The Science Fair

This last Tuesday was my classes science fair. It was actually really cool and fun to see it all and to see what everyone had chosen to do for their project. Some of my favorite projects that other did were How music effects plant growth, What keeps sliced apples the freshest?, Does smell affect taste?, Which type of toilet paper holds the most liquid?, Which cereal contains the most fortified iron?, How does static electricity work?, and many others. Everyone did a really good job and presented their information well.

For my project i ended up doing Which Stain Remover Removes the Most? For this I bought 8 white wash clothes. I then spread BBQ sauce, yellow Mustard, and Raspberry drink mix on each one. I then treated each one with a different type of stain remover. The removers that I used were Oxi Magic, Shout, Vinegar, Coke a Cola, Clorox Bleach (regular), Tide-to-Go pen, and regular detergent. For this my hypothesis was that the Clorox Bleach would work the best.

What i found out was kind of interesting. First i found that my hypothesis was correct. The clorox Bleach did remove the most out of all of the products. But these were white clothes, and if you had colored you would want to use something else. Second, I found that the Tide-to-Go pen does not really work. It does get part of the stain out, and it probably works better on smaller sections, but overall it did not remove very much of the stains. What surprised me the most though was the Coke. The Coke-a-Cola removed the most of the stains after the bleach. This was surprising to learn because I thought if anything that it would just stain the clothe itself. But it actually worked really well. All I did was dump some Coke over the stain and then rub it together. Then I rinsed it out under hot water and then let it dry. And surprise surprise...it worked. Who knew? All of the other products did an ok job. Most of them got out the drink mix and at least some of the BBQ sauce. The hardest stain to remove was the mustard one. The yellow just did not want to come out.

Overall I really did like doing this project. It was fun to play and to learn what actually worked. I have learned that i really like to discover things and find things out. I like to figure out how things work and what works the best. It is fun to discover and to see new things in the world. This is something that i have always liked and been intriged by, but had never really applied it to science. Which i s really weird when you think about it because discovering is what science is all about. I guess i just never made that connection until this year. Science had always just been about memorizing facts in a book for me. It was never about learning and finding out answers to questions. It was never about discovering something new.

Through this class i have learned that science can be fun. And it should be fun. Science should be driven by curiosity not by facts in a book. As a teacher i want to be able to create an enviroment for my students that is exciting and engaging, I want them to be able to discover on their own and to learn in a way that is meaningful to them. I want them to enjoy learning and to do i have to be able to teach it in an engaging way.