Science Fair and Ft.McHenry

The girls worked hard on their science fair projects!  They had been toying around with questions since before Christmas, but nailed it down later.  Gwyn worked with her friend Natalie to answer the question, "Does the intensity of light change the farther away from the source you are?"  Celee wanted to know "How does the size of a battery affect the strength of an electromagnet?"  She made her own electromagent out of a nail and tested the batteries on different weighted objects.  And Lyla worked with a friend to find out "Do ants move more quickly in the light or dark?"  I was very proud of them for their work!  At first they didn't really want to do much more than the experiment itself, but after prodding each girl did find out the "Why?" behind each of their questions.  Yay science!
     We did have some difficulty getting Lyla's ants.  I waited to long to get the ones you can order when you purchase an ant farm.  All the ant farms I could find online looked pretty crappy anyway.  So a friend of ours was ordering butterfly eggs for a different project and said she could order ants with it and it should come in a week. Score!  They didn't actually come until 5pm the evening before the science fair though!  So Lyla had her board completely made except for the one place to put the results of her experiment.  Her experiment was very subjective anyway b/c we didn't really have a good way to measure the speed that ants crawl.  But we watched them that night and the next morning and put her "findings" on her board.
     At the science fair, we had three professionals who went around and questioned all the kids about their projects.  I must say that these kids really impressed me!  There were lots of really good projects!  And I must say I was very proud of my girls too!  I think next year we may try to have a judged science fair.  I would love for it to filter into a larger science fair, but we will see next year.

     We also got to go on a field trip with Lamb of God school to Fort McHenry.  It was a chilly day as you can tell from all the hoodies.  But the kids got to see how many people and how hard it was to shoot the cannons during the Battle for Baltimore.  And Lyla got to help unfold and then refold the large Ft.McHenry flag too.  They only fly the big flag that is the size of the original "Star-Spangled Banner" when the weather is right, so the park rangers get out a big one and do a program with it twice a day.  Later the girls sat and sketched.  I love Ft.McHenry.  It is such a really nice park.  The displays and movie inside are great.  And I love the activities you can do outside too.  I can't wait for the Bicentennial celebration of the Battle of Baltimore this September!