I’m working on a new sequence of science articles…
tell me what you think about the topic and content (is it any good?)

Thanks!
~Aurora

Easy Steps to Award-Winning Science Fair Projects (Part I)

(…first few paragraphs missing…)

Does this sound familiar?

KID: “I have to do a science fair project.”
PARENT: “Hmmm… what are you going to do?”

KID: (pause) “I dunno.”
PARENT: (eager to help) “What are you interested in?”

KID: (whining now) “I don’t know…”
PARENT: (getting annoyed): “Well, there must be something you’re interested in.”

KID: (still whining) “Like what?”
PARENT: (picking up a science textbook) “Well, how about one from here?”

KID: (rolling eyes): “Yeah, sure. Not.”

The trouble with picking up a textbook and doing a project listed is that they are usually finished projects – meaning that everyone knows not only the experiment but what’s going to happen. No scientist in their right mind would do a experiment if they knew the ending! You’ve got to take a different approach, but before we do, let’s take a quick look at common myths about science projects (namely, your personal expectations about one has to look like).

Your teacher just strode into class and announced that it’s nearly time for the Science Fair, and projects are due next week. You scope out the room and find Brian Brainiac inventing a new addition to the International Space Station… Corey Comet discovering a new species of octopus… and Darlene Dazzler built a transporter. Your head begins to spin like hamster wheel as you try to hit on the Ultimate Science Project that would make Einstein gape with awe.

The truth is, science fair projects don’t have to be glitzy, glamorous, or even work quite right… they just have to be yours. And they need to be science experiments, not jazzed-up science reports masquerading as projects. A science experiment is a simple question you want an answer to, such as:

“Do later bedtimes really make you sleep better?”
“Does eating high-sugar foods before bedtime make your dreams more vivid?”
“How many balloons will lift a kid into the air?”
“What kind of grass needs to be mowed the least?”

A science report are questions that don’t require any real testing on your part – all you have to do is research to get the answer. Topics like: What is acid rain? What is the sun made of? How does a power plant work? How does the human body work? Is overeating bad for you? We’ve seen reports win local school science fairs, but they don’t make it into the big time regional or national competition. And they aren’t nearly as much fun as doing your own experiment.

So, where do you start? Suppose you want to find out if listening to music during a test will help you get a better grade, and if so, which one works the best. You’ll need to first figure out which “thing” (variable) you’re going to change in your experiment to give you different results.

So first, you’ll need to take a test with no music, and record in your notebook the score you got, along with a few other things to help you figure out if it was really the music choice or not. Things like: the weather, your mood, when you woke up, the date, and how difficult the questions were.

A word of caution – don’t change more than one “thing” from one experiment to the next, or you won’t know which change is actually responsible for the new result.

Then you’ll need to test out as many bands as you possibly can, recording not only the stuff above, but also the beat, tone, melody, and how fast or slow the song was… and be sure you’re using the same kind of headphones, too, or that’s another variable you’ve got to keep track of (does sound quality matter?). Are you eating the same breakfast each morning, too? Do you shower each morning, or every other day? If this is starting to sound like it’s getting a little hard to track all the little differences and changes, well… welcome to science! Scientists spend years trying to sort everything out, track the changes and differences, and make sense of it all. You only have to do it for a week or two. And you can discard any variables you think don’t have a big effect on your results.

Can you imagine what kind of argument you could have at your fingertips if your hypothesis (“Beach Boys Leads to 12% Higher Test Scores”) was successful? Your classroom would never be the same.

Okay… that’s probably enough for now… I’ll leave some for Part II. Just let me know what you think.

Hey everyone! We’ve got a new phone number, and we want you to use it!! Discard all the other phone numbers you may have lying around (we’ve been trough a few of them over the years)… but this one is for keeps.

(805) 617-1789

Thanks!
Aurora

I received this question in an email, and thought I’d share my response with everyone, because it is such a cool thing to see (the flash, I mean… not my attempt to answer the question).

The green flash is very real, but it’s hard to see because you need very special conditions (like a very clear day at the Pacific or the Sahara) in order for it to be visible. Did you know that it can be blue or purple (violet) also? The human eye is tuned for green, so that’s the one we tend to see more easily. The green flash is usually a ray of green light firing vertically above the setting sun, although it can also be seen as a green band circling over the setting sun.

