Research Symposium 2017

Last year we had so much fun researching for our Youth Research Symposium that I couldn't wait to do it again.  This year I enlisted my fav teacher collaborator, Alicia to join as my co-teacher.  She brought her graphic designer husband Ian in to do our design work and we were all set.  I invited all my kinders and their buddies to participate.  We ended up with 14 kids who finished their projects.  Pretty amazing how much learning can happen!  

Having 14 researchers and their family and friends in the house was crazy fun and full.  The trampoline got pretty full as the night wore on as well :).

I didn't manage to get pictures of Ben or Sarah with their projects that night, so I just finally took some this morning while they were asleep.  

The quality of my kids' research wasn't nearly as good this year.  We had the symposium 2 week earlier than last year, and we had been out of town for 3 weeks during the summer.  But we did do some reading/research, and learned something new.  That was the goal.  

Sarah wanted to research something "Roman."  She ended up narrowing in on Venus and Minerva, the goddesses.  Then as we researched she notice that the characteristics of Venus and Minerva are like the characteristics of the ideal woman today.  I suggested she think about modern heroines who are a comb of Venus and Minerva.  Who knew that a project on Roman Mythology could lead back to Harry Potter.  In fact, in our house right now, all roads lead back to Harry Potter!  Sarah had a Roman Goddess costume and everything!  

Ben is really into dinosaurs right now.  His project table was also covered with about 15 or more toy dinos.  His project was based on a couple of recent sources that suggest that T-Rex wasn't as mobile as previously thought.  So possibly Triceratops or Ankylosaurus could have out run T-Rex.  Ben did some good reading as we read the dinosaur materials.  And it was fun to have a project with the subtitle of "Don't underestimate the short guy!"

We added judges and prizes this year.  2 people got $10 gift cards to book stores.  Everyone got a cool pen and notebook. (To help them get started with next year's research!)

We also added researcher name tags.  They were just the right size to slip a library card in and wear to the library.  We never managed to make that system work for us, but it was a great idea, right?

This is the format of the symposium.  So easy!  Just 3 workshops.  

This was Alicia's son's poster.  I loved how they typed the questions and he wrote the answers.  I want to remember this one for young researchers next year!  

Libby told the judges that she "rocked" her project on minerals.  I was sad that she didn't actually find something new to research.  This was just a rehashing of her 3rd grade science topic.  But she was having a hard time finding a topic and I just didn't have time this summer to help her with more exploration.  But she nailed the execution of the project and had great vision for how she wanted to show people how to test minerals.  

I had everyone bring appetizers, so I didn't have to work to hard.  

The researchers!  (You can see Ben's T-Rex tshirt.  Sarah had already taken off her costume.)

The gift card winners!  The ballerina was in my class.  She did Ballet wardrobe for her project.  It was super interesting!  She cut a toe shoe in half for people to look at all the parts.  She had it all labeled.  Amazing!  The other researcher is a returning researcher from last year.  She did Amelia Earhart.  It was so fun!

This was Libby's buddy at school!  They both wore lab coats for their projects.  His was on the brain.  Amazing!  

The judges!  They did a great job!  

The teachers.  Tired but happy!  

If I end up teaching this year, I might not have enough energy for this next summer.  But kids left already talking about what they wanted to do next summer, so I think I'll do it!