parents, grandparents, siblings, teachers, Campus employees, and others attended.
Each student chose a particular area of interest to learn about and wrote a research paper. Students developed a testable question, made a reasonable hypothesis, planned an experiment, conducted it, and collected useful data. Creation of charts and graphs helped with data analysis, which then led to writing a detailed conclusion, summarized in a formal lab report. The night of the Science Fair was the final step: Standing in front of a colorful board and explaining that work.
The judges, as always, were impressed with the HAT students’ poise and confidence as they described their experiment and explained their data.
In addition to the fourth and fifth grade work, the third grade presented a display of model bridges. These students studied forces and structures and were tasked with submitting a proposal for a fictional town that wanted to build a bridge. Each group chose a bridge type, planned how they would make it, and spent class periods creating, revising, and re-revising their work.
The children clearly enjoy and benefit from the sharing of ideas and experiences.
Tanya Conley is Hebrew Academy of Tidewater’s science teacher.
Tanya Conley
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- Natalie Alofer, HAT Science Fair first place winner.
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- Ryan Bailey, HAT Science Fair second place winner.
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- Shai Friedman, HAT Science Fair third place winner.
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- Third graders, Effie Blair and Ben Amitay, who shows his bridge project to Science Fair judge.