Why does it do that? You see a green flash because the sunlight rays refract (bend) when they zip through the air. But they bend in different amounts – violet bends the most, while red bends the least. At sunset, when the sun is at a very low angle, the sunlight is split into its spectrum of colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. The red, orange, and yellow light are the first to disappear (absorbed by the atmosphere), leaving the violet light to be last one visible… but blue and violet light are often scattered/absorbed by the atmosphere, so the last light left is green. (This effect only happens for a few short seconds, so we call it a ‘flash’.)

This is just a quick update – we’ve heard from quite a few concerned readers who have received their weekly science experiments, but recently they’ve found them to be repeats of what they have already received. Let me explain…

*Yes*, this may happen, but *no* there’s no reason to panic. We’re just “cleaning house” a bit – you see, when I first originally started the Supercharged Science website, my intent was for it to be an encyclopedia’s worth of the best science experiments available, all in one spot. Well, since that time, it has grown way past my expectations! The trouble is, it’s been getting harder and harder to find the right activity in the way I’ve initially indexed them. So we’re finally doing something about it.

So we have taken steps to make it both easier to search for, organized the projects by category, and as a result, and you may receive a few duplicates now and then, as we also had to shuffle things around a bit. Once we’re finished, and we’re nearly there, we’ll be able to start publishing the 140 *new* science experiments that are waiting to come down the pipe.

Hopefully this answers your questions about duplicate projects in both the archives and in the emails, and know that it will all straighten out by itself with a little time.

Thanks for keeping us on our toes!

Happy Experimenting!!
Aurora

Hi there,

Believe it or not, my team is out doing an event (yes, a science one) without me! It’s the first time we’ve ever had a big event that they were in charge of all by themselves, and I’m getting a little sentimental over it (*sniff*)… but not too much, because now I have the WHOLE LAB to myself!

I’ve spent the entire weekend clearing out cabinets, opening drawers, playing with chemicals (you’re not going to believe what I’ve figured out about black light water!), and accidentally came up with a whole NEW set of tricks for Halloween! I was so excited about these new experiments that as soon as my staff return, I want to shoot a whole new set of videos to get out to our Members (people who own Science Mastery or the Whole Shebang) in time to for Halloween. There will be enough stuff in there to transform your home into a Haunted Mansion.

Now don’t get me wrong… I’ve never been into the blood and gore that usually takes center stage on this holiday – my stuff has always been more of the “Mad Science Lab” caliber, so don’t worry about anything being gross or distasteful – this stuff is all rated “G” and 100% fun and 1000% mind-blowing. You’ll be able to transform apples into oranges, make glowing slime, and much, much more… all with stuff you have around the house!!

Okay – well enough said – my staff return tomorrow, and I want to be sure to get my samples ready to show them (I made one slime, though, that was entirely too much like real mucus… so I think I’ll pass on that one).

Happy Experimenting!
~Aurora

Okay, well this isn’t the first time this has happened… in fact, we here at Supercharged Science *count* on things like this occurring. (And yes, even I, Aurora, can make mistakes!) So basically what happened is that two of the emails we sent out contained a bad link, but because of this, several people missed out on the bonus teleclass (and we know this because they emailed us about it). And we want to thank you for bringing this right up to our eyeballs, so we could do something about it.

To be fair to the ones who’ve missed out on the first bonus because of this error, we’ve opened up another 10 slots in the bonus teleclass (“Creating a Roadmap for your Child’s Educational Success”) as of right now. If that’s you, you can click on the link below to register.

http://www.superchargedscience.com/teleclass.htm

Happy Friday!!
Aurora

I love getting these kinds of emails – I just had to share these few I received recently with you because it’s so wonderful to know that we’re making a difference to someone out there, one family at a time…

“Thank you for your email, we have just started our first lesson of air pressure and so far it is a HUGE hit! My son absolutely loved the first 2 experiments we did, they were just what I needed to get him interested in learning all about air pressure! We plan on stretching each section over a
2-4 week period, for example, the air pressure guide has led us to learning about the effects air pressure has on the weather. I will recommend this program to all my fellow homeschoolers as a must have for any interactive program! Thank you very much for generously offering these lessons for immediate download! I think I am having as much fun as my son and we have just gotten started! I look forward to the following days of fun filled science! Happy Experimenting to you as well! Victoria (and Ash, 8 yrs old)”

“Aurora – thank you THANK YOU! You don’t remember me I bet, but my son was one of the community high kids (Aurora’s note: this is a juvenile-hall school we visited years back) and he absolutely loathed anything to do with learning. I really didn’t know what to do. But after you came to his school, he came home a different kid. It was like someone reached out and touched him, but I was never sure who you were (or what you did) until we saw you speak last month at the Rotary Club meeting. I am full of pride to tell you now that my son enrolled last fall at MIT in engineering… thank you thank you THANK YOU for everything you do and reaching out to him – he will always remember you.”

