A Blue Ribbon At The Science Fair

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Less than 2 weeks ago Stella came home and told me that she had a science fair project that she needed to do and it was due on April 4!  First thought that came to me was thanks for the heads up and how long had she known about this? The $2.50 was given to Stella the next morning so she could get the 3 part poster board for the project – that evening she did not have the poster board, hmm…  I was informed that I had only given her $2.25 – which was not the case.  So the next day she went to school, this time with the money in a sealed envelope!  But again, no poster board came home – she had forgotten.

The experiment was going to be about sprouting seeds, so off we went to buy some seeds – me not thinking that she had less than a week for the seeds to sprout – told her to buy whatever seeds she wanted – duh! It did hit me the next day that the seeds she chose might not sprout in the time frame we had.  That same day we were over at my aunt’s house and bringing her cups – Stella filled the cups with potting soil and radish seeds.  I dumped one of the cups all over the floor board of the back of the car – bad mom – should have paid more attention to what she was doing!

Home we went with 3 paper cups filled with dirt and several seeds.  They all received water and were then put in their experimental spot: Cup A-  was placed on the window sill, Cup B – was placed on the heater and Cup C was placed in the fridge.  Photos were taken.  Each morning Stella would check on them and if needed give them water – she would also do this at night.

Cup A

Cup B

Cup C

Cup A and B sprouted the same day.  Cup C did not sprout.  Cup B was hard to keep alive, the reason it got dried out quickly due to being on the heater.  Photos were taken.

Cup A

Cup B

Cup C

Wednesday, April 3 no poster board came home – Stella forgot it.  Thursday morning, April 4th I reminded Stella to bring her board home so that she could put the project together and bring it in on Friday, April 5th.  When I got home, there was no poster board – she had forgotten again.  Stella typed up her experiment and printed the photos – she had it all done and decided that she would quickly Friday morning mount it all on the poster board.  The plan was laid out – Friday morning at 5:04am the phone rang – school was cancelled due to the snow that we had received the day before!

Stella asked if I would go to the school on Friday and pick up her poster board – I told her that probably no one would be there and it would be a wasted trip – she was disappointed.  Saturday we were running errands and I asked her if she wanted to go by the craft store and pick u a poster board – her answer, no.  Several stops later we were in another store and passed by poster board – did she want to get one and finish her project over the weekend – the answer was yes!  We went home and she put her presentation together and added even more photos of radishes.

Monday morning – loaded up with her presentation and plants we walked to the end of the driveway and waited for the bus.  Stella asked me if I thought she would win one of the prizes – I told her I did not know, but she had done a great job.  Monday afternoon as I picked her up from fiddle I was informed that it was PTO night at her school and we could go to the book fair, have dinner, watch the 5th and 6th grade play and hear who won the ribbons for the science fair projects.  A quick stop at home to let the dog out and feed the animals and we were on our way to school.

The awards were the last part of the evening – Stella and a friend sat together with their fingers crossed hoping that they each would win a ribbon.  The central school office had done the judging.  Drum roll please, First place and blue ribbon for 4th grade goes to … Stella Sessions!  I wish I had taken a picture of her face – she was in such shock and disbelief!  She went up to the front of the room, shook the principal’s hand, took her blue ribbon and went over to the prize table – where she chose a praying mantis robot to build.  Her friend received the honorable mention ribbon – they were both happy.

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