Science Fair

          We are having a lot of Internet problems both at school and at home.  Clint and I use different Internet companies and both have been so slow that it takes two hours to load our email programs if they load at all.  Today, I was able to get on but I could not reply to an email.  I think this is one of our biggest struggles here.  The Internet is how we communicate with our friends and family.  Being able to communicate keeps us going through the tough days.  Easter is only a couple days away and our kids want to Skype but I have my doubts we can with the slow Internet.

          A couple weeks ago we went to the newly opened theater, The Filmhouse http://www.filmhouseng.com/calabar.html.  We saw Life of Pi.  It was so much fun to get out of our routine and do something familiar to our life in the States.  Actually, I hardly ever went to see a movie because of the cost but still it is a feel good American tradition to go watch a show.  The theater has four screens but only two are set-up so far.  At the snack counter they sell bottled beverages and either sugar or buttered popcorn.  The sugar popcorn is kettle corn.  I had not had kettle corn in a long while so I bought some to enhance my movie experience.  There were no safety lights to light our path inside the theater.  We arrived just in time to get seated and it was completely dark inside.  The six of us held onto the wall so we did not fall as we climbed the steps and felt our way to the seats.  The theater was silent so we assumed we were the only patrons for this showing.  I was first to make my way down a row of seats.  I tried to guess how far down the row was the middle.  I started to sit and this man's voice said hello.  I had almost sat on him.  I did sit on his armrest.  I was so embarrassed.  The man and his wife were the only other people in the whole theater.  It just amazes me how lucky I am to have picked their row and then almost his seat.  Just as we sat the movie came on.  The theater had comfortable stadium seats but if you rock in your seat the whole row rocked.  The room had a strange irregular shape and the canvas screen was slightly off center but after a few minutes I hardly noticed.  What an amazing film.  I laughed, cried, hid my eyes and was on the edge of my seat all within two hours.  I was able to relax and forgot where I was.  It felt great.  I need those times once in a while when I am feeling stressed or missing home.

We had our school founder's twins back this week.  They were visiting home on their spring break in the States.

          Last Friday was our Science Fair and yesterday at our weekly assembly the awards for the Science Fair were announced.  My class shared the first place award for the Early Years Department with the pre-k class.  Our gift was a floor puzzle.  I was surprised we won.  They really went over the top and had white lab coats made for the students and they wore latex gloves.  They were cute I must admit.  I was talking to the high school science teacher who was in charge of the event and I told him I was surprised my class had tied with them.  He said their lab coats were just for show and did not make a difference in the judging.  He was not the only judge so who knows how much they really took that into consideration.  I got the feeling we tied because he liked our project but the other judges liked the overall presentation by the pre-k class.  The pre-school received 3rd place, the nursery received 2nd place.  We had started our project before the long winter break and finished over a month ago.  The other three Early Years classes all did their experiments within the last two weeks.  Nobody told me my students had to present to the judges what we had done.  I knew the older students were expected to do that.  In Early Years, we each had to do one class project.  Luckily, we had reviewed a couple weeks back when I made the display board.  We were asked to stand by our display as the judges came by.  They started asking my students what we did and I felt really nervous.  I was so glad they were able to answer their questions.  Most of the class knew the answers and showed some excitement in explaining what we had done. 

These sprouts had sun, water, and soil to attach to.

         Our science curriculum included a lesson on what seeds need to grow.  So I turned it into our science fair project.  We put bean seeds into four zip-top bags.  Three of the bags we taped to the window to get sunshine and one we put in a dark place in our classroom.  Three bags had paper towel as soil for the roots to attach to.  Three bags we watered as needed.  Our students came in each day and examined the bags for changes.  It did not take long for them to surmise that the seeds required sun, water and soil.  Next, we used that information to plant bean seeds in three different types of soil to see which was best.  We used sand, clay and topsoil.  This part took a lot longer to get the results from.  The plants in the sand seemed to be doing a lot better than I thought they should but eventually they turned yellow.  The clay soil was fun to watch as the sprouts came up.  They pushed the hard clay right up and out of the clear plastic cups.  The students were so excited when they finally were able to take their plants home.  They knew just what they needed to help them grow into full-size plants.

They enjoyed squeezing the clay soil.  They were so smart to compare it to play dough.

They were so amazed how strong the plants were to lift the hard clay up out of the cups.  I had them plant all the seeds along the outside of the cups so we could see the sprouts right away in the sand, topsoil and clay.  They did take note that in the clay pots you could see more of the roots because they could not grow into the middle of the cups.