Steve Spangler is having a contest of sorts on his facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=1016679907#!/stevespangler
Here is my entry for Science Fair Disaster:
When I was in fourth grade I designed a science fair project to show photosynthesis with bean sprouts, dixie cups and good soil. Some ten bean sprouts were distributed around the house in varying humidity and li...ght situations. I was very excited, using my Childcraft and Brittanicas for research as well as the public library books and worked really, really hard on it. Three of the sprouts were devoured by my guinea pigs and almost all of the others were tampered with by my older brother (he dug the bean seeds out and replaced them with marbles). The ones that were present on window sills etc were left alone and seemed to be doing very well, so I assumed my project was on track. Ten days went by before I knew what was going on it was time to gather my research and show the world at school. Much to my dismay eight of the ten had NO growth, except for the nubs left by the guinea pigs. I was so panicked. I wrote a note explaining to the viewers at the science fair that somehow seven out of ten of the beans had become marbles and explained what the guinea pigs did.
For extra credit I debunked the myth of the Sea Monkey by showing a report on brine shrimp. YEARS later, I included the story in my chapter book series and soon will have a comic book series published that was inspired by these events. The title: The Sea Monkey That Ate My Big Brother!
P.S. as a father, I shared this story with my son who did the same bean seed in a cup science experiment. This time, no guinea pigs, no big brothers tampering!
No comments:
Post a Comment