“We bought your kit at the Florida Parent Educators Convention. You were incredible! If only 50% of the teachers had half of your enthusiasum for teaching educaton would be much different. Thanks so much for showing kids learning can be FUN!!!!!! Charlotte H.”

“The electricity kits from the MACHE conference in Duluth, Mn were a HUGE hit, and the kids just can’t get enough! There brains started blasting off with ideas of remote control planes to deliver papers, and missiles to ring doorbells, etc. I haven’t seen them this excited about science all year! You’re the best! Thanks, Rebecca”

I wanted to say thank you to all our clients who have written to us to let us know how they’ve made use of what we offer… it’s only because of YOU that we are up there on stage, or in the workshop developing new stuff. You are the ones who put us up there on that show stage and enable us to serve our community, so a big THANK YOU goes out to everyone we serve!

FINALLY! Here’s the direct link to register for the online Science Teleclass series:

http://www.superchargedscience.com/teleclass.htm

It’s a really looong letter – I apologize for that right up front… there was just so much to talk about that’s included with the course.

~A.

We’re so excited about the release of our Science Teleclass series, and we apologize if we’re not getting back to everyone in our (usual) timely manner… there’s been a storm of emails and phone calls over the past few days that we’re barely keeping up with with all!

I wanted to give everyone a quick update through the blog – we’re only a day away from the release date of August 20th, and if you haven’t gotten your Sneak Preview… you can download it here.

I uploaded a “Spy Photo” of the teleclass course.  Of course, it really isn’t a “spy photo”… this is just a snapshot I took after I got a little too excited when I saw the first peek at everything we’re covering in the teleclass.  You can see the “Spy Photo” here.

In the meantime, you can watch this page as we get closer. It will automatically redirect you to the order page once we open registration.

This update will address the #3 concern for the Science Teleclass series.

CONCERN: Do I have to get my own materials?

BACKGROUND: Up until last year, we only offered LIVE science camps and workshops (for the past 12 years).   We had so many requests over the years to “put Aurora in a box and ship her to me!” that we finally took on that challenge four years ago.  We have a small version of Aurora available now (Science Mastery), we’ve got an even larger version in the works and coming out sometime next year.

When we first tried to stuff me (Aurora) inside a box, we had a problem… I kept coming out with new science ideas every few days, which made it impossible to get a final prototype for distribution. We thought of subscriptions, expansion packs, etc., but nothing seemed to fit just right.

Finally, we came up with the idea of having our science projects and activities take the form of an ‘online informational product’ – this way, people could get frequent updates as they came out (in the form of a audio, video, photo, or written instructions).   We’re also planning to add a forum, a community of people what have the same program and can interact with each other, getting new ideas and working through the tougher spots together.

SOLUTION: So that’s the form this Science Teleclass is taking.  Yes, you will need to get your own materials, but no, it’s not a major hassle (you won’t be running to a dozen stores).  And we’ll even get you the part numbers so you CAN order them through online sources if you want to.

Here’s feedback we received about our online programs:

“My 9 year old absolutely loves your science program. I love the fact that he is doing something to expand his science awareness, while he thinks it is just plain fun! He often wants to have his friends come over so they can work on the projects together. Thanks for making your love of science contagious!” ~Amy, Santa Barbara, CA

“My children love your stuff. They are more curious about things and doing lots more experiments now on their own. It was like kick-starting their brains! My son especially loves it when we go over the newletter. Thanks for making science so much fun.” ~Wendy Allen, Chester, VA

Stay tuned for more details. Our anticipated release date is this August 20th, 2008. The best way to stay informed about the release of Science Teleclass Series is by joining our announcement list – see the details immediately below.

Science Announcement List: If you haven’t already joined our Science Teleclass Announcement list and gotten your Sneak Preview of the course, just fill out the simple form below to sign up.

(And don’t worry, we will respect your privacy – we won’t share your email address with anyone for any reason. We treat our subscribers and readers like friends.)

Happy Experimenting!
Aurora