All About Black Bears - A Project by Charlie

Over the past two weeks Charlie and I have been working on his science project - All About Black Bears.  In school he did the research and wrote the report; at home he made a presentation board and a DIARAMA.  (He was all about creating a diarama.)

 

Falmouth Public Schools Science Fair 2012

Charlie is so proud of his science project on black bears that he wants it to be in the Science Fair.  I just registered him.  Here is the information and the link:

2012 Science Fair


Falmouth Public Schools 2012 Science Fair registration is now open to students until 4:00 PM on February 28, 2012.

SATURDAY, March 3, 2012

Falmouth High School Field House

Public Viewing: 10:00 AM - 12:00 Noon

Award Ceremony: Falmouth High School Auditorium at 1:00 PM

Thanks to the assistance of Janice Forrester and several other parents, a FREE luncheon will be provided between 12:00-1:00 PM to Lawrence and FHS students whose projects earn a prize for scientific merit in the fair.

Also, Door Prizes will be will be drawn for Lawrence and FHS students with science fair projects. You MUST be present to accept the prize.

Setting Up Projects:

High School entries must be set up the evening of Friday, March 2 and will be judged that evening from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

Lawrence School projects can be set up as early as Friday, March 2, between 4:00-6:00 PM, and will be judged on Saturday, March 3 from 8:00 AM-Noon.

Elementary projects can also be set up as early as Friday, March 2, between 4:00-6:00 PM and will be informally judged on Saturday, March 3 from 10:00 AM-Noon.

Public Invited to Attend the Falmouth Public Schools Science Fair Saturday, March 3

In addition to student projects, there will be interactive exhibits by various local scientific institutions including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Biological Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey, and Woods Hole Research Center, among many others. Visitors can view marine life under a microscope, learn about deep sea research and engineering, and actually go inside a life-sized inflatable right whale on display by the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. There will also be hands-on “Water Festival” activities led by the Barnstable County AmeriCorps staff teaching about groundwater pollution.

Judging of the high school projects will take place Friday night March 2, and Lawrence School and elementary school projects will be judged Saturday morning. A luncheon for all high school and Lawrence School award winners sponsored by the Marine Biological Laboratory will be held at Noon with an Awards Ceremony following the luncheon. Over 100 judges from the local scientific community will judge the projects and over $7,000 in scholarships and awards from local scientific organizations will be awarded to students. There will also be door prizes for all participating grade 7-12 students with gift certificates donated by local businesses.

The Falmouth Public Schools Science Fair is one of the longest running science fairs in Massachusetts and is unique in involving all grade levels and schools in the district as well as professional scientists as exhibitors.

Pattern or Pattern - (We went with silhouette.)

We have been working on Charlie's science fair project.  It is on Black Bears.  Well, at first it was going to be on wolverines, then it was killer ants, and NOW it is black bears.

He is making a poster telling ALL about bears.

One of the things we decided to do was to get some black fur and cut it out in the shape of a bear.  But Charlie was curious about the word pattern.  Because last year in kindergarten he learned about patterns.  White, white, black, black.  White, white, black, black.  (That's a 1,1,2,2, pattern - see I learned something in kindergarten too!)

I was using the word in a different way.  And it was confusing.  I found a silhouette of a black bear on the internet, blew it up, and printed it out.  I told Charlie we were going to use this as our pattern to cut out a fuzzy black bear.  And that is where he got hung up.

Then we were at BBC waiting for our buy one get one free pizzas and naturally I was the one coloring with the crayons and I made a pattern - see?  Blue, green, yellow, red.  Blue, green, yellow, red...

This was when he asked me why I was calling the silhouette of a black bear a pattern.  I tried to explain but ultimately we decided to settle on the word silhouette instead.

p.s. Black fuzz is EVERYWHERE.  And Charlie vacuumed as I cut!