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Hello!

My name is Anika Perry, I am a 3rd year education major at Wartburg College. I agree hands-on activities at home can be challenging. This is a tough because not all children will have to supplies needed to do the 'lab' and students may not have a parent or guardian there to help them. One way to possibly combat the issue would be to send home lab supplies and if possible create a youtube video walking the student through the lab. Another way could be zooming with small groups to help instruct students while doing the lab. As you are sending lab activities homes, just make sure the children will be able to figure it out or have a resources to help them through the process. It may be benificial to send an email or host and zoom where parents/gaurdians can ask questions. 

I hope this helps! 

Hey Abril,

I am an Elementary Education major working with a 3rd grade digital class. I would say that when it comes to 'lab projects' it is going to vary from grade to grade based on the AKS that is being taught. We definitley have to think outside the box to give our students the hands on learning when it comes to science. This semester so far we have talked about heat and were able to have our students do an experiment with different color crayons and which one melted in the sun the fastest. We also had them take the same color crayon and put it on top of different materials under the sun like white paper, black paper, and tin foil to see if what the crayon was sitting on had an effect on how fast the crayon melted. Then with our focus students we gave them directions on how to build their own soalr oven. They then build it and tried to melt three different objects of their choosing. With each of the experiements the students used flip grid to document their progress and results. It seems everyday I am learning about a different digital resource that we can use to engage our students. Even virtual field trips.

I would think that science fair participation would be a county or school cluster decision on how the students would be able to participate. If the science fair is a PTA sponsored event I believe that any student in a given district can participate in their districts fair. They would probably need to reach out to that districts representatives to find out how to submit their entree.

Hi! As someone who has had this issue both from the teaching vantage as well as during the stay-at-home months of the pandemic, I totally relate. So I created some software ( snorkle.io ) to facilitate exactly this sort of thing. For science fair "posters," if you're doing it over zoom, you can upload and create extremely zoomable URL versions, even with interactive embedded data items. For example (this is geared toward graduate/profession obviously, but I use it also for younger kids): Zoomable poster link (bioimaging-related) - (and LINK for tutorial on how to create things like that). The software also generates a QR code for these things so you can see it on your phone, e.g.: Anyhow, I'm happy to help with instructions on how to create whatever you want